Any up for some digi spring cleaning?

[Nettio]

So at the end of March last year, I challenged myself to do some very needed computer spring cleaning in what I called The Great Computer Spring Clean-a-thon. Since I had such a great time last year , I'm doing it again this year and I'd love to invite you to play along!

You can read the details and my goals here but really it's simple. You choose some kind of computer related cleaning/organizing goal and you have until next Monday, March 26 to complete it! It can be as big or small of a goal as you want so don't think you need to commit hours to your goal, like organizing ALL your scrap supplies, if you don't have time for that. Just 5 minutes each day is better than nothing!

So what do you say, anyone want to play along? I can't be the only one who's poor computer is in need of a Biggest Loser-style makeover.

[heathergw]

I've been cleaning every month this year and loving it, but I need to do more... if I had time this week, I'd totally join you!!!

[ayaandjudah]

count me in.

I will DELETE all kits I know I won'tuse. Templates too.

[glumirk]

I have been thinking about this a LOT lately, and would totally join if I were at home with my computer. Maybe next week?

[Lyd]

I LOVED doing this with you last year, Lynnette! It felt so good to get all my folders organized! I'm not sure how much time I have to do this this week, but I'm definitely starting to the feel the need to get some things sorted out again. Off to read your post!

[dailydwellin]

I remember when you did this last year.

I think I'm in...

I've really been wanting to get all my folders organized in the same way. That's going to be my goal. I may not finish by Monday, though, since we'll be out of town for the weekend. But I'll sure give it a shot and at least post progress on Monday!!

[breakingbrie]

I'll join in!! I"m a digi hoarder so my computer really needs it.

[ripal]

How timely! I just finished reading your series last week and decided to work on mine! I have already made a note of my starting storage space. Can't want to see the end results!

I did have a question about my photo storage. When I first moved my photos to iMac, I just added them to a Pictures folder. Later, I imported them to iPhoto(because I missed the slideshow feature), I think iPhoto copied everything in its own folder. NOT what I wanted! Is there a way to just have iPhoto create a shortcut? If not, how would you view slideshow of photos without having to use iPhoto?

[NatalieKW]

I'm in!! I'm going small since I just don't have time this year, but any little bit helps. Everyone can do something little and it will make your mojo soar!!

[Txcorey]

I did this over the weekend. I didn't have any scrapping mojo so I decided to tackle my stash. I deleted over 10 GB of old kits, papers, etc that I knew that I wouldn't use. I have added a ridiculous amount to my stash since I found this place and definitely needed to purge stuff I knew I wouldn't use!

[MichaelsMomJo]

Originally Posted by ripal

How timely! I just finished reading your series last week and decided to work on mine! I have already made a note of my starting storage space. Can't want to see the end results!

I did have a question about my photo storage. When I first moved my photos to iMac, I just added them to a Pictures folder. Later, I imported them to iPhoto(because I missed the slideshow feature), I think iPhoto copied everything in its own folder. NOT what I wanted! Is there a way to just have iPhoto create a shortcut? If not, how would you view slideshow of photos without having to use iPhoto?

iPhoto does not copy pictures over into folders, it creates a library out of all your pictures. That library is exclusive to and can only be read by iPhoto. You have the ability to export photos out of your library if you need to send them someone (or for any other reason). There really is no need to keep the individual photo files on your hard drive once they've been put into iPhoto. They're just taking up space. I can understand wanting to have them as a backup just in case. I bought an inexpensive portable EHD that I use just for photos. When I'm moving pics off my camera, I import the photos into iPhoto and copy them onto my EHD. Then I disconnect my EHD until next time. I have so many copies of pics I don't ever worry about losing them. My Mac backs up to Time Machine, plus I have a Backblaze account so my iPhoto is backed up twice, plus I have my EHD with all my photos. I'm covered! You might consider storing photos on their own drive as well. It will free up a lot of space for you.

[ripal]

I'm going to need someone to hold my hand to help push that delete key! I had the hardest time! I have found that I have harder time deleting the papers than the elements. I know that I won't use those eyelets(that came in every color of the kit color scheme) and straight ribbons or slides, most of the brads... but I can't delete the papers!

I also went thru my photo albums and deleted plenty of blurred, out of focus photos. however, just now, Adobe said that they're releasing new version of PS that would fix your blur photos! Why did they have to mention that? lol

[MichaelsMomJo]

I just finished a whole purging/reorganization. I guess I could think of some more ways to cross-index. LOL

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by ripal

How timely! I just finished reading your series last week and decided to work on mine! I have already made a note of my starting storage space. Can't want to see the end results!

