Where did it all come from???

My mom does genealogy, so her question is where did they come from?  But no, that is not what I am referring to.  I have started cleaning out my closets as part of my new year's resolution.  I really do not to wind up on that show about hoarders! :)  So as part of my personal 12 step program  I am cleaning bit by bit.  And then maintaining what I do.  I have not gotten far, but am happy that I can get something accomplished. 


I had originally added an extra shelf along the back wall of our closet to give us extra hanging space, but we wound up putting extra stuff on the shelf, making using the upper hanging rack useless.  So today I took it down. That forced me clean off that shelf and condense down and organize what we have.  The pictures of our family will have to wait, I want to hang them behind our bed, and we still want to get an actual headboard, so we will postpone the pictures.  


I am a places person.  I like to have a place to put things.  We joke and say that Brigid  got this trait from  Scott (she fills anything that she has with stuff, whether it belongs or not), but I guess I do it too.  Although, where Brigid will fill a purse with a little bit of everything whether it should go in there or not, I need to organize.  I had an extra basket, so all of Scott's extra hunting stuff will go in there.  I had a leftover plastic shoe box, so Scott's paperwork will go in there.  I don't dare get rid of anything of Scott's.  I did that once, and he was not happy with me.  But, I will organize it.  


I have a memory box for each of us on my shelf in the closet.  It is not huge, but I am trying to keep some mementos for each of the kids in there, like some of Aidan's things from when he was in school in Germany, and Mackenzie's too from the German Kindergarten she was attended.  I have little moccasins from when Scott was a baby in his box (as well as other things).  I threw away 1 garbage bag of stuff from our closet, and there were no clothes in there!  


There is still more to go through, but it is a start.  We have another closet in our bedroom, and that will be my next goal, but it is a bigger task, so I decided to start small and work my way up.  I want to start getting rid of things that we no longer need.  I feel like there is too much stuff.  Hence my question, where did it all come from?