Can I just say that I wish I had tagged things from the beginning. Now it seems way to daunting. While we're on the subject of the digistash, does anyone ever purge supplies? I know they don't take up physical space and can be used again and again, but I have been feeling the need to simplify lately. Does anyone regularly or ever let go of supplies?
I have no idea how many papers I have in my stash, but suffice it to say that you're definitely in good company here! Also, I don't intend to stop collecting either... not when our designers keep coming out with new stuff that "I NEED" And most importantly... I use it all too!
I've thought about purging occasionally, but I rarely do. What if I NEED it again! Lol! I know I have it all backed up and could get stuff back if I needed to, but so far I haven't run out of space on my EHD, so I figure I'm good! I have thought seriously about re-organizing some of my TLP stash. I currently don't have sub-folders for each designer, but I think I need to take that step very soon. The only reason I haven't do that yet is because my current folder system is quite a few layers deep and the file names occasionally are too long for my back up program. I need to start by putting my TLP folder at the top level of my hard drive I think. Right now it's under a folder called "DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING" and some of the kit I have have really long file names, with several levels of really long sub folders inside of subfolders.
My kits all stay kits too. But when I buy anything new, I add tags to them: Paper (with tags for colors/styles); templates (& how many photos each is designed for!); hundreds of different kinds of elements. If I want a frame from anyone, my search is high on the tier (“Sources”) If I want a frame from, say NBK designs, my search starts with Sources, then The Lilypad, then NBK, then “frames.” I guess I could just do this sort of search in the Finder (Mac), and I’m getting pretty irritated with how delicate Bridge seems to be that I may do that. I love Adobe for Photoshop, but its other products raise my blood pressure. I’ve tried Lightroom several different times—dedicated weeks/months to it. I still don’t get it, and it, like Bridge, seems way to delicate. The old PSE Organizer just worked. I may return to it as a stand-alone even though I work in PSCC. UPDATE: I purged the cache in Bridge, and it seems to be playing nice again. Only thing is, my entire list of Artists is missing! I'll just slowly add them to the Key Word list as I use their products. sigh. Still wish the PSE Organizer was a stand-alone app.
I can't say I do it regularly, but I purge every once in awhile. I have freebies from back in like 2007, and there is no way they are still my style (let alone are as good quality as what I now purchase here at TLP). So if I'm going through my stash and I happen upon a very old kit, I open it up for a quick peek and if nothing grabs my eye, then I trash it. And as much as they may not take up physical space, it still costs money to buy new EHDs to keep those old kits on. Actually, when I got my newest EHD I didn't back up really old kits. It's the first time in forever that I only backed up more recent purchases (like 2015 and newer). I figure the old stuff is on enough EHDs; no reason to keep backing up stuff I probably won't use and can find on an older EHD.
I don't know how many papers I own, but I have 985 Gig of digital supplies on my active EHD. The last time I upgraded ACDSee it didn't find a lot of my older stash so that is like purging, right? It's still there but I don't have to look at it every day.
I probably need to set aside some time to look through my older kits. I'm with you, if I know it isn't my style anymore no need to keep it.
I refuse to purge! I actually have needed some of my older supplies on a pretty regular basis, so I'm glad to have it all. I'm on a MAC, so I use the finder feature that allows you to add tags for my kits (designer, store name and sometimes theme or type), but I do not tag individual files because it's not something that would be worth the investment relative to the amount of times I'd need to use it. I love that most designers label their elements, so it's easy to search for things in my inventory.
oh quite likely, and if we add all the pieces of fabric ... or are we talking digital? as I've been collecting kits for 13 years and was CTing and designing for a number of those too ....
Yes Angela, digital. I just realized the other day how “green” we digi artists are...all the bazillion trees we’ve saved because our papers are not from trees!