I did have a question about my photo storage. When I first moved my photos to iMac, I just added them to a Pictures folder. Later, I imported them to iPhoto(because I missed the slideshow feature), I think iPhoto copied everything in its own folder. NOT what I wanted! Is there a way to just have iPhoto create a shortcut? If not, how would you view slideshow of photos without having to use iPhoto?

I never used iPhoto but yes, I believe it creates a copy of all your photos in a library you can't access so you don't mess anything up. If you upgrade to Aperture though, you have the option to create a managed library (like iPhoto) or a referenced library which will create a shortcut to your photos only. That's how I have my photos set up in Aperture.

[KateD]

I'm in! I need to empty my downloads folder and probably should do some digi supply purging, but not this week. I need to consolidate all the other household records that are scattered across multiple folders and hard drives. Then i can go back and continue working on my digiscap supplies.

[ripal]

Originally Posted by MichaelsMomJo

iPhoto does not copy pictures over into folders, it creates a library out of all your pictures. That library is exclusive to and can only be read by iPhoto. You have the ability to export photos out of your library if you need to send them someone (or for any other reason). There really is no need to keep the individual photo files on your hard drive once they've been put into iPhoto. They're just taking up space. I can understand wanting to have them as a backup just in case. I bought an inexpensive portable EHD that I use just for photos. When I'm moving pics off my camera, I import the photos into iPhoto and copy them onto my EHD. Then I disconnect my EHD until next time. I have so many copies of pics I don't ever worry about losing them. My Mac backs up to Time Machine, plus I have a Backblaze account so my iPhoto is backed up twice, plus I have my EHD with all my photos. I'm covered! You might consider storing photos on their own drive as well. It will free up a lot of space for you.

Thanks Joanne!

Do you open iPhoto to select photos for scrapping? I felt it was taking forever to open up! LOL I just love opening them in finder. I do have TimeMachine going, so back up is taken care of. Plus, all my photos are on another EHD. I'm just trying to find a good workflow for scrapping. I used to have Lightroom on PC, but I hardly used used it, so I'm hesitant to buy yet another software that I may not use much. I scrap most of my photos unedited(SOOC) or just use the actions. I still keep all the RAW files, for just in case, but I plan on deleting all RAW files of the photos that are daily snapshots. I just know that I won't be most of those, specially not the ones that doesn't have my family in the photos (I take tons of photos for boy scouts and girl scouts) I just delted lots of baseball photos that didn't have my son in it. DH took those photos, burn the CD and gave out to families.. so there was no need to hang on to those. That made a huge dent in my storage! LOL

[rachaelsscraps]

Does your laptop dying, making you lose 200 GB of kits count? LOL. Probably not since I still have them on 2 EHDs and my online backup

[ashleywb]

I probably need to join in. I bought ACDSee (just the organizer) when it was on sale for $5 and have not tagged a single thing! Guess I need to figure out how use it.

[mummytothree]

I would have totally needed this about 3 weeks ago but getting a new laptop tends to help you naturally purge!!! Good luck to all who join in...I'll be cheering you on!!!

[ripal]

Originally Posted by mummytothree

I would have totally needed this about 3 weeks ago but getting a new laptop tends to help you naturally purge!!! Good luck to all who join in...I'll be cheering you on!!!

Actually, getting a new iMac didn't help me purge, because everything that I had on my EHD, I copied it all to iMac! LOL I know I should've cleaned up my EHD before that, but it just didn't happen.

[MichaelsMomJo]

Originally Posted by ripal

Thanks Joanne!

Do you open iPhoto to select photos for scrapping? I felt it was taking forever to open up! LOL I just love opening them in finder. I do have TimeMachine going, so back up is taken care of. Plus, all my photos are on another EHD. I'm just trying to find a good workflow for scrapping. I used to have Lightroom on PC, but I hardly used used it, so I'm hesitant to buy yet another software that I may not use much. I scrap most of my photos unedited(SOOC) or just use the actions. I still keep all the RAW files, for just in case, but I plan on deleting all RAW files of the photos that are daily snapshots. I just know that I won't be most of those, specially not the ones that doesn't have my family in the photos (I take tons of photos for boy scouts and girl scouts) I just delted lots of baseball photos that didn't have my son in it. DH took those photos, burn the CD and gave out to families.. so there was no need to hang on to those. That made a huge dent in my storage! LOL

I do open iPhoto for scrapping. I usually open it as soon as my computer is up and running. It tends to load faster when nothing else is running. Then I open photoshop and drag over whatever photos I want. I then minimize iPhoto and leave it running in the background.

