Photos

 A quick note for those working to downsize photos: I found this: Memory Box  and plan to send what photos we're keeping to them for digitizing.  Then I'll either send the photos to the kids, or toss them.  Yes, that's hard, but we have promised ourselves a fun RV life, unhampered by physical things.  Can't do that if we're lugging around boxes of pictures we never really look at.  (Note to self: go over the photos we uploaded from Gabe's discs--there are some jewels in there!)

Downsizing, Part I

 Maybe this should be Part Ia, but we'll just start here. 

In 2010, I began a fledgling folk art business.  At the time, I called the space where I made the folk art The Craft Room.  But the name changed along the way, and I began calling it The Studio.  It seemed like a more suitable name, since it was the seat of my business, not just a hobby.  I never made enough to pay the mortgage, but I did send us on a few trips around the states to see the kids. 

All four walls  looked like this (only messier).

That room was full.  Between the hubby who could give me floor-to-ceiling storage, and my penchant for thrift shopping?  Hoo-boy, could I fill shelves. 

That room was also was the place to start clearing, when we decided on our journey to RV life.  Do you have a craft room, hobby room, Man-cave, or similar?  They get pretty crammed, even if you clean them out periodically.  We had a "Craft Supplies Sale" this last September, and I cleared out a lot.  A LOT.  But there is so much left to clear, and I will do it in increments.  We have about six months before we list the house, and I have time.

But yesterday was cold and blustery, and I wanted a sitting-down chore, so I tackled photographs. 

It's hard to throw away photographs, even if you ARE going to scan them.

Remember back before we had digital cameras, and got double prints of everything?  Nowadays, you can take twenty, then delete all but one or two.  We had decades of photos--each of us had a lot from before we met, then we finished raising four kids together--you get the idea.

It was a fun afternoon, all those memories.  And I threw out so many!  The boring, the doubles, and the ones that make you go "where WAS this?"  Ended up with maybe 1/8 of what I began with.  Maybe less.  Now to find a scanning service, buy a photo digitizer, or do it all on our scanner/copier (which is not a job for the faint of heart).   

It hurt--throwing away photos.  Those are photos of my BABIES!  My advice to those who are facing this?  Just do it.  Then physically throw them out before you can start sorting through again.  Because you will second-guess yourself.  Just Do It. Nike was not wrong about this.

If you're really sentimental, this is going to be hard.  But scanning the very best of them will make the ones you keep more meaningful in the long run.  And now...to go make more memories!