Spring de-cluttering
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Thinking of adding a simple decluttering regime to my day:
Monday - unsubscribe to a mailing list
Tuesday - organize one drawer
Wednesday - find an article of clothing to donate
Thursday - digitize (part of) a file folder.
Friday - throw away one itemThoughts? Join me?
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I have done this off and on in the past, and hope to again in the future.
If you do this and continue for awhile, you may find it to be a habit that proliferates. Things you've looked through for years -- bookshelves, junk drawers, -- you'll find yourself stripping down and streamlining. Then more.
You'll find that there's always more.
Feels good!
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I think I am only subscribed to one mailing list these days.
To digitize a file, what software do you use?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Digitize file folder? I'd do that only when needed. Maybe you'll never need those files again in your life.
I for one like to declutter in a big burst: We usually order a big container and then we go through every room and dispose what we don't want anymore.
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I think I am only subscribed to one mailing list these days.
To digitize a file, what software do you use?
@George-K said in Spring de-cluttering:
I think I am only subscribed to one mailing list these days.
To digitize a file, what software do you use?
Image Capture. It's not for scale but it works fine for a few pages.
"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
-Cormac McCarthy -
Great idea, I do agree with Klaus a bit here though. For closet organization and digital organization, it's been most helpful for me to do them as part of a full-day effort - i.e., full closet re-organization.
But all the other ones are great for slow, steady progress.
I love throwing things away and emptying cupboards / old shelves. Feels great.
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@George-K said in Spring de-cluttering:
I think I am only subscribed to one mailing list these days.
To digitize a file, what software do you use?
Image Capture. It's not for scale but it works fine for a few pages.
@jon-nyc said in Spring de-cluttering:
Image Capture. It's not for scale but it works fine for a few pages.
I've been using PDFScanner. Works great for multiple pages in a sheet feeder on my scanner.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pdfscanner-scanning-and-ocr/id410968114?mt=12
I've been using it for at least 10 years.
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On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
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On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
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On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
@xenon said in Spring de-cluttering:
On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
I bought a Canon scanner for this exact purpose 10 years ago and used its built in software.
It was good in that you could put multiple pictures on the glass at once and it would automatically recognize them as separate photos and save them accordingly. You would start a scanning session with a name, say "Europe trip 1974" and it would title each picture file as that with a number appended - 001, 002, etc. And it would continue that naming convention for multiple scans, until you stopped it. I found I could do an entire photo album in 30-45m, with most of the time spent taking the photos out of the album and putting them back in.
Do not use a service as they won't preserve the ordering of the photos, in fact they re-order them by size. And many old photos only make sense in context of other photos around it. Example, a picture of a random house that you don't remember is worthless, but if it's between several photos of your great uncle and aunt, you figure out it's theirs. That contextual info gets lost if they are reordered.
"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
-Cormac McCarthy -
@xenon said in Spring de-cluttering:
On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
I bought a Canon scanner for this exact purpose 10 years ago and used its built in software.
It was good in that you could put multiple pictures on the glass at once and it would automatically recognize them as separate photos and save them accordingly. You would start a scanning session with a name, say "Europe trip 1974" and it would title each picture file as that with a number appended - 001, 002, etc. And it would continue that naming convention for multiple scans, until you stopped it. I found I could do an entire photo album in 30-45m, with most of the time spent taking the photos out of the album and putting them back in.
Do not use a service as they won't preserve the ordering of the photos, in fact they re-order them by size. And many old photos only make sense in context of other photos around it. Example, a picture of a random house that you don't remember is worthless, but if it's between several photos of your great uncle and aunt, you figure out it's theirs. That contextual info gets lost if they are reordered.
@jon-nyc said in Spring de-cluttering:
Do not use a service as they won't preserve the ordering of the photos, in fact they re-order them by size. And many old photos only make sense in context of other photos around it. Example, a picture of a random house that you don't remember is worthless, but if it's between several photos of your great uncle and aunt, you figure out it's theirs. That contextual info gets lost if they are reordered.