[jaylensmom]

I'm in...I need to organize and add previews to my folders...I also bought ACDSee when it was $5 but I haven't organized anything...

[Freckles]

I'm in. I need to go through my photos and delete my NEF files, or at least the ones that I know for sure I won't need anymore! It's ridiculous, I have every photo both in jpg and in NEF format and my HD is bursting! They take up so much space but I always think: what if I need to edit that photo again and I don't have the raw file anymore?

[ripal]

Originally Posted by Freckles

I'm in. I need to go through my photos and delete my NEF files, or at least the ones that I know for sure I won't need anymore! It's ridiculous, I have every photo both in jpg and in NEF format and my HD is bursting! They take up so much space but I always think: what if I need to edit that photo again and I don't have the raw file anymore?

That was me until last week!!! Now, I'm deleting the ones that don't have any family member in the photo. JPEG alone is enough for those photos. I KNOW that I won't spend time editing those photos. As it is, I still need to learn a good workflow on editing the photos. No need to keep the old ones that I'll never get to!

[Kjersti]

Yes - count me in!!!
I have kits from 2005 that I need to get rid of!!!

[xboxmom]

My Digi spring cleaning took care of itself this weekend when my External hard drive failed...so now the only digital stuff I have left is whatever I have on my hard drive on my computer...

[Sherri Tierney]

I've been working on mine a little at a time for months now but this week I am working on the school yearbook so my goal for cleaning out my computer is to finish up the yearbook so I can delete those pictures. There are some great pictures of the kiddos but I don't need pictures of kids who don't belong to me and aren't friends with my kids on my computer... they just take up space.

[calvinawalsh]

I have been in the process of deleting and organizing for the past 2 weeks. I've gotten rid of lots of GBs but I still have so much left! My problem with organizing my digital files is that I have continued to change my method of organization the longer I digiscrap. Right now I am making a Folder of all the previews of my kits-why did it take me 4 years to decide to do this? LOL Hopefully I find a process that works!

[nesser1981]

I've been working on mine slowly since I got my new computer.

I have templates to go through and all my supplies will be gone through. Still getting them all back in the right categories, but so far it looks like I've deleted about 30 gigs of stuff!

[mrshobbes]

I'm totally in! Purged about 50GB from my lappie harddrive, backup to my external, and now want to purge from my scrapping stash and (gulp) get some layouts ready for print

[Julie Billingsley]

I decided my goal will be to make folder images for each folder on my Mac. Once I can see what is in each folder, my computer will be sooo much happier!

[nesser1981]

All finished w/ my digi stash. I deleted 35 gigs.

[mrshobbes]

The digi stash purging has commenced! So far I am in designers with names starting with C

[KateD]

I made a first pass through my previews and tagged almost 200 to delete. Mostly mini kits and freebies. So far I've actually deleted about 50 of them (the supplies, not just the previews ).

[kristijoy]

I did a bunch of cleaning when the 6 new designers tease went up a couple weeks ago! Sure felt good!

[KateD]

Originally Posted by KateD

I made a first pass through my previews and tagged almost 200 to delete. Mostly mini kits and freebies. So far I've actually deleted about 50 of them (the supplies, not just the previews ).

Finished deleting those - it ended up being about 5.5 GB of files. Now I'm going to start working on my downloads folder and start looking through the other scrap supplies that aren't in LR yet. More decisions to be made...

[Nettio]

So fun to read everyone's goals and woohoo for all the progress being made!

I've got today's organizing tip up on the blog: The Key to Matching Your Organizing Style to Your Scrapbooking Style

[jaylensmom]

So I finished organizing all the files on my hard drive...I added previews and put them in folders...Tonight I'm going to start on my ehd...I trying to build enough stength to delete files

[iScrap]

I need to do this, too, but wont have time this week. My photos need it badly! I'm going to attempt it next week when I (hopefully) have more time.

[k23m]

sounds like a plan!
My goal is to go through my scrap stuff and purge (delete) the kits I wont use and #2 is to organize my general downloads folder (this is a mess of work/scrap/general stuff right now!! )

[Nettio]

Ok, I posted an update of my progress: Downloads, Documents & NettioDesigns: The Great Computer Spring Clean-a-Thon Day 1

I have now freed a whopping 7GB of space. Try not to be too amazed.

