When I was cleaning out my office, I ended up with a small pile of ticket stubs from sporting events I have attended throughout the years. When you think about it, these things have no real practical use. However for me, and I suspect many others, ticket stubs maintain some real sentimental value like a photograph might have. One idea that came to mind was to put all of these in a dedicated scrapbook, but I figured that would end up just gathering dust on a shelf. This of course begs the question: why not just throw them out? Honestly, that would probably work, but I just could not let go of them...the memories!
Where do we keep photographs these days? If you are like me, they are all stored digitally. In fact, I have gone out of my way to scan old photos so that they can be stored centrally and digitally with the rest of my photo collection. In a moment of epiphany, it occurred to me that I could simply scan my ticket stubs just like I have scanned old photos! Best of all, these images can be organized with the rest of me photo collection in a single place!
As I further processed my pile of papers in my office I came across magazines I had been keeping because of one particular article, or perhaps a specific picture (for example pictures from house & home style magazines that serve as inspiration for an imagined home renovation). I already knew what to do: scan and toss!
On your mission to de-clutter, keep in mind that if you cannot throw stuff out, some things can be stored or organized digitally instead of physically. I know for me, the scan & toss option has been completely overlooked in the past. What do you do to organize your old ticket stubs, magazine articles and similar keepsakes?
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Can you outsource the scanning part? That’s the time-consuming part.
02.09.08 at 9:56 am
@Rex: Yes, you are completely correct, the mechanical component of actually scanning the stuff could be outsourced (outsourcing scanning was actually highlighted a 43 Folders post on outsourcing). In fact, after my own attempt at outsourcing some programming tasks, I am convinced that the more mechanical the process, the better your chances of successfully outsourcing it.
In this particular case, I was dealing with only a handful of ticket stubs and magazine articles. Plus I wanted to do it once myself to figure out a work flow and how I wanted to organized the scanned images.
02.09.08 at 12:26 pm