Or does it?
I wanted to follow-up with you on the survey I conducted earlier in the month about your digital scrapbooking supplies. If you haven’t taken the survey, please go ahead. While you won’t be eligible for the prize, your feedback is valued!
The results of the survey have been super fascinating, especially as I read about the unique strategies you each employ to stay organized!
Today I wanted to have a little discussion about size. Let’s start with the results to the question “How much stuff do you have?”
These results in and of themselves are interesting, but some of the anecdotal stories I gained on top of this are truly intriguing. One big thing I noticed was that seasoned scrappers don’t necessarily have bigger stashes.
In my opinion, seasoned scrappers are more likely to:
- shy away from downloading a large number of freebies
- be clear in their design styles and product preferences
- have some sort of system for organization & regular decluttering
What do you think of these results? Surprising or not? What do they reveal to you? Is size relevant when it comes to a scrapper’s stash of supplies? And perhaps more significantly, what are the challenges (consequences?) or having so much to store?
I don’t think it’s so much the size of the stash that matters so much as the percentage used. If you have only 1 gigabyte of stuff, but fully use it and don’t need any other supplies, then that seems like a good sized stash. Personally, I have closer to 20 gigs, and I know that I probably use less than half of that on a regular basis, and a good chunk is being saved “just in case” (and likely won’t get ever used) – thus I think I have too much since some of it is wasted space. On the other hand, if someone has a huge amount of stuff, regularly uses enough of it to justify keeping it all, and manages to keep it usably organized (even if that just means a mental tally of what kits one has that are suitable and working from a messy folder system that has no real order), then that seems like a good size.
To be honest, I am a bit surprised at the +200 gigs, and would be curious as to how much of that is used, and what sort of organizational method is used. Such a large amount seems like it would be a bit unwieldy at times; it seems like once you’re one the higher end of the scale, it would be easier to get overwhelmed.
I agree it’s the quality and being able to access it rather than the quantity. I do want to say, though, that when I answered that question in the survey I would have said I had more than I actually did if I just estimated. Out of curiosity, I looked at the drive to find out the real number and was surprised that it was way less than I thought. So possibly the numbers are inflated from people who overestimated like I did, but didn’t actually verify it before answering? I’m looking forward to more tips on fine tuning my organizational system. I’m only part way there… 🙂
You are so right, Lulu! I know the numbers are inflated because I was out of town when the poll came through and I wanted to participate, so I estimated …. and I thought I have SO MUCH STUFF I checked the > 500GB box. Now, when this came through, I actually checked, and my scrapbooking area had only about 75 GB!!! And that includes a lot of big psd files from last year’s P365. I’m sorry, Jennifer!!
Quality is important, but being able to find something trumps that. I get myself in to ruts and only purchase or snag kits that fit that “style”. But let’s be honest, how many orange and blue kits does a girl need? Certainly not as many as I have! I bet we could all do some housekeeping!
After scrapping for a while, I realised that I have downloaded/bought stuff that I’d never use.
Sometimes it’s the colour scheme and sometimes, it’s the style (e.g. I don’t scrap with cartoons elements)
However, to delete them forever seems like a “waste”, so I archive 5gb of kits and am having the rest of the 35-40gb in the active folder.
Occasionally, I delete a kit or 2, or some “loose” elements that I never use since downloading.
The thing is, I wonder if I should start grouping them by colours or tag them to make them efficient to find.
Lucky for me, I rename all my files, so it’s not difficult to find stuff e.g. I can do a search for “staple” and it gives me a good results.
I’m still looking for the most efficient (if not best) method to store and catalog them.
i too have purchased way to much stuff that i will never use because i thought it was cute at the time, but now i know the kind of stuff i love and purchase accordingly. and you are right about seasoned scrappers not downloading so many freebies. the freebie has to have something really special before i want to store it. i am no different with my digital stash than i am with my paper and paste stash. i love it and i love to look at it and i never want to get rid of it. lol debbie
I don’t think the results are surprising considering you described me to a tee:) I’m extremely selective in what I buy – my paypal and my hard drive thank me, plus I scrap more b/c I’m not overwhelmed by trying to choosing one background paper from 3 billion.
Yep – I over estimated my stash size as well!! I thought for sure I had well over 200GB (well, to be fair — I used to nearly 500GB. I lost everything when my EHD died last year and never thought to back up anywhere). But I just ran a quick check just now and discovered I only have about a 100GB of stuff. A good chunk of that gets used since a lot of the stuff was for CTing. I sadly don’t get to scrap with many of the kits I buy and/or win – which I hope to one day remedy. It has a lot to do with store galleries being closed galleries. Who wants to do a layout and not show it off at the place you’re most active.
But I digress, lol. I agree with a couple others who said the numbers are probably inflated just a tad. But I don’t think they’re off too much. It’s really easy to grab this and that and before you know it – there’s another 5 gigs you’ve just added. In a year I amassed almost a 100GB. What will the next 5 years bring 🙂
And I don’t have a great organizing system — but somehow I am able to get by. I wish I had something better – and something that wouldn’t take months to set up, lol. But I don’t see that happening any time soon 🙂