[Sherri Tierney]

I just ordered a new 2TB EHD. I decided that instead of cleaning and deleting I'll just keep filling more up. No, really, we've been talking for a while now about how we needed another EHD and the price dropped on Amazon so I snagged it.

I use Backblaze for my backup and I've been running it for several months and I'm still not entirely backed up. I wanted to switch to Crash Plan but its telling me it will take SIX months to do the initial backup. I know I have a lot of data, but that's just crazy. I can't wait 6 months for peace of mind. We will have everything backed up to 2 different external drives and then the online backup as well.

What's worse than my scrap stash is my design stash. Oh my gosh. Its awful. My CU stash is pretty bad but my 'work in progress' folder of my personal designs is like the worst ever. I don't even know where to begin with it.

[nun69]

between photos and scrap stuff I just deleted 42 gigs LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sherri Tierney]

My digital scrapbooking folder is 102 gig. That's JUST digi supplies and doesn't count the 11.8 gig that is in my downloads folder that still needs to be sorted, most of it SSD stuff. I have 6 gig in my completed layouts folder, 196 gig of photos and 213 gig in my 'Designs by Sherri' folder.

I have some serious work to do...

[littlekiwi]

I would do it now but I am too busy with uni - I'll tackle it over Easter Weekend instead

[sprauncey1]

Always an inspiration Lynette! I'm going to work on processing ALL my NEF files during the next two weeks (past your deadline, but realistic that way) so DH can finally install a SSD for my operating system for my laptop. We've only had the thing for six months!

Tee hee SSD is solid state drive in this instance, Sweet Shoppe Designs is already "installed!"

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by Sherri Tierney

I just ordered a new 2TB EHD. I decided that instead of cleaning and deleting I'll just keep filling more up. No, really, we've been talking for a while now about how we needed another EHD and the price dropped on Amazon so I snagged it.

I use Backblaze for my backup and I've been running it for several months and I'm still not entirely backed up. I wanted to switch to Crash Plan but its telling me it will take SIX months to do the initial backup. I know I have a lot of data, but that's just crazy. I can't wait 6 months for peace of mind. We will have everything backed up to 2 different external drives and then the online backup as well.

What's worse than my scrap stash is my design stash. Oh my gosh. Its awful. My CU stash is pretty bad but my 'work in progress' folder of my personal designs is like the worst ever. I don't even know where to begin with it.

I know with CrashPlan you can "seed" your initial backup. It's $125 but they send you a drive for you to mail back with all your stuff. I use BackBlaze but if I were to do it again I'd go that route with CrashPlan because my initial backup took months and months.

[mrshobbes]

Woot! I'm off to bed tonight, but just wanted to post that I finished purging from my supplies and freed up another 40GB in my EHD! I expect once i'm done batch-processing layouts for printing i'll be able to get rid of more! (like, uh, my layouts from 2006-2010 maybe?)

[Sherri Tierney]

Originally Posted by Nettio

I know with CrashPlan you can "seed" your initial backup. It's $125 but they send you a drive for you to mail back with all your stuff. I use BackBlaze but if I were to do it again I'd go that route with CrashPlan because my initial backup took months and months.

I saw that and I love the idea but I ended up buying a 2nd EHD instead. I figure with Backblaze I'm probably a month away from having everything backed up. I can spend less for the new EHD than it would cost for that CrashPlan option. I can then have 2 separate EHD backups of everything plus Backblaze. Right now my hard drive is just a disaster. A few months down the road, once I have cleaned out everything on it that I don't need on it anymore then I may consider going that route with CrashPlan. Right now I have roughly 200 gig of pictures and I'd say that probably 1/4 of them need to be deleted. I have blurry pictures and pictures my kids took of the floor, the ceiling, etc. I have some sets of pictures where I took 20 pictures in a row and the only difference in them is slight facial movements. I don't need all 20, I can keep the one I like the best and delete the rest. I keep my camera in burst mode and fire off several pictures each time I take one so I rarely get just one shot. No need to keep all of the duplicates when there is nothing really different about it, except maybe my subject is blinking.

I worked on this all today some when I should have been doing the yearbook. My new EHD will be here tomorrow (and my new Kindle too!) so I thought I'd clean out some stuff today. I couldn't concentrate on the yearbook anyway with my kids fighting and my husband doing household projects.

[Nettio]

Final day of the Spring Clean-a-thon is here! How did it go?

I've posted an update of my final progress here: http://www.nettiodesigns.com/2012/03...-clean-a-thon/