Good advice. My photos were all in a box, so the context was not available from what was "around" that photo. I had to rely on memory for much of the content.
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Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
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Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
@89th said in Spring de-cluttering:
Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
How we do it is one room per day and rotate.
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Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
@89th said in Spring de-cluttering:
Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
Oh, I feel that struggle. Our rule is "Everything lives somewhere", including shoes and jackets (they're always the worst offenders).
If it's a permanent item in your house, everyone should know where that thing goes and it should never take any brain power to figure that out once decided.
I'm talking down to pens, remote controls, utensils, ipads, etc. It doesn't mean that everything always has to be tidy, just that everything has a "home base".
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@89th said in Spring de-cluttering:
Tips on how to get your spouse on board with this? When we first met she lived in a studio apartment and was very tidy. Now, especially with kids and lack of free time, there are just bags of stuff all over, and it drives me crazy. For example, I put my shoes and jacket away when I come in, my 2 kids and wife will just throw it on the floor because <excuse> (often trying to wrangle a 1 and 3 year old from their outside shoes/stuff). Having fewer "things" would make keeping the house somewhat clean and organized much easier.
Oh, I feel that struggle. Our rule is "Everything lives somewhere", including shoes and jackets (they're always the worst offenders).
If it's a permanent item in your house, everyone should know where that thing goes and it should never take any brain power to figure that out once decided.
I'm talking down to pens, remote controls, utensils, ipads, etc. It doesn't mean that everything always has to be tidy, just that everything has a "home base".
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@xenon Absolutely! This is a must for people who tend toward absentmindedness.
One inviolate rule for me for doing this: KEYS.
@Catseye3 said in Spring de-cluttering:
@xenon Absolutely! This is a must for people who tend toward absentmindedness.
One inviolate rule for me for doing this: KEYS.
Best example. I have a drawer where my keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc go. My lovely wife... oh how often I hear, "where are my keys?"
...if I want a fight, I'll suggest "have you checked the keys drawer?"
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@xenon said in Spring de-cluttering:
On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
I bought a Canon scanner for this exact purpose 10 years ago and used its built in software.
It was good in that you could put multiple pictures on the glass at once and it would automatically recognize them as separate photos and save them accordingly. You would start a scanning session with a name, say "Europe trip 1974" and it would title each picture file as that with a number appended - 001, 002, etc. And it would continue that naming convention for multiple scans, until you stopped it. I found I could do an entire photo album in 30-45m, with most of the time spent taking the photos out of the album and putting them back in.
Do not use a service as they won't preserve the ordering of the photos, in fact they re-order them by size. And many old photos only make sense in context of other photos around it. Example, a picture of a random house that you don't remember is worthless, but if it's between several photos of your great uncle and aunt, you figure out it's theirs. That contextual info gets lost if they are reordered.
@jon-nyc said in Spring de-cluttering:
@xenon said in Spring de-cluttering:
On the topic. Anyone know of a good way to digitize old family albums? They're in my parents' closet - like 10 of them. I'm very loathe to ship them somewhere.
I bought a Canon scanner for this exact purpose 10 years ago and used its built in software.
It was good in that you could put multiple pictures on the glass at once and it would automatically recognize them as separate photos and save them accordingly. You would start a scanning session with a name, say "Europe trip 1974" and it would title each picture file as that with a number appended - 001, 002, etc. And it would continue that naming convention for multiple scans, until you stopped it. I found I could do an entire photo album in 30-45m, with most of the time spent taking the photos out of the album and putting them back in.
Do not use a service as they won't preserve the ordering of the photos, in fact they re-order them by size. And many old photos only make sense in context of other photos around it. Example, a picture of a random house that you don't remember is worthless, but if it's between several photos of your great uncle and aunt, you figure out it's theirs. That contextual info gets lost if they are reordered.
I have a Epson V600 Photo scanner. It takes time to do the pictures or negatives, but does do a pretty good job of scanning. It came with something called SilverFast, which helps to "optimize" the mistakes in the photo or negative.
