Old Scrapbook Kits
 

I'm in the process of moving 1000's of files over from a Backblaze EHD onto a new mini (SS) EHD hooked up to my computer .... I have 1000's of kits that are from stores no longer in business - dating back to 2006!
I know I'll never use them and haven't even opened the folder for probably 10+ years ... I hate that they take up room on an EHD, but at the same time, it hurts my heart to delete them.
I'm curious what you do with old(er) kits?

Most are on an external hard drive that is collecting dust on top of the shelf. I lost three different externals, so a lot of my super old stuff is gone forever.

I still have most of my old stuff - I'm deleting things that I know I will never use, but if it is still beautiful, I'm keeping it. So many wonderful designers that have retired ....

I'm overdue to do a clean out based on how many kits on my laptop I don't seriously consider using, but I keep putting it off. I have kits dating waaay back to 2004. A few are easy to let go, but the kits themselves bring back memories so it's hard to part with most of them! I delete the ones I can make myself delete and I transfer the rest to an old EHD. (Let's be honest--the vast majority gets transferred! I know I'll never look at them again, but it makes me feel better to know I still have them "just in case.") I do have a handful of old favorites that will never leave my laptop's HD even though they're outdated. Those are the few I keep on my HD (and backed up to Crashplan) because they represent my scrapping history and the evolution of this hobby.

DELETE! Don't look back, it they are that old you won't use them.

I recently deleted a ton of old kits from years past. If is something I knew I would never use again I deleted. I still have a small folder of kits I am unsure of deleting. :)

I keep it all! ... and much of the really old stuff is on an EHD ... and if died, it would be gone and I'm ok with that.

I delete after awhile. I’ve started a new thing because I realized I always use CT kits no matter the theme, so I do a random number generator to pick which kit to use next. If I see what kit it is and it’s like - ugh, I don’t like it, I delete! I’ve done some great layouts just randomly picking the kit and then doing a page with it.

designers won't be sad if you delete the super old stuff. hahahaha.

I deleted a lot of them, from designers that have closed shop long ago or kits that are too old.
I held on to other ones. I have really old ones from Kristin (just to give an example), but I keep those.
So it's 50/50 for me, depending on the designer.

LOL, what KCB says ;)

This is ingenious!

I really should clear some stuff out, but it's hard to determine what I will want/need in the future. I should just trust that our amazing designers will always come up with new kits I'll love much more than the older ones I'm thinking about deleting.

Last summer I cleaned out and reorganized my scrap kit folder... deleted all old freebies an a handfulof old kits. Then put the rest in a folder labeled "old kits" to revisit later. I have a hard time trashing stuff I paid for.....

I recently deleted a bunch of old kits that I know I'll never use but I kept the stuff from like Libby and La and Dani Mogstad that I love and just can't part with :) however I have all my folders stolen down by themes (fall, Christmas, all boy, Halloween, everyday, etc) so every time I move something from my downloads folder (something new I have bought) and put it in its perspective folder, I skim through that folder and try to delete at least one kit that I know I will never use again :)

I have some fav designers that retired but I love love their style and their kits so I kept those. I used to design so of course I have all my old kits (even the bad ones). It is sad deleting some kits those go in a folder of need to go but maybe keep folder and I will delete eventually. I have a lot of kits.. probably more than I will ever use but eh...LOL :)

I delete anything that is outdated and I know I'll never use. No sense in it taking up space on my computer if it's never going to get used.

I will never delete my Dani kits!!!

I have a bunch of old kits, too - some are easy to part as styles have changed sooo much and it looks dated. haha. Others I pull out my favorite parts - unique elements, general paper (I have a thing for wood papers)... but there are a few designers where their work is timeless and I just keep that on the server.

I did delete loads of older kits a few years ago. It did hurt but I knew I would be able to use the extra storage that I got from deleting those for newer kits and I knew I would never ever use those old kits anymore (2006-2010ish designs).

I don't use any kits that are from designers outside of SSD. Unless it's a template.
That said, I still have some older kits but that's because I don't take the time to delete. Otherwise I would, unless it was something really pretty (like Zoe Pearn)

I agree! 10 years without looking at them means you don't need them. Lots more newer kits to enjoy now.

After kits are about 5 or 6 years old I delete them. I rarely go back to something that old, unless it's a Christmas or some other holiday kit.

The exception has been this year, I'm working on a "yearbook" for my kids and my daughter I used one kit per month for hers, well after 10 years of layouts, that's over 100 kits, LOL! I really dug deep in my stash, I found though it was hard to use kits that were that old, designers evolve so much and I think our scrapping styles do too.

