The passing down of stories, memories, and keepsakes is important in many families. But how to do that isn’t always so simple. A lot can get lost over the years, both figuratively and literally. And younger generations don’t always want or appreciate physical heirlooms. One woman shared a brilliant heirloom that belonged to her grandma, which solves some of these problems. It’s called a perpetual calendar, and it keeps the whole family’s major memories in one spot. Essentially, it’s a ring of index cards that each have a month and day on them, but no year. As events happen in the family, they get written on the day they happened, with the year written next to them. Watch Jenn Perez Miller explain how her grandma’s perpetual calendar, which she started in the 1970s, works: @jennperezmiller #familyheirlooms #heirloom #journalideas #keepsake #smallcreators ♬ original sound – jennperezmiller The beauty of this idea is that it doesn’t take up a huge amount of space. If the cards eventually fill up, they can be stored physically or digitally and replaced with new ones, making the calendar filled with family memories essentially eternal. Another plus is that people can decide what they think is important to document. Will your great-grandkids care if you replaced your carpet 60 years ago? Maybe, maybe not. But not all memories have to be monumental. There’s something special about seeing the everyday events our loved ones felt were worth noting. A sample of what a perpetual calendar card might entail. Photo credit: Canva People loved the idea: “Brb, gonna go put a perpetual calendar on my wedding registry and start this from our wedding day.” “If I came across something like this in an estate sale I’d immediately sit on the floor and read every single one.” “My boyfriend’s grandma did this and we were cryinnnnng laughing…. She talked about diarrhea a lot.” “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” “This is some serious matriarchal behavior and i am sooo jealous that you have something like this!!!” “I just love how women bring the family together in simple ways. ” “I love the idea of seeing the major and insignificant things that happen on the same day years apart. Puts things into perspective.” “Genuinely this is such a treasure, future archeologists would lose their minds finding something like this.” You can make a perpetual calendar yourself with index cards. Photo credit: Canva The concept is not only simple, but it’s pretty easy to make yourself. All you need is index cards (one for each day of the year, including February 29th for leap years), a hole punch, and large binder rings. You could also use an index card box with dividers for each month instead of the rings. Some of us might see this idea and love it, but wish we had started earlier. But it’s never too late, especially when you think of it as something to pass down through the generations. Someone has to start sometime. The post Woman inherits her grandma’s ‘perpetual calendar’ from the ’70s. It’s a perfect family heirloom. appeared first on Upworthy.