keeping/purging things? I've been slowly going through everything I own. I'm not *quite* a pack-rat, but I am sentimental and have kept things Im now tussling over keeping still. Like, photos of people I knew in high school and women I used to date on top of family photos. Some I don't even remember the peoples names. I'm thinking purge. But, then, they are photos and I feel weird about throwing away pictures of people. I also feel weird when I come upon old photos at garage sales and swap meets. What do you think of tossing pictures?

photos are one of the things that people who have lost the entire contents of their house say they wish they had back. Is it possible to box/store since they do not take a lot of space? Or give those you do not want to someone else who might want them? Keeping them for a rainy day someday when you are much older might bring a smile to your face... Personally, I'm not a keeper of stuff, but I too have a hard time throwing away a photo - I usually try to give them to someone if I do not want them anymore, or just store away and forget about it.

One option to lessen the load that I've done I went through all my pictures, took out my favorite ones, took them all to Kinko's where you can scan a ton of pictures onto a CD for $4.95. This way, if you're inclined, you can make a powerpoint presentation(s) of, say, your high school years, your exes, pets of past and present and such...or, you can just keep all those photos on a CD...less bulk, less storage and you'll still have them

yep, Wolf Camera/Ritz here will scan in 500 for $50. and give you DVDs. I need to do this myself, maybe next week when I'm off. Of course, I'll keep the photos, but I'll actually look at the scanned images.

hey corgi, then you can edit them as you like!

be aware though that cds tend to break down after about 10 years. you might not be able to access the data in 20 - 30 years unless you make a point of keeping it updated.

I did not know this...thank you I still have that box with all the cards, photos and letters...considering my procrastination in truly letting go of that box and its contents, perhaps that box and the photos in it will outlive the CDs that the photos were scanned onto! :P

once they were scanned in, I'd put them on a hard drive that gets off line backup. I started using Mozy a couple of years ago, which was good timing, cause I dropped my laptop shortly after starting regular backups.

I've done that too All the photos I've scanned are on my hard drive plus I have the CDs and that darn box of ALL the originals!

Procrastination This is the ONE area I am the worst in...I have a box of photos, cards, letters and such...despite every move I've ever made, despite the numerous times I've downsized my belongings, that box is the ONE thing that I've schlepped around wherever I've lived, and EVERY time I think, "okay, TODAY I'm going to sort through this box and empty it out" I hear myself saying to myself, "ah, I'll tackle this some other time" and sure enough, EVERY card, photo and letter gets put right back in the box and stored away AGAIN! :P And yes, even though I've scanned my favorite photos, do I still have the originals???? Yep!

It is def an emotional roller coaster to tackle these boxes!! I went through all of mine at the beginning of the year. But so many things brought me a lot of smiles! :)

I let them go. I had a friend help me purge a bunch of photos from high school that I didn't want to keep but that I couldn't make myself chuck. Among them was a picture of my high school boyfriend and about x pics of his dog.

was he good looking? the dog, I mean.