So for the boys, I'm using the same kit twice like I typically do.

I have had 2 computer crashes and an ehd crash in the past year! I have found that I delete a lot of my older kits that I feel I will never use, so that I have room and back up for my newer kits.

Disney kits, I tend to keep the older ones, since Disney is special to me and I can mix and match really well. But regular kits, I know I can find a newer more updated one that I like even better, so older ones don't stick around that long!

I delete about 75% of the kits I have after using them once so my stash is not that large. I do have a soft spot for templates & neutral alphabets.

Unless it is a very specifically-themed kit or template that I know I will use or have used, my general rule of thumb is not to keep anything for more than 3 years. There will always be another Christmas kit, birthday kit, summer kit, etc.

So cool to read the different thoughts everyone has! Thanks for sharing!!

Day 2 of moving files from the BB EHD to my own ... I ended up deleting a bunch of 2006 kits. I will keep everything else I think. Once I get everything moved over I may see how much space I have left and do another sweep.

I'm another for deleting what you're not gonna use again!!!

Yup...The long-ago SSD designers whose kits I still can't part with are Dani, Zoe Pearn, and Julie Billingsley. :(

I was just contemplating this very questions last week. I'm transferring the contents of my old EHD to a new one, and there is a lot of stuff I don't want to take with me moving forward.

I really like Marie Kondo's idea of being surrounded by the things you love, and I don't want to have to sort through a lot of stuff I don't love just to find the things that I do. But like any good hoarder, I worry that "someday I'll need it..."

So I guess that technically I'm not deleting old stuff, but I'm not necessarily keeping it, either.

I've deleted most old freebies, and super old kits that I had collected, but will never use. At some point, I need to go through again and do a purge. If I still love a kit, I'll keep it.

Jill, just wanted to say I'm sorry BB was such a hassle. I know a few people who've gotten an EHD from them with no problems...so hopefully this was a fluke and if you ever need one agin (knock on wood that you don't!), it will be a much smoother process.

Okay, that aside, to answer your purging question: I've started to think about my digi stash like my closet. If I'm not going to wear a 5yo dress because it doesn't fit my style (or my mom body lol), then why keep it? Same with old DS. If it's somethingt I'll never use, then what's the point of letting it take up space on my EHDs? The last time I bought an EHD (a beautiful 6TB by WD) and before adding anything to it, I opened up my second-most-recent EHD and deleted with no remorse. (But full disclosure: I have that stuff on at least 2 other EHDs*.) So as long as one of those works, I'm okay...but I don't care if any of those EHDs fails because everything I really care about (photos, more recent DS) is backed up via BB and on two other EHDs.

I've also decided that when I get another EHD (I'm currently down to only 3 with space; I like to have 4), I'm not going to add any DS older than 2019 onto it--and even then, I'm just going to quickly go through my laptop and drag/drop onto the EHD. It won't be a big process. I'll still add all my photos because I am ridiculous about backing up photos lol.

*Just a quick comment that if you have your DS product on just one EHD (but not your computer) or on just your computer, then you don't have it "backed up." BB is a great way to back up, but having a second physical copy is good, too. Here's an article from BB about the 3 2 1 Rule.

I deleted all of the freebies I collected when I first found digital scrapping websites. But I still have kits that I bought, all on 3 different EHD's (1 connected to computer and 2 separate backups).

I have kept a spreadsheet recording the kits used from the beginning which was especially helpful when I did CT work. I also include a small photo of the finished page. Back in my CT days I would pick 1 or 2 photos from an event and scrap. Fast forward to these days when I am going back and actually scrapping those events. I may have enough photos to do another page and I prefer to have my event pages look the same. The spreadsheet tells me what kit and fonts I used. So, yes, I have gone back and found old kits and scrapped with them!

Now I will admit that I think I lost some kits and some of my working copies of my layouts when an old EHD died. Evidently those items never made it to another EHD over the years. Can't do anything about it now and I only realized they were gone when I went looking for them.

Thanks for all of the input!!!

I ended up getting another EHD from Backblaze and it worked flawlessly - took about 3 days on constant downloading to get everything back on my own EHD.

Once I had it all transferred over, I did delete hundreds of old kits. I have more to go through, but I made a good dent in it.

Now that I have everything backed up in two places, I feel whole again!

I've deleted most of the older kits that I know I'll never use, especially those that no longer really suit my scrapping style. It was hard at the time, but I haven't regretted it. There are just too many new things to play with! lol

I did a few years back delete those old ones like that. I can understand where you are coming from though, it was hard.

If I know I won't use it, I will delete it, but I still have a lot of very old stuff