Keepsake Documents : Keep, Scan and or Toss

Maybe there is a need to balance your stuff so you can think more about relationships by clearing the cob webs of the past and the things that clutter the present.   Lately, I have been trying to get rid of so much stuff in my study area, hence this blog,  to create more free time in other areas of my life and help others...

Photo Credit: Velvo Steve via Flickr

Things that I found interesting are: I can't believe I have saved so much stuff.  If your middle aged and and a collector of things it is easy to grow your paper tiger.

For example, over the last 25 years or so, each year I have saved about 2 inches of papers including trip documents, photo's and odd stuff. So my stack of stuff is about 6 to 9 feet long if the stuff is laying down in a line of boxes.  So far, I found things I have not looked at in 20 years.  But in all honesty, I can't wait to shrink the boxes dramatically down to TWO by: scanning most, tossing 90 percent of the stuff and saving just about 10 percent of it.  It is amazingly a slow process going thru four filing boxes of papers...  It has been taking a couple of hours to scan just a few inches of worthy items into the computer.   Sometimes I think why in the heck did I save a 1990 science fair project release form for human subjects as a science fair project.  Ironically, I did win first place in the Medicine in Health Science Fair part in that high school competition, but not the grand prize award.  Other times, although not to often, I look back on some scout outing with friends and a document about it, note or letter recalling the event with fondness.

Scan or Toss Rules of Thumb:
- Is it worth taking time to scan or take a picture of? If it is not worth your time to capture it in photo or pdf form than it is a possible document or photo to discard...
- Class yearbooks - your school maybe have a scanned archive of yearbooks where and when you attended the school.  Where I went to college they have most of the years scanned in; however, they stopped scanning yearbooks for the year before I started school there, but they are adding more soon to the online collection.  If you have lots of signatures and notes in your yearbook it might be good to capture those, but otherwise a copy may already be online somewhere...
- Scanning itineraries is great when available for a vacation keepsake... Arline tickets or cruise guides are some that come to mind.  You can build interesting things around your trip records and toss the rest...

Using Three Piles: 
-1)  Originals box -- stuff I'm working to purge;
-2)  Scanned doc box -- throwing away as soon as scanned documents are saved in two places;
-3)  Trash box -- documents not worth even scanning;

Ultimately, do you spend more energy outside of work thinking about your 1) next party, family time or vacation OR 2) work?  Of the (6) boxes of stuff I have purged so far, I might have accidentally thrown away the micro usb cord to my camera.  That is it so far. I have not found the cord.  Maybe it will still show up.  Stay tuned, but getting rid of so much stuff at the expense of losing one thing I do need -- it is worth it in my book.