2023 Decluttering Support and Motivation

[fanofladyvols]

Originally Posted by sherry7899

I decided I needed to stop having so many things sitting on shelves that need dusting, which I hate. I will likely get rid of more.

It really speeds up cleaning house, too!

[Catahoula Cate]

Sciencelady, thanks for getting the thread started for 2023!

Progress so far has been getting lots of shredding done as I really let that go last year. I also have a box full and ready to go to the Thrift Shop...mostly books, dvd's, a brand new cosmetic bag and lots of dust catchers. Sherry that has been a goal of mine as well to get rid of the things sitting on shelves that need dusting....I always call them dust catchers. It felt good to box them up for the thrift shop.

DH and I have also talked about things we'd like to see go, either sell or thrift. We haven't had time yet to make some of those things happen but at least we are talking about it. I'm pleased at some of the things he's willing to let go of.

We got a new nightstand that has 3 drawers and improved organizing and utilizing space better. The old one didn't have any shelf space or drawers at all and we have some other ideas for it where it might be more useful.

Anna your sun room sounds really delightful!

[Catahoula Cate]

DH took the full box to the Thrift Shop today so I've got a new box out to start again. He also took an massage chair that was nice in theory to get but wasn't getting used. So nice to see another dust catcher gone!

If anyone is interested in recycling their Christmas cards with St. Judes Ranch for Children, here is the link: https://stjudesranch.org/recycled-card-program/

[Vantreesta]

Hubby and I spent this morning in our office, going through files and owner's manuals and all the other stuff in there. We moved the files we kept to a new to us file cabinet and are working