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It’s Trash Day! Ideas for Purging Your Supplies

Posted by Aaron aka Sir Scrapalot on Nov 3, 2010 | View Comments

It’s about this time every year that I purge my supplies.

With iDSD right around the corner, and the upcoming influx of holiday kits (which I always find it hard to stay away from), I need to make sure that my hard drive is in tip top shape.  I have plenty of room on my hard drive, but I find that purging some supplies that I am not using any longer always helps to keep me organized and orderly.

Last weekend, I saw that my CT Member Kristin was also purging her supplies.  Interested in another person’s approach to purging, I went ahead and asked her how she decided what to purge and how she went about doing it.  Her approach to purging is one that would work well for many digi scrappers, so I wanted to share it with you.

How do you decide to purge? When my files are overflowing and messy. It usually happens every six months or so.

What do you go through? All of my digital scrapbooking supplies, layouts from previous years.

How do you determine what stays and what goes? If I haven’t used a kit since the last time I purged, it goes. Alphas & other embellishments are harder to weed through for me. I usually keep them if they’re basic, even if I haven’t used it in the past six or so months. But if they’re specific or add-ons for kits I don’t have, etc. (a lot of freebies) I pitch ‘em.

It makes me really, really nervous to purge my stuff. I always have “What if I need it later?” running through the back of my mind. But really. If I haven’t used it in six months, most likely I won’t use it again.

My process for purging supplies is very similar, however, I am usually  more likely to keep something thinking “I’ll use it someday.”  Often, I never use it, and delete it the next time I purge.

Do you purge your supplies?  What process do you go through to purge your supplies?

Aaron

Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  • Rachel M

    Purging makes me nervous for exactly the same reasons you’ve described above. I even have duplicates of items and I can’t make myself delete the duplicates for fear that I’ll delete the wrong thing!!! I’m thinking I may burn some things to disk, and then delete them. If I have remorse later, I can always pull the disk out. I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of purging too. What can I say. I’m a hoarder. :)

  • Rebecca (ReboScraps)

    Great post! I’ll be following along to see more suggestions, too. I need to purge SO badly!!!!!

  • Mollyscraps4fun

    I have been purging for about a month since I started a new organizing system for my EHD. Most freebies are gone- particularly thise I downloaded from CraftCrave. Also, when I have similar kits, the best quality ones I keep, the others go!

  • Anonymous

    I had to work through a lot of those feelings…another thing I tried was to create a “to be deleted” folder and put a date on it. If I didn’t go back to the folder by that date, it got canned.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks!! Hope it helps you purge your supplies!

  • Anonymous

    See, now that’s something I couldn’t do…I have multiple “similar” kits, and feel the NEED to keep them all…

  • Chantal

    I purge every six months as well. Well I I do a mini purge when I buy new kits and remmove everything I will not use (mostly extractions). When I do a big purge it takes me about two days. I keep a copy of all actions, brushes and fonts. I save my stash by item and not by kit which I think makes the process emotionally easier. The idea of deleting a kit with one click would break my heart. Next I have a list of 6-8 designers whose current style matches mine. I go through theirs first and only delete what I cannot see myself using in the forseeable future. (I have come to realise that if I need it a year from now, there will be another kit) Then I go through the rest and delete all dupicate/similar items to the those I have already decided to keep. Next i delete everything that does not have the kit name in the file name because at this point it becomes difficult to remember the name of each kit I bought in the last six months. Lastly, I take a long look at my current scrapping style and keep things that match it. (I repeat, if I am looking for a particular item a year from now, there will be a new kit with a similar or better item

  • HappyLilGrahamCracker

    I haven’t done a major purge in the two years I started scrapping, with the exception of the first time around, I wasn’t diligent about putting my kits on my EHD, and when my computer crashed it decided to do a nice purge for me (what a sweet computer, right??? Ugh!) Now that I’m more diligent about putting everything on the EHD, I realize I really need to go through it. While it’s organized, I do know the kits that I go to all the time, and the ones I haven’t opened in ages. The bargain hunter in me hates to delete them (but I PAID for that!!!), but on the other hand, if I won’t use them anyway, and I don’t go to that store for challenges anymore (and don’t need as wide a variety from one store), then I’ll just delete whatever I know I won’t use.

    A few months ago, I went through the massive amount of freebies I downloaded when I first started doing digi and wasn’t sure I wanted to make a big investment in it. I had heaps of freebies, 95% of which I never even looked at, and most of the rest that I never opened again after I finally made the leap to BUYING kits. Once I started buying, a lot of the freebies didn’t interest me as much, and most of them left my hard drive in a few smaller purges.

  • Jewely89

    I have been scrapping / collecting since 1996. I purge yearly. But, what I do is purge by collecting what I haven’t used in the past year, and I put it all in a box and then I take it to the children’s hospital or to the Nursing home. I get a tax deduction, they get supplies to use, I get a sweet feeling, they get to work on memories. I never throw away anything – it all goes for others to use.

    As for my digi files – this is new to me – since I can’t just give them away… well, I’ll be honest, I have the hardest time purging them… I have like 600 different paperclips… well, not different – exactly alike. I only need 1 or 2!!!! Help me! Help me!!!!

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