About 6 years ago, after I'd successfully reverted back to the default position on matters of the supernatural, I was moving out of an apartment and into a house with my roomate.

I found a box with all my church stuff. It had all of my pictures and letters from the mission, my quad, patriarchal blessing, black book with phone numbers and addresses, etc. It was everything I had that linked me to the church and all of those memories.

I calmly walked outside and unceremoniously threw it in the dumpster and never gave it a second thought until right now which sparked my curiosity:

1. Did you throw out all your mormon stuff?

2. Was it difficult or easy?

3. Did you keep anything?

I still have all my crap...I definitely don't have an emotional attachment and I don't think I'd have any problem throwing it out but for some reason I hesitate on tossing my baptismal certificate...I'm afraid I'll need it for something? Like to finish my resignation process or something...I have no idea. I know I shouldn't... haha whatever, I'll chuck it all when I fly home next month.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2012 05:36PM by ajhart.

I kept my baptismal cert because it serves as a form of ID for driver's license, passport, etc.

Everything else I threw out. No regrets.

Everything except the letters from my mission. That was too painful, and I had to throw them out. But I kept my quad, patriarchal blessing and the other things you mentioned. I actually love my quad. It's one of the little burgundy leather ones with the snap. It's a very beautiful book with delicate, thin pages. I kept it as the one nice thing produced by the Mormon church. However, I threw out a very large quantity of books and other crap.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2012 05:57PM by Makurosu.

Nevermos are always fascninated to see the magic underwear. About the only reason I can think of to get rid of ALL of the sacred undies is if you are trying to make a lifelong commitment to keep that temple covenant to avoid all loud laughter ;)

I actually lost all but my missionary Bible and 3in1 in a move many years ago. I wish I still had the mission letters, journal, and especially pictures. It was a big chunk of my life at a very formative time, part of what made me.

Plus, I was a skinny little bastard back then, I like photos that remind me of that.

I've only kept first edition books, and scriptures with the white and delightsome reference. Somebody heisted the garmies.

of a few books. I need to get rid of more. Temple clothes I'll just hold on to and well the garmie bottoms came in handy the other day when I ran out of underwear.

Threw it out. It wasn't cathartic or anything. It was the same as throwing away a candy wrapper. Never thought about it again for a second.

I did save my mission journal thinking it had personal things that I might want to have someday. Photos and mementos glued in.

I found it years later when I was moving, opened it, and it made me cringe. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough.

I keep the books so that I can refer back to "that crap" when it comes up for discussion. Old BOMs are good to keep so that it is easy to show all the changes made to "the most perfect book" ever!
My 3-in-1 was published in 1977. It is about 4" x 6" and "white and delightsome".

I still have some attachment to some of it, even though I don't actively use any of it. It's all boxed up and fairly inacessible at the moment, apart from my patriachal blessing. I don't know why but I haven't had any desire to throw it away, even though I don't believe a word of it.

I keep my mo stuff as a reference. I have no emotional attachement to it, except for the fact that the LDS church continually changes what they say and do, I'd throw it out. I did throw away all the magic undies though. Most everyone I know has seen 'em...........and wears 'em.

I threw everything out, but then again I only had a tripple and some teachings of former leaders that were from RS. I also threw out my baptismal certificate as well, and then went to scoop dog crap from the yard, so nobody would want to go through the stuff. I did get to enjoy the satisfaction of watching the truck come by on trash day to take it all to the landfill.

Substitute cat litter for dog crap, and that's what I did with my garments, MoTab CD's, Joseph and Hyrum bookends and all my RS useless handcrafts and YW scrapbooks and diaries. The papers, manuals, Mormon music, and Deseret books probably saved at least two trees. I didn't want to perpetuate the lies, or save the Mormons a few bucks.

Most of all, the sight of these LDS objects invading my private house would sometimes trigger flashbacks and nightmares.

The de-cluttering was very therapeutic for me! Yes, I sipped coffee and watched the garbage truck out the window, on that sunny morning.

I also de-cluttered my life--stopped doing things I did not want to do--no more organ or piano (I was burnt out), no more pantyhose, no more Mormon book club, no more elaborate Sunday dinners to keep Mom slaving at at home all day. We had nice family dinners during the week, and just played all weekend long.

I keep missionary pictures but have thrown away most everything else

I kept some of the temple robes/etc. and my library. I also kept all the good memories, the family I have because of my conversion to Mormonism, and all of my loved ones that are LDS.

You can sell it back to them in twenty years for big bucks when they issue the recall.

Seriously--wouldn't it be nice to have an ExMormon Museum? Someone has to preserve these old books like Mormon Doctrine to prove that they actually existed. MD plus Marvelous Work and Wonder with appropriate quotations copied and all those versions of the Book of Mormon and wouldn't you like to be able to see the size of the torn pieces upon which the apologists claim the Book of Abraham was written...


