WHAT'S NEXT? {DIGI STASH DECLUTTERING TIPS}

Digiscrapbooking Day is all about fun and growing your digi stash saving bunches. Yay! All stores have huge sales and hops and designers offer freebies and giveaways, then you participate in challenges and contests and win prizes and suddenly you realize your have lots of unzipped files dowloaded and digi clutter all over your hard disk.

Then you see yourself staring at folders wondering where is that beautiful kit you purchased and you may even forget about some things you downloaded during the weekend and the amazing designs you thought you couldn't miss will be untouched for long months (or even years).

I know it looks like I am describing a traditional scrapper, but actually digital scrappers also suffer from the Buy More Than You Can Use Syndrome.

If you are a very organized and concious digital scrapper, I believe you are selective and don't download all freebies you come across and don't purchase all specials you find at stores and probably your folders are very organized and clean and your files are not unzipped anymore and they are all tagged and easy to find when you are about to make a layout. Congratulations! You are probably called a Digi Goddess by your scrap friends.

However, if you are a beginner or you've been around for little time, you are more likely to have downloaded many things and now you are not very sure if you are going to use all that. Don't worry, it takes time and experience. Then, maybe you are like me, someone who has been digiscrapping for quite some time and you are concious and only download things you like and you know you are going to use, but you still have all that clutter in your hard drive.

Well, if you feel you are a bit like the second and the third kind of digiscrapper. I guess you will like to read and learn from these people:

Lynnette of Nettio Designs and KickAss Scrapbooking has a category in her blog named Adventures in Organizing. I recommend you grab a cup of your favorite beverage, paper and pen and have fun reading the posts about her Great Computer Spring Clean-a-thon experiences.

Jennifer Wilson of Simple Scrapper has created an event named Stash Bash in which you are encouraged to declutter and clean or use your current stash, she covers real clutter and also digital. I've taken part in it last time and it's such a great way to connect to people with the same aim and get motivated to keep on moving forward. I encourage you to do it.

You can do anything in 15 minutes
The first thing I say is don't get overwhelmed by the idea of organizing your digital files. You just need to find your own way to do it. Take me as an example, I am a mother who works full time out of the house and also works about 6 extra hours per week and is running her own small creative business, at this point in my life, I can't spend hours decluttering and organizing, so I am taking babysteps.

Have you ever heard about Fly Lady? She says you can do anything in 15 minutes and I think this is a powerful tool. So every once in a while, when I sit at my desk to work on a project, before starting I set eg.gtimer.com to 15 or 20minutes and just do what I can. And that way I can see my folders getting thinner and more practical to work with.


QUESTION FOR YOU
How do you feel about your digi stash? Can you find the kits and elements you want to use easily? Or there are things you never use anymore because you just don't remember you have them?