Organising and streamling my home

Citygirl1

Hi, I live in a one bedroomed flat so don't have an awful lot of space. I am trying to slim things down to a minimum but still want there to be some 'character' about the place. I have a ornaments and photos about the place, ones that mean something to me, my wardrobe is pretty basic, but I am just wondering what to do about the following:

Photos - I now keep all my photos on my laptop or phone and only print them off if I want to frame them or give them to someone but the old ones I took (before the age of digital cameras) are in a drawer, in envelopes, labelled and categorised. I don't want to get rid of them (though I could scan them and then get rid) but I don't like throwing out original photos. I could put them in albums but then albums take up room so am unsure as to what to do about these.

Books - I now have a Kindle so could download the books I have onto my Kindle and get rid of the books, though I only have a shelf full and some I may not be able to get in Kindle version. However books are heavy and still take up space, especially hardbacks. I have some 'coffee table' type books under my coffee table that are mainly pictures and wouldn't suit the Kindle so I want to keep those but do I need to keep the others?

Music - I never play my CDs now and the majority of my music is on my laptop and phone. Do I really need to keep my CDs? DVDs I don't have many of but will keep them as I don't download films or TV series.

Diaries and Journals - I save all my old diaries, the pocket ones take up virtually no space but the journals do. I like handwriting journals but do wonder about doing it on the PC but if I were to do this I would still want to hang on to the journals I've got as it would be too time consuming to type all those up or even scan them in, I don't just want to throw them out and I do prefer writing in a journal but again its space.

Any ideas anyone?

BOBS

Streamlining is ok to an extent but you still need to hang on to the things that make you YOU.
CD's are part of your history as are your journals and diaries.
Have you not some way of storing them - choose the CD's you love most and give yourself a limit - maybe 20% of your collection. I would never get rid of photos but scanning them onto PC with a virtual backup in case of fire etc, Books - would only keep ones that were gifts or have nice inscriptions.
Underbed storage is great for keeping it all tidy.
Its good to be ruthless but dont be over zealous and regret it all in 5 years.

Nargleblast

You could make a big collage of your photos - or sort them into different themes and make a number of collages. End result would be original artwork for your walls!

The CDs might be worth something in future years, especially in original cases. However, go on the musicmagpie website and you can sell your CDS (most for only about 30p each, but you might have some that will fetch more).

Hang on to the journals as they are a historical document which future generations will appreciate.

Citygirl1

Hi, thanks for your replies. I agree about hanging on to somethings otherwise you can lose your identity. I don't want people to come into my home and not see the real me there, I need to have my stamp on the place so that people know I live there and know my character.

My journals I wouldn't want anyone to see so I keep them locked away, however I have just lost my purse which contained the key to locked tin I use, the tin is currently unlocked so I can access the journals but I now feel the safety aspect has gone.

Do you agree though that if you keep stockpiling books, CDs, journals etc, you could eventually run out of space? Is it wise to now let technology take over but hang onto the stuff you've already got?

FrugalWorker

I got rid of all my books - except cookery and some reference ones - down from 2-3 bookcases. I haven't regretted in once in the 4 years. Infact I read more now, just from my local library.

My music is now all digital - about 20G of it. I love it. Don't regret it once - and I'm a big music lover.

I still have photo's, but next up is to scan these in. I'd still keep the good ones, but I am looking forward to shredding the photo's of someone's butt, or a random car - you know the ones where a photo was taken by someone who'd taken one too many but you never through out the dud's.

I still have letters written to me 15-20 years ago. I'm going to scan these in, and shred them.

I don't believe that I am identified by my belongings. I've found as I've pared things down, I've more time and energy to do things! This is more important to me - maybe not to you. I still have 'stuff', just less of it. I do have photo's out. I used my granny's tea set for dinner this evening, that brought a smile to my face. You need to differentiate between what's decor, what's clutter, what's stuff and what's you. This is different for everyone.

scrabbles_2

FrugalWorker wrote: »

I don't believe that I am identified by my belongings. I've found as I've pared things down, I've more time and energy to do things! This is more important to me - maybe not to you. I still have 'stuff', just less of it. I do have photo's out. I used my granny's tea set for dinner this evening, that brought a smile to my face. You need to differentiate between what's decor, what's clutter, what's stuff and what's you. This is different for everyone.

:T I agree wholeheartedly. Stuff doesn't 'say' anything about you - not to people whose opinions matter, anyway. Keep hold of stuff that you love or regularly use, get rid of the stuff you don't. It's really that simple. Then your surroundings will reflect who you truly are, and you will naturally feel at home - because you will have made a home.

JulieGeorgiana

I scanned all my old photos and threw out all the orginals. Only thing I'd say is back them up... computers break. I have a 1TB drive in my fire safe with just photos on it

I keep my cd's in a pack and threw away the cases.

Books I have 5 book shelves so that's my weakness... but I won't expand... i decided how much space they were allowed and that's it.

Journals, is keep them. And if writing by hand is what you like then keep going.

Kittikins

If you don't really listen to your CDs, see how much you could potentially get for them by selling on Amazon or selling quickly on Music Magpie. I have about 4 CDs now, having sold the rest.....one went for £86!! It was a Jools Holland piano one before he got the band, that I bought at a gig in the mid 90's, I loved it, but not £86 worth

I'm hopefully moving to a smaller house with my DD soon once the buyers of my house have stopped panicking about nothing , and am having to be a bit ruthless about what I keep and what goes, as we're going from a 3-bed house to a 2-bed bungalow with less built-in storage. I'm finding it hard to declutter but have got rid of quite a bit and haven't missed any of it.

Good luck!

Chris25

I'd say keep the journals too but if you really are worried about someone else seeing them, would it be possible to scan all the entries or photograph them & so store them digitally?

lostinrates

I am a technophobe. But all our photos from our time together....we met about ten years ago, were on the computer and some on memory sticks. The best memory stick went misisng in a move, and the computer crashed.

I would bput this down to our technophobia but a friend of mine is a computer and information specialist. Their son is a little over a year old, and all the babyu pictures of him not emailed to friends or family are simialrly lost due to a computer system crash......like most peoe, he had neglected to back up for himself as he would have done at work....

I still play cds, and read real books. They do accumulate, and in small space you have to be ruthless, but i do wonder if kindles can crash, or whereever you store your music fails..... There in ofcourse online storage, which seems the dafest. But then i worry anout that changing in the future, or being hacked and getting locked out of it.....


This is why ofcourse i will never have a sleek home i guess!

My_Feet_Hurt

Hi,

I have lots of printed photos. Some are squirrelled away as I don`t want to throw them out, but my favourite/funniest/most memorable ones are on display in my house.

I bought large frames to match my rooms, and have themed collections - in the dining room I have 2 large frames that I have filled with overlapping (un-neat on purpose) photos of me and my family eating and drinking. In the bedroom a framed collection of us sleeping (mainly babies or pets but yes, some grown ups too lol).

I have to admit to being a Disney/Florida freak. In my lounge are photos taken by the theme park photographers who photo you as you enter the parks and at the end of the day you can go to a booth to see your photos and they have been framed (cardboard) with the name of the park and the date e.g. Disneyworld 2002 and on the frame are pictures of Mickey and Minnie. Cost a fair bit but a lovely reminder. I bought these from every park so they are on the walls as are my own frames with collections of us all on holiday in The Sunshine State.

m
xx