Anagrammy

I went through the house and took down temple pictures, proclamation to the family, and chucked all the books. My 16 year old has his scriptures, but he's still churchy. I want to throw out my garments but the garbage is too good for them, waiting to do something cool with them (like a barbecue.) I am so glad I kept my temple getup as the other night we sat down the our two boys and showed them all the "special blessings and beauty" of the temple...they laughed at the clothes and it was even more crazy when I showed them the "true order of prayer.". I am slowly but surely going to save them and Mormon crazy get ups really helped the cause along.

funny.

i found a box with that stuff you mentioned last night while moving some other boxes. no harm on keeping pictures, letters, etc.

two reasons:

1] i'll keep it as a reminder that i can learn from my mistakes.

2] at the time i acted upon the best data i available re: the cult. no shame on me. shame on them. so...1] above.

we sold all our church books to a used book store in SLC. We got quite a bit of money for them. People say that they should be destroyed so some other idiot won't buy them--but this way the authors don't get more money for a new one being sold. BUT I do find it interesting that we sold them before we went inactive--says something. This had to be about 1993 or so.

I still have an LDS book my mother gave me. My daughter has the temple picture we got for a wedding gift. I have no scriptures in the house except 2 BofMs--one is the one my daughter gave her twin brother and he burned page by page. Then my ex got a "gold" covered one from his MP and I think I still have that in my cedar chest. It is one that I believe still says white and delightsome.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2012 10:59PM by cl2.

I had an antique trunk that I put my mission stuff and temple clothes in. I schlepped that trunk around for years, not really thinking about the contents. About ten years ago I opened the trunk, saw that old stuff, and dumped it all in the trash.

I kept everything that my sisters couldn't find. All of my scriptures, my gospel principles manual, my girls camp manual, my handbook of instructions...I keep them all right next to all my other religious books...and my copy of 'the godmakers'...just saying.

I kept a few items, but threw the rest out. I got rid of my garments, except for a nice one-piecer. Never know when I will need a good laugh. Using that same logic, I kept my temple clothes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2012 12:21AM by lazarus.

I have my mission photos and the old blue hymn book. I learned the play the organ out of it. I have the hymn book that came out just before I got exed about 26 years ago. I got it for Christmas from my mother. I also have the 1928 hymn book. Did the ever sing strange hymns back then.
The rest is long gone

Chucked it all in a dumpster behind the mini mall shopping center with my wife. We are going through this together (thankfully) and we just laughed at the stupidity of ever wearing the magic undiees......duh.

We keep joking that maybe we will see some bum wearing a green apron or a robe he scored while dumpster diving.

I still have my temple clothes, 1 pair of garments (threw the rest in the garbage), books and journals. Pretty much have everything. Evidence of the weird cult I was in. A cautionary tale.

I regret not keeping my temple clothes as I have this desire to dress up during halloween as a mormon zombie and go trunk-or-treating.

I kept my quad and my fortune teller blessing.

Oh, and my resignation letter stuff including the pamplet where the 1st presidency wants to invite my tithing back to the morg.

I have some of my mission stuff tucked away. Name tags, pictures, letters, stuff like that. I don't ever see myself reading the letters again anytime soon, and probably wouldn't lose too much sleep if they were lost, but I might someday go through and find a few to save then toss the rest. Mostly things that talked about off subject topics, like the birth of relatives, and funny things that happened to buddies. Still, reading about how naive and twisted my TBM mind was back then is not something I cherish.

I tossed out a bunch of stuff, but I can't help feeling that old priesthood manuals will come in handy once church doctrine changes yet again in a few years, and I can pull out the old BY manual and show how the church used to feel about gays or evolution back in the 1990s.

I have a big purple box under my bed and it's got every hand out and piece of church related paraphernalia I ever got when I was a member. I probably will keep it, I think it's nice to look back on.

What a coincidence, I also have a big purple box under my bed, however it is not full of church stuff. No, it is where I keep the stuff that would make Spencer W. Kimball cry.

Haha LOVE it!

Threw it all away. Remembered more in a memorabilia box, dug around till I found it, then threw that away too. Nothing's left - no hymnbooks, no religious books, no pic of Jesus on the wall, no manuals, nothing. I even tossed my stupid Merrie Miss cloth banner thingy we had to sew little badges on when we learned an Article of Faith - no sentiment there, just disgust I did all that. Garmies...gone. Statue of Christ...in a closet listed on eBay. Everything is out of here and I finally feel I'm living more authentically instead of displaying this stuff prominently so people notice and think I'm wonderful. Ick.

I'm with MotherKNowsWho, too - no more hose, no more elaborate Sunday dinners, no more book clubs or R.S. year-long projects or horrid "enrichment nights" or bishops interviews...never, ever again. I feel liberated beyond what words can express.