What would you do? Decade of scrap supplies to deal with!

Well, I for one never throw anything away. I may pack it up and store it somewhere but never toss.

My advice would be to go "shopping" in your old stash. Look through your stash from your favorite stores, favorite designers, and then "purchase" (move) the products you want to start with into your active stash. Work with these and then go "shop" for some more. Gradually you will build enough of a base to be happy with.

Remember, things change. Designers come and go, like Rebecca and Tangie who just showed up. The important thing is to get started creating.

 

Welcome back to digi! I would think about what I wanted to scrap. You have been doing paper for PL. DO you wanna stay with paper? What is your motivation to scrap digital. The end result? I don't have much left from 5 years ago. The digital designers that have survived, are really exceptional. we are so blessed to have a storeful here at the Pad.

Personally, I would organize a Lily Pad folder with designers and copy only those over. Do the blog hop. Get the free template for this month's challenge and start creating.

 

Welcome back to the Pad! I hope that your littles are doing well after their health issues and that you've settled in your new home!

If you've been keeping up with a paper PL album, then I'm guessing your photos are already in order, which is awesome! That'll make it so much easier for you to dive right back in So it's just the supplies that need tackling?

What she said! I would do just that, and make a folder either on your current EHD or even on an entirely different one and put just the things from the current designers here in it. Then I would shove the other old stuff either into a deep dark folder or on its own EHD into a deep, dark closet and only pull it out when I really felt like dealing with it.

The hop and the free template challenge that Anne mentioned are a GREAT place to start! Another great, inexpensive way to start building a current supply stash again would be one of the subscriptions here- Memory Pockets Monthly, Mixed Media Monthly, or Just Jaimee's Storyteller (which has a TON of bang for your buck). I built up a nice stash between subscriptions and shopping SOSN Wednesdays during my first year of digi scrapping here.

 

WELCOME back! I personally would go into your items and don't over think it. Use your gut to tell you, If you see it and fall in love save, if you question it at all delete. AND that might not even be saving full kits. Look at the kits that are current now. What do you love? Paints? Papers? Elements? go through your kits and maybe just save those items that you know you will use the most!

 

Hi, welcome back!!!
In your position, I'd choose the store I want to stick with, and start there. Looking through your stash for supplies you have from the current designers. Even if it's older stuff, many of the stores allow retired supplies from current designers, if you're looking to utilize store galleries. Also, some designers keep their older stuff in stores for a long time.
Even if you decide you don't want to keep some of the older stuff from those designers, it was a place to start!

I have a hard time getting rid of stuff, too, as mentioned above.

I second or third or fourth the blog hop right now. It's beautiful, current, and free!

Also agree with the subscription options here at the pad. I love them so much!

If you need new things, current designers have freebies in newsletters, on blogs/websites, even in the stores! Coupons, sales (DSD is next weekend!), bundles... all of which are options to get great deals.

Also agree with looking at what you want to scrap, and starting there. Just one page at a time, so as not to get overwhelmed. First story that pops in your mind to be told.

One quick way of seeing what's in your stash is to do a search for jpg files in your stash. (This works in windows, not sure about Macs) If you have an option to narrow your search results to size (around 300KB or less), most kit previews would fall into those categories, and you'd be able to look at your own stash at a "previews only" glance, like your own store! Note, windows searches like this do take awhile, especially with large stashes, but it is a way to "quickly" see everything.

Okay... enough ramblings from me Welcome back to scrapping!

 

Welcome back to digi scrapping, Michelle! Sounds like you have some good advice already on how to tackle your huge digi stash. I can't throw anything away, but slowly I've gone through older folders and moved those that I want to keep to a new location. There were designers I was in love with 8 years ago, but now when I look at their designs, they no longer fit my scrapping style. Those will be consigned to an EHD once I get through everything (which should take another couple years at the pace I am going right now).

 

Welcome back! There's a lot of great advice above!

If you are feeling the desire to start fresh, I would totally do it. Leave stuff where it is, and just pull over what you want to work with at the moment. Reevaluate in 6 months or a year. You may see that you are pulling over every kit from certain designers, or that your style has changed, and you aren't using the kits you thought you would. That would be my starting place.

 

Get an EHD and put the stuff on that. I have old stuff from wish bliss,Nicole young, mo Jackson and more that are no longer active in designing and I still love and use them. I will never get rid of things I paid for. I may not be able to use here at the pad as the designers aren't here but I can still use to make things for myself like cards or pages for a book or even pages in my FB pages. Also you can also display in other galleries like we do with our CT pages. Invest in an EHD for all your scrapping stuff.., weed through all those freebies you collected... Those I tend to toss unless really live

 

Anything I have that is old or outdated goes on to discs, and our personal home server. We are running out of space on our servers though, and we'll be buying a 3rd one soon...lol

 

What Courtney said. Totally keep the old drive. It will someday be a treasure chest.

 

If you do things in smaller chunks, it probably wouldn't take you as long. Also if you go by smaller chunks you can decide if you want to get rid of stuff.

By the way I remember you! We were on The blog team together. Glad to hear your back and scrapping again!

 

Welcome back! I remember you, too! Glad to see you are back scrapping, and things are settling down, and everyone is better. I kinda like the idea of keeping it as a treasure chest, and starting fresh. You can always access it, and scroll through from time to time to import some fun goodies!

 

I recently got a new laptop and went through the same thing. I basically took a look at each kit I had and just moved over the stuff I know I will still use. I copied everything else and put it on an external hard drive in case I ever want it.

 

If you have room on an EHD, I would copy that over and then at your leisure go thru and then delete what doesn't fit your style or preference now. IMO, as digi designs have improved so much over the past 5 yrs or so, I would delete anything older than 5 yrs. Personally, I deleted lots of kits and it was hard to get started at it but as I went along it got easier and felt so good to purge and keep what I knew I would use. I had it all in a folder on an EHD and just went thru it a few minutes at a time, here and there, until I was done. It took weeks, but was not stressful b/c it was small blocks of time.

 

well, having gone through many relocations, I tend to be one who purges old stuff that I no longer use. I just don't hold onto things that I don't use or don't love... physical belongings AND digital. so I would say, take time to look through your files. as you find things you really like, designate them to a KEEP folder. if you find things you are undecided on, put them in another folder. If you realistically know you will never come back to it and use it again, then hit the delete button and move on. Digital clutter is also clutter, and can make you feel bogged down as you start to build up your stash with new supplies. Just make sure you keep enough of the basics and building blocks to be versatile across several projects. Building up a new stash can take some time. Have fun with it!! And welcome back to digi!!

 

Oh welcome - and good luck - I had a crash recently so I am in a similar situation - having to unzip a fresh and all - eek! Hugs to you in the process.

 

I kissed the frog....

I just purged and am all for it!