I feel your pain! About six years ago I moved from my big office a smaller (but nicer) one. We transformed the older office into a cooking space / airbnb. But what it meant was that I had to go through a lot of STUFF! Like you, oodles of magazines went right into the bin. Luckily my clippings were all in binders, and so easy to just move. What pained me was ditching original research etc. for my dissertation. Note cards anyone? Also, boxes and boxes of cds, video tapes, and other obsolete media. The books, though, were the hardest. No one seems to want them. But in the end, it was very liberating, as you say. I feel free in my bright clean space with no 'stuff' to distract.
Oh wow, at least I didn’t have dissertation stuff to throw out. Note cards! You did save everything. My husband is the one with obsolete media, although I still have cassette tapes of interviews I did with my mother, aunt and others. Those are precious.
It CAN be so freeing! And when I stopped to think about how often anyone ever asked me to see a clip (answer: never), I realized I was only saving them for myself. And then I realized that I can take a photo, hold onto the memory, and let go of the scrap of paper/box of magazines/whatever. It does work for an awful lot of stuff.
Good for you! Omg. Been there. I hope you love your new house. I threw out magazines, donated books but kept 4 “ hope chests of writings and memories and clips…” starting to sort, two years later.
I love reading all the old pieces of my life. Good, bad, and indifferent! You go DJ!
Four hope chests! That's a lot of writing. I have a banker's box of clips and one of photos. Now that you're retired you have time to deal with it all. It is fun to look back. And even to appreciate my prior work. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed rereading it.
Owen told us you had broken your ankle. Gosh we hope you're not in too much pain, Dianne. As you know, we sold and left our beautiful Montana custom-built home of 44 years in October. Rather than move to a new permanent location, we opted to live in Hawaii for a year to recover from all you described one has to do during an epic move. So I've decided to write a Substack Newsletter about our lives here and how we woked to make this dream happen. "So You Want to Live in Hawaii" is coming soon!
What a huge life change for you and Dorothy! You sure accummulated a lot in 44 years - I saw it when I visited. I'm looking forward to reading your newsletter. It's a fantasy for so many people -- including me -- to live in Hawaii.
Have you thought about transferring everything in to Evernote
I have not. I did tear out a stack of clips that I want to make into pdfs. Is that a similar thing?
You can send PDF's to Evernote also
I feel your pain! About six years ago I moved from my big office a smaller (but nicer) one. We transformed the older office into a cooking space / airbnb. But what it meant was that I had to go through a lot of STUFF! Like you, oodles of magazines went right into the bin. Luckily my clippings were all in binders, and so easy to just move. What pained me was ditching original research etc. for my dissertation. Note cards anyone? Also, boxes and boxes of cds, video tapes, and other obsolete media. The books, though, were the hardest. No one seems to want them. But in the end, it was very liberating, as you say. I feel free in my bright clean space with no 'stuff' to distract.
Oh wow, at least I didn’t have dissertation stuff to throw out. Note cards! You did save everything. My husband is the one with obsolete media, although I still have cassette tapes of interviews I did with my mother, aunt and others. Those are precious.
I wish I could get some the magazines you didn't want to throw away :)
You would have enjoyed them. I can't imagine what it would cost to send a box of them to India, though!
It CAN be so freeing! And when I stopped to think about how often anyone ever asked me to see a clip (answer: never), I realized I was only saving them for myself. And then I realized that I can take a photo, hold onto the memory, and let go of the scrap of paper/box of magazines/whatever. It does work for an awful lot of stuff.
Definitely! No one asked me either.Those clips were for me. Keeping them was a way to say that "I existed," if that makes any sense.
Good for you! Omg. Been there. I hope you love your new house. I threw out magazines, donated books but kept 4 “ hope chests of writings and memories and clips…” starting to sort, two years later.
I love reading all the old pieces of my life. Good, bad, and indifferent! You go DJ!
Ox
Four hope chests! That's a lot of writing. I have a banker's box of clips and one of photos. Now that you're retired you have time to deal with it all. It is fun to look back. And even to appreciate my prior work. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed rereading it.
Yes! Good for you DJ! I agree it’s been fun to look back. Jeez, I worked a lot!
Lol. Ox
Owen told us you had broken your ankle. Gosh we hope you're not in too much pain, Dianne. As you know, we sold and left our beautiful Montana custom-built home of 44 years in October. Rather than move to a new permanent location, we opted to live in Hawaii for a year to recover from all you described one has to do during an epic move. So I've decided to write a Substack Newsletter about our lives here and how we woked to make this dream happen. "So You Want to Live in Hawaii" is coming soon!
What a huge life change for you and Dorothy! You sure accummulated a lot in 44 years - I saw it when I visited. I'm looking forward to reading your newsletter. It's a fantasy for so many people -- including me -- to live in Hawaii.