A success
I couldn’t fit anything more into the file cabinet drawer assigned to NACFLM, my professional family life association. At this same time, a NACFLM committee I was on decided to archive former newsletters. For many years I had been the newsletter editor. Hmmm. I decided to bite the bullet and go through all the old newsletters (which of course are no longer mailed out in paper form). I saved 2 copies of each issue and put the rest in recycling. It took awhile but I felt like I hit the jackpot.
A semi-success (or at least not a total failure)
While looking through old paper photos to find something else, I realized that I had not put any photos in albums since 1994. Around 2004 I started taking mostly digital photos. This left a 10+ year gap of photos stuffed into a box. One night while watching a tedious TV program (I think it was one of the debates) I decided to multi-task. I went through 360 old photos. I decided to keep 77 – which I suppose I will have to scan at some future date when I am consumed with boredom and have nothing else to do. The good news is that I was able to get rid of 283 photos. Some were duplicates. Some were unidentifiable. Some were just such poor quality that they weren’t worth keeping.
News you can use:
Bad: I would have liked to put the old photos into paper recycling, but upon googling recycle old photos, I found that this would not be acceptable.
Good: It was a sweet experience reviewing those years of my family life. I would not have taken the time if I didn’t need to prune the photos.
A question for all you organized memory buffs: How do you sort, save, throw away photos and other memories?
A question for procrastinators: What’s holding you back?
