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Retired Product Organisation

littlekiwi

littlekiwi

I charge by the hour for anything before noon
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
Messages
10,794
How do you organise retired products? If I'm going to spend time organising my stash I might as well prepare it for MOC like scrapping rather than just general challenge scrapping to save heart ache in January. I have ACDSee Photomanager but haven't fully got on board with the idea of tagging yet (only cause I know how long it will take!)
 
i used to physically move products out of folders or if i bought them during a retirement sale, they'd go in a separate folder but now i don't really move my retired stuff (and i don't tag it either), i just rename it within it's designer's folder with an 'R' infront of the filename (so it might be called DesignerX-ABCkit, i just rename it to R-DesignerX-ABCkit) if i know something is retiring.
 
I don't bother.. when it is MOC time and I am making a challenge page I just look up the kit I want to use in the store. If it is there I use it.

Retired product you can use in normal challenges etc, so I don't move my files around.
 
cfile said:
I don't bother.. when it is MOC time and I am making a challenge page I just look up the kit I want to use in the store. If it is there I use it.

Retired product you can use in normal challenges etc, so I don't move my files around.
Click to expand...

hmm that might be the way to go for me!
 
Since I have my stuff in folders by kit name, I just add a z- to the folder name. By using a z- it sorts to the bottom of the parent folder both in Windows and Picasa (or any other program like that). Now if a designer retires I add the z- to their folder and then I move it to a folder for retired designers. Only other time I ever move a folder is if a designer moves from one store to another (or like when SO closed down and my faves came here, I just moved their folder).

Now there is one designer that I have to add it as zz- so it sorts to the bottom because she has kits titled "Zoo". z- sorts before Zoo!
 
I'm with Christa, only I do put an "R" at the end of the name of the folder, though. Just as a reminder to myself down the road.
 
I remove them from my computer onto an external hard drive. That way I won't make any mistakes of using a retired product. It's the bet system that works for me.
 
I leave my retired kits in the same place they were put when I unzipped them (by store, designer, kit). However all kits from the Lilypad store are given an MOC Friendly tag in ACDSee. When a kit is retired I simply remove that tag.
 
If you have ACDSee, if you add a RETIRED keyword, that won't really help you if you are just browsing your catalog. I mean, if you want to see all your retired products, then yes. You'd click on RETIRED and you'd see all those retired products. But if you are scrapping and just viewing products, there won't be anything to make those products stand out.

Instead, I'd suggest using a color label, like RED for STOP, and then when you're viewing, it gives you a red underline on the product. So as an example, I added the color label to one of Pink Reptile's element packs for May 2021 BYOC. When I choose the May 2021 BYOC keyword to see all those products, it shows the red label and I know not to use it. Of course, it also works if you aren't viewing by keyword and just going into your folders.

RetiredProducts.JPG
 
cfile said:
I don't bother.. when it is MOC time and I am making a challenge page I just look up the kit I want to use in the store. If it is there I use it.

Retired product you can use in normal challenges etc, so I don't move my files around.
Click to expand...

I didn't realize that we can use retired product in normal (non-MOC) challenges? That opens up a whole new world for me ;) What about freebies from the designers that are only featured on their blog?
 
bjthomas said:
I didn't realize that we can use retired product in normal (non-MOC) challenges? That opens up a whole new world for me ;) What about freebies from the designers that are only featured on their blog?
Click to expand...
yes as long as it's a freebie by a current designer.
 
QuiltyMom said:
I remove them from my computer onto an external hard drive. That way I won't make any mistakes of using a retired product. It's the bet system that works for me.
Click to expand...
I don’t keep any files on my computer. All my files I keep on my ehd. I am glad your system works for you :)
bjthomas said:
I didn't realize that we can use retired product in normal (non-MOC) challenges? That opens up a whole new world for me ;) What about freebies from the designers that are only featured on their blog?
Click to expand...
Bethany, as long as the Designer actively sells here at the Lily Pad you can use their product for non MOC challenges (unless otherwise stated). https://the-lilypad.com/forum/threads/forum-gallery-and-signature-rules.18812/ :)
 
cfile said:
I don’t keep any files on my computer. All my files I keep on my ehd. I am glad your system works for you :)
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The only thing I use my computer for is scrapping, so there's plenty of space for everything. I also have everything (kits, photobooks, photos) backed up onto two EHDs, just in case. I lost one EHD just days after I had cleaned up my computer files and lost lots of kits & pages, so I'll never be caught unawares again!
 
