Hello everyone! I’m here to bring you some tips on purging your scrap stash. What do I mean by this? Well, it’s simple really, storage space is limited and digital scrapbooking designs are constantly changing and improving. Your style also changes. Here are a few tips to help you purge you stash.
Freebies: We all love ‘em! When I first started digiscrapping I downloaded everything I could find. I especially love templates! But after I use them, I tend to delete them. Template files are usually pretty big and take up more space than a button or a ribbon. So periodically go through your freebies and see what you have. I know they are tempting to download, but before you do, ask yourself, “will I really use this?’’
Delete as you do your backups: “Backup? Why whatever do you mean?” And that’s a whole other blog post…. I try to back up my digiscrap supply every month so that it’s not so overwhelming. If I leave it too long, I just back it up and don’t look at it. But if you do it every month, you can assess if something you’re holding on to is really worth the space it’s taking up. For example, you download a kit, but you’re really not feelin’ that alpha, well just delete it. It may be a difficult concept to grasp, but if don’t love it you definitely won’t use it!
That kit from 5 years ago? Get rid of it! Yeah, yeah, it brings back all kinds of memories… blah, blah blah. But you are never going to use it again, ever! Things change so quickly in the digital world. The designers get better and better and the quality improves as well. Yes I know it’s fun to look back at older digital stuff, but I know for a fact that I have an external hard drive full of stuff from when I started digiscrapping 9 years ago. It’s in a box somewhere. I haven’t even touched it in 5 years.
What do I keep? Now, there are kits and elements packs that I do use over and over again. This does happen. What I normally do is store my most used items into folders and keep them on my computer. I also keep anything I’ve downloaded on my laptop for at least 6 months. When I do my monthly backups, I move my stuff into various folders and then back them up. After that time frame, I usually delete or move to my external hard drive. I almost never keep holiday stuff because the designers always have something fun and new every season. I delete fonts too. Oh and flowers? Yep! I almost never use them and the next kit I download will probably have some anyways. I’ve been doing this long enough that I know what I’ll use.
Everyone has their way of purging. It takes some practice but once you know what works for you, it won’t be a problem! Now if only I could apply these concepts to my closet we would be in business!
About the Author: Renee lives in Northern Ontario, Canada. She is married to her high school sweetheart and has two beautiful boys. She has been a scrapbooker since January 2006 and loves how much digital scrapbooking has evolved and changed over the years. She has been working as an x-ray technologist for over 13 years and enjoys photography and memory keeping. Being a serious hockey mom, you can usually find her at the local rink cheering on her boys.