Deleting "really" old layouts

[StephanieLH]

I have been trying to clean up and organize my external drive which has all my scrapbooking pages and materials on it. I am deleting all my layered layouts (PSP) and compressing them into jpgs. Anyway... most of my older lo are still in psp image format. Some I can rework but others I have merged all the layers. So I actually deleted about 7 or 8 of them. They are ones that I did early in my digi career. They had little or no shadow, just really flat. Plenty of other things wrong with them too.

My question is... how many of your layouts have you actually deleted. And how did you feel when you did it? Regrets? or Purified?

Stephanie

[nikkiARNGwife]

I probably can't give the best answer b/c I delete stuff all the time. I never keep layered files longer than a couple of weeks and any layouts that have been printed get deleted off my hard drive (after I've burned DVDs)

But I did want to say a quick hey b/c I noticed you're from Mississippi too!! I don't think we've ever had another member here from MS

[Paula]

I have kept all my old LOs. But, it's more for the sentimentality of it. Plus, I love (and hate) going back through them to see how I've evolved.

As for layered psds, I toss those as soon as I print the jpgs and put them in scrapbooks.

[StephanieLH]

I have yet to print anything... and I have been scrapping digitally for 5 years. LOL I guess I am just not sure exactly where to start.

[mummytothree]

When I have about 4GBs worth of layered (TIFF) files on my harddrive I burn them to DVD and then delete them, which is about once a month.

I delete stuff all the time but I always always back it up somewhere, whether to DVD, EHD or my desktop that we don't really use anymore. I'm to paranoid to just "delete"!!!

[StephanieLH]

good idea. I never burn DVDs either. I lost all my pages and materials when katrina hit and so now having my LO on the external drive makes me feel like they are safe. I had this plan to wait til the kids are graduating HS before printing... LOL (jk)

[mariewilcox]

I keep files until the layouts are printed. Once printed they get burned to a DVD and then deleted - PSD files and JPEG files. I hate clutter - whether is cyberclutter or solid clutter - LOL - my mind can't function until things are uncluttered

[rach3975]

Layered files get deleted as soon as I've printed. JPEGs get saved forever, no matter how old or unskilled the LO was. My early albums are full of those pages, but no matter how they look, the photos and journaling still bring back memories. Since I'll never go back and rescrap everything, I save them for what they are and let my early pages serve as a reminder of how far I've come.

[LoriJ]

I am such a hoarder that I rarely delete anything. It makes me really anxious to think about it but I know I need to do it so I am watching this thread really closely to get some motivation and ideas about where to start!

[newfiemountiewife]

I haven't deleted mine because I have saved all of the psd files and "plan" to go back and fix them up at some point. Who knows when that will be lol

ETA that I scrap mostly for artistic release so if a layout sucked, even if it was an early one, I won't be printing it

[kristijoy]

So far I haven't actually deleted any. To me, I want an archive, in case of a fire/flood etc. If I have an offsite backup somewhere of my files I could always reprint them. I would do what you are doing: save them as jpegs and deleting the big layered files.

[4noisyboys]

I used to save and burn to DVD, but now I just don't care! lol

Maybe once a month, I upload my "to be printed" pages to Persnickity Prints. Then, I delete that and the layered file and only keep the web version on my computer. I know it's safe at Persnickity, so when I want to have it printed...I just go in there, click and print!

I just had 50 of them printed and they are SO amazing to look at! I love to see them in the large 12x12 size!!!

and they are not safe on your ehd. I really suggest you get a good back up plan. I use Backblaze. I had a crash and it was very easy to use to retrieve my things. It's just $5 a month, and so worth it not having to worry about it!

[Shawna Clingerman]

When I'm ready to purge i toss psd files and then burn the flattened full sized jpg to a disk. I plan to never ever get rid of those, even the ones that seem old and yuck to me now. Its like a piece of our family's history and all that jazz.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Yeah I still have all my old ones burned to DVD's and most are printed in albums. I do keep jpegs of everything..either on DVDs or on my EHD depending on how old they are.