Talk me into purging...

[Jennifer]

I need to, badly. My C drive is full (and making PS all moody), my little external is full, and now my big backup external is full. What is it mostly??? KITS!!! There's soooooooooo many kits. But...I have relationships with each and every one and IDK that I can trash them. I know I need to, some are years old...but what if I neeeeeeed them one day???

Help!!!

[Kara]

can you put some on CD or DVD? It'd free some space on your other drives, and then you'd have them if you need them!

[jessica31876]

I know my style has changed from when I first started scrapping and every six months or so I go through and trash anything that just does not fit my scrapping style anymore. I know I will never ever use even 10% of what I buy. If you cannot trash like that then go through each kit and delete what you know for a fact you will never use. Sometimes I do that if there are a few things I really love in the kit (or are basics that I use over and over again). It is so worth it though I think. It not only gives me a creative boost by freeing up some of the stuff that might block creativity but also frees space for other stuff you might love even more.

[ColleenSwerb]

I am no help. I just got a 2TB EHD and have been backing up/updating my other 2. I went through and renamed folders, and reorganized, and deleted all those TOU's and anti-piracy things, yet I could not bring myself to delete a single kit. I'm nowhere NEAR full on any of my EHD's either, so I doubt I'll get to that point.

My excuse is that we're going to start a family in a year or so, and then OF COURSE I will use that kiddie kit, or baby kit, etc etc etc. LOL!

[emmasmommy]

chuck it. if you haven't used it in 6 mo, are you really going to?

[ColleenSwerb]

Originally Posted by emmasmommy

chuck it. if you haven't used it in 6 mo, are you really going to?

Give me your strength oh wise one! LOL!

I'm grateful my biggest obsession (templates) doesn't take up too much space, else I'd be in BIG trouble.

[Traci Reed]

I went through every kit and kept the bits I might use again (illustrations, cool alphas, etc) and chucked the rest of the kit

[Nettio]

The way I look at it is unless a kit is super unique or one that I really really love, I'm probably not going to need it one day. And if I do odds are there will a better more amazing kit in the store that I'd rather use anyway. Just think of it as freeing up space so you can buy more NEW kits - that's what I tell myself whenever I need to purge clothes from my closet.

I'd start with the oldest kits and move forward from there. That first purge is the hardest for sure. After that it gets much easier.

[emmasmommy]

Originally Posted by Traci Reed

I went through every kit and kept the bits I might use again (illustrations, cool alphas, etc) and chucked the rest of the kit

that's exactly what i do!

[Lyd]

So then if you keep certain pieces of kits and trash the rest, how do you organize those bits and pieces that you kept? Do you just keep them in the same folder with the designer/kit name? Or do you move them into some other folder according to the type of element they are? Do tell. I'm interested in doing this, but I'm not sure how it would work for me organization-wise. I really want to do a good purge soon.

[rochelle789]

Start by trashing everything prior to 2009. You won't miss it once it's gone. Trust me.

[Kat Stokes]

Also, flatten your LO's. Save your PSDs as TIFFs instead. This will free up some room.

[Stacey42]

I go through every few months & if it hasn't been used I chuck it in a 'wait' file & then the next time I go through my files the first thing I do is delete the 'wait' file without opening it.

If I had used anything in that file I would have moved it out & opening it would only make me second guess myself.

The initial purge was hard at first but once I got started it was easy to keep going. I pull out alphas and random word art from time to time but generally I delete the whole kit.

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by rochelle789

Start by trashing everything prior to 2009. You won't miss it once it's gone. Trust me.

This is great advice. But I would back up the good ones to DVD. There was this one time I actually DID need an old kit that I had hidden away on DVD, and it was retired. I was SO glad when I finally found it!

[Gemma]

Originally Posted by emmasmommy

chuck it. if you haven't used it in 6 mo, are you really going to?

This!

I deleted 14GB of old kits the other day, some never got used and never would have so they are gone!!

[Darcy Baldwin]

You know what I"m gonna say....DUMP IT!

[LeeAndra]

Jennifer, you are a DESIGNER. If you miss something from an old kit, make it!

The money is already spent whether you use it or not. Unless you are Kellie, I guarantee that you are never going to go back into your stash pre-2009 and ever pull a kit out and make something with it. Seriously.

It will be okay. It will even make you feel better once you do it. Delete the old stuff, delete the guilt.

[ZaCola3]

Originally Posted by emmasmommy

chuck it. if you haven't used it in 6 mo, are you really going to?

My time limit is 3 months with kits-If I don't use them-they are tossed-it really has made me be much smarter with purchases...I still have trashed tons of $$ though and hate that.

[JulieB146]

I've only recently started in digital scrapping (end of June last year!) but even with all the stuff I've accumulated...ugh, so much $$, I couldn't bear to part with most of it. Not yet, anyway. There's a kit I bought from another company that I only JUST used. I'm not the fastest scrapper around.

However, turning PSD files into TIFFs is an excellent suggestion-especially for completed layouts. It's amazing how much smaller those files are.

[Sarah8914]

Originally Posted by Nettio

The way I look at it is unless a kit is super unique or one that I really really love, I'm probably not going to need it one day. And if I do odds are there will a better more amazing kit in the store that I'd rather use anyway. Just think of it as freeing up space so you can buy more NEW kits - that's what I tell myself whenever I need to purge clothes from my closet.

