Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2015 12:54:59 GMT
As an attempt to continue to majorly downsize, I'm really considering getting rid of my physical photos.
A little backstory: When my mom passed away 5 years ago I inherited all her pictures. 4 large totes worth. Most not marked (especially older ones). I spent 4 years working on them: sorting, trying to match up years, sitting down with my aunt to figure out people, making scrapbooks for family, giving lots away, tossing blurry ones, scanning older ones and putting on Ancestry.com, I even sent some to my hometown's Historical Society.
It was a work of love, yes, but it was also a lot of mess, time, money (supplies, mailing, etc) and just plain hard work. I am determined that my family will never have to go through that. I had finished that project and left myself with just a plastic bin sorted by years. I also then organized my own physical photos and did the same. So what I am left with is 2 medium size plastic bins (heavy though) and one iris case with larger photos.
Has anyone ever scanned in their older photos and just tossed/give away the originals?
I just bought a good photo scanner, and yes while it will be another project that will be time consuming, I'm thinking it might be worth it. I would love to scan all them in, have them labeled, backed up and print simple photo books to look at instead. The thing is, rarely (ok pretty much never) do they get looked at. The only pics that anyone looks at are the ones in scrapbooks, because its easier.
Benefits: Less physical storage, less stuff to move, easier to look through pictures (photo books would be chronological and be dated and with pertinent info), backup in case of fire, flood, etc. Easy to make a copy for family members. Right now, I do not have digital backups of most, so there is always the worry of them being damaged, lost in a move, etc.
Has anyone ever done this? Did you have any regrets? I have to admit to being a little scared of getting rid of all of them (like a security blanket) though I will keep the iris bin with the larger professional pictures.
I think for the older ones, I could just "gift" the whole thing to my sister, it is already sorted. For the new ones of my son I could give some to his dad for his family to have.
Am I crazy?
A little backstory: When my mom passed away 5 years ago I inherited all her pictures. 4 large totes worth. Most not marked (especially older ones). I spent 4 years working on them: sorting, trying to match up years, sitting down with my aunt to figure out people, making scrapbooks for family, giving lots away, tossing blurry ones, scanning older ones and putting on Ancestry.com, I even sent some to my hometown's Historical Society.
It was a work of love, yes, but it was also a lot of mess, time, money (supplies, mailing, etc) and just plain hard work. I am determined that my family will never have to go through that. I had finished that project and left myself with just a plastic bin sorted by years. I also then organized my own physical photos and did the same. So what I am left with is 2 medium size plastic bins (heavy though) and one iris case with larger photos.
Has anyone ever scanned in their older photos and just tossed/give away the originals?
I just bought a good photo scanner, and yes while it will be another project that will be time consuming, I'm thinking it might be worth it. I would love to scan all them in, have them labeled, backed up and print simple photo books to look at instead. The thing is, rarely (ok pretty much never) do they get looked at. The only pics that anyone looks at are the ones in scrapbooks, because its easier.
Benefits: Less physical storage, less stuff to move, easier to look through pictures (photo books would be chronological and be dated and with pertinent info), backup in case of fire, flood, etc. Easy to make a copy for family members. Right now, I do not have digital backups of most, so there is always the worry of them being damaged, lost in a move, etc.
Has anyone ever done this? Did you have any regrets? I have to admit to being a little scared of getting rid of all of them (like a security blanket) though I will keep the iris bin with the larger professional pictures.
I think for the older ones, I could just "gift" the whole thing to my sister, it is already sorted. For the new ones of my son I could give some to his dad for his family to have.
Am I crazy?