I add x to the front of the kit. So my folder goes TLP → KAagard →KAagard_kitnames→xKAagard_kitname
That way the retired stuff always sorts to the bottom of a folder. And if I use Windows to look for a staple or something, it shows me the x when I look for the location. For designers, I move them to a folder called Retired Designers. I used to add XRET to the front, but it was starting to clutter up some of my TLP folder. I have stuff from 12 designers that retired from TLP. So, I moved them to their own 'store' hierarchy folder.
 
littlekiwi said:
I have ACDSee Photomanager but haven't fully got on board with the idea of tagging yet (only cause I know how long it will take!)
Click to expand...
I'm with you. I know it will take a ton of time to tag things like some super organized people have! But I also know I don't want to invest the time right now. So, here's my solution, it might work for you.
Currently, I'm tagging three things: designer name, theme, and journal cards. Designer name because sometimes I like to bring up all the stuff by 1 designer and I find a tag the easiest way to do that. Theme - it's quick, it's easy. My themes include things like beach, relationships, each season, holidays, snow, Project Mouse, food, Project Life, and BYOC. Each BYOC has a tag MMYY (BYOC0521) that I tag so I can bring up all the BYOC for that month together. I used themes that relate to how I scrap most photos, and some kits get two or three tags. Journaling cards are the only thing that I currently individually tag. The rest of the tags I drop on the whole kit. Doing Project Life I often need just a journaling card and since they have different names depending on the designer, I tag them. I use two tags - journal cards, and journaling. Journaling is specific to cards with space to write, journal cards is all the 4x6; 3x4;3x3;etc cards. If I was always searching for patterned paper or neutrals, I would tag that.
For me, limiting it to these three things makes tagging quick and easy. Someday, I may go back and add more, but for now this is enough to get a handle on my stash. I can find the thing I'm always looking for (journaling cards) and I can find a theme. From there? I can scroll to find word art or whatever else I want.
 
bestcee said:
I add x to the front of the kit. So my folder goes TLP → KAagard →KAagard_kitnames→xKAagard_kitname
That way the retired stuff always sorts to the bottom of a folder. And if I use Windows to look for a staple or something, it shows me the x when I look for the location. For designers, I move them to a folder called Retired Designers. I used to add XRET to the front, but it was starting to clutter up some of my TLP folder. I have stuff from 12 designers that retired from TLP. So, I moved them to their own 'store' hierarchy folder.
Click to expand...

So you just put the letter with no hyphen in front of the kit name? I use the hyphen between the letter z and the kit name so that the kit name is more easily readable... and Kristin has a kit called Zoo Day so just using z- sorts before the kit. So I use zz- for her few retired kits I have.

I used to do the z- for designers folders when they retired. And, like you I used to keep them in the store folder but with new designers joining stores, there was just too much clutter so I set up my retired designers folder. So now if someone retires I just move their whole folder to that folder. I've got a designer sitting in that folder now that may be coming out of retirement, will be interesting to see where she ends up.
 
bestcee said:
I'm with you. I know it will take a ton of time to tag things like some super organized people have! But I also know I don't want to invest the time right now. So, here's my solution, it might work for you.
Currently, I'm tagging three things: designer name, theme, and journal cards.
Click to expand...
Are you tagging OLD stuff, or starting with new purchases? I ask because I was going to suggest to Jennifer @littlekiwi to start tagging new items and worry about older kits once she has a system, kind of like how you have a system in place.

When I started tagging, I didn't go back to older stuff until I knew what really mattered to me. (Tagging kit previews matters to me.) It made tagging much less overwhelming. And I did it while watching TV at night with DH, so it felt less like a chore.
 
I haven't done anything with my retired stuff. I have had several computer crashes since the day I started digi scrapping (over 16 years ago) and lost a lot of stuff but I still do have a lot of old things that are mainly on an external hard drive now. I took a long break from scrapping and now that I hopped back into it I have been getting a lot of new stuff. I need to take time and organize everything but I have never figured out the best way to do that. I currently just have the store folder and within that I name the kits by designer name_kit name.

So, when we are making non-challenge layouts or challenges layouts that typically say something like "must have 75% TLP products," is it ok to use retired products as long as it isn't used for the whole page?
 
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