I'd start with the oldest kits and move forward from there. That first purge is the hardest for sure. After that it gets much easier.

This is how I think too. There are always new and amazing kits coming out that would be better than old ones I have "held on to" just in case.

[Jengerbread88]

I can't help you. I have all sorts of kits.... I have trouble deleting them, especially ones I paid for.

I finally dumped about 1/2 of the freebie kits I got when I first started scrapping, because they weren't my style, but for kits I paid for, I have some I haven't opened in over a year, and I still hold on to them. Don't ask me why... Lol.

[newfiemountiewife]

I put them on my EHD and DVD, then delete them from my D drive (I have a C and a D drive in my laptop, and my scrap stuff is on my D drive). I only have stuff on my D drive from here and a couple of other stores. It's all I use these days. So I deleted the rest off my D drive, and I have it all somewhere else in case I want to use it. But that said, I have NEVER gone back to my EHD or DVDs to get anything. EVER. LOL

[Traci Reed]

Originally Posted by ltarbox

So then if you keep certain pieces of kits and trash the rest, how do you organize those bits and pieces that you kept? Do you just keep them in the same folder with the designer/kit name? Or do you move them into some other folder according to the type of element they are? Do tell. I'm interested in doing this, but I'm not sure how it would work for me organization-wise. I really want to do a good purge soon.

I put them in element folders according to what they are or what theme they fit (i.e. Christmas)

[*Celeste*]

i dumped a ton of stuff tonight. thanks for the motivation.

[nun69]

sweet...I just dumped 16 GB's!!!!!

[mom2boys]

It'll probably be awhile yet before I can bring myself to delete kits I paid for but I recently dumped all the freebies that I downloaded when I first started scrapping ~ I NEVER used them and I had moved them to a "Zother" folder to get them out of my way & then thought "why am I keeping these?" ~ away they went along with all my zip files!!

[adrianka]

Originally Posted by emmasmommy

chuck it. if you haven't used it in 6 mo, are you really going to?

I think it's individual. It does happen to me that I come back to kits bought 2 years ago. But if one knows for sure that one doesn't go back, it's delete time I'd say.

[loralyn]

Originally Posted by nun69

sweet...I just dumped 16 GB's!!!!!

Wow! You've set the bar for the rest of us So far, I've let go of 4 GB, but I know I can let go of more! BTW, love your Christmas siggy, too cute!

[adrianka]

Sorry to interrupt, but the "just in case" method works for me. Has worked for me all my life. I lived up in Communist ex-Czechoslovakia and we had not much in creative stuff. I used to collect and store wrapping papers, ribbons and stuff and I could, indeed, use them, sometimes after years. I continue to do this to this day. I have loads of crafts supplies, but I have periods where I concentrate on one activity and others are put away. Should I throw away my beautiful things just because right now I have a time where I digiscrap? Nope.

Actually, I kept buying pretty papers even though I never used them for anything. I had vague ideas of their use, but actually never got to realising any of those ideas. Now, after YEARS, when I do cards, I use them.

Same with kits. There were some that didn't really fit my style - in the beginning I was buying thing without much thinking, but those that I like, I will probably like later, and it happens to me to use a kit from ages ago.

I can't understand the "throw away and buy new so that you throw it away in half a year" kind of thinking. That's not meant as criticism! Purging can have wonderful effect (I do wardrobe purging at least once a year, so I know).

If you KNOW you're never going to use some stuff, and you're not the kind of person to go back at older stuff - delete!

Just my two cents.

[nun69]

it was a sense of relief for me since I know there were LOTS of kits I was never gonna use....I do save kits that I know I only did 1 page with and I want to do a matching page eventually, even if the page was from over a year ago. But I needed to free up the space because it gives me more space to save my photos which are way more important to me

[ColleenSwerb]

You all may have convinced me to do a big purge in the near future.

[emmasmommy]

i also don't typically buy kits that i won't use. if i don't have a use for it right away, i don't buy it. that way, a kit won't sit on my HD 'waiting' to be used. if i don't use it w.in about a month, odds are i won't....and it gets chucked. that's just me though. i don't keep anything unless i 'need' it.

[Jennifer]

ok, ok...i think i'll go take a peek...

[emmasmommy]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

ok, ok...i think i'll go take a peek...

be strong girl.

[nun69]

be strong Jennifer!!!!!!!

[jaylensmom]

you ladies are brave i throw everything on my ehd. i know there are things i will never use from years ago that i should delete...i'm not even sure why i bought them then...maybe i'll purge them...that's as brave as i can get right now...

[carriesmom]

I just did a big purge because of this thread and it felt good to get rid of some of the stuff sitting on my EHD that I will never use, but it was hard.

[mummytothree]

I just did a HUGE purge!!! 15.1GBs!! The most amazing thing to me about that was it was something like 20,000 files!!! That just amazes me....makes me wonder how many files are left in the 62GB of scrap still still on my HD!?!?!

[sprauncey1]

I "organized" some stuff today and now I cannot find my calendar doodles for my Xmas calendars. So tonight I've been looking to see if I moved them inside another odd folder and purging a ton. Mostly kits/stuff from 2004-2007 LOL! I'm pretty sure I can let that stuff go!

Still haven't found those doodles though...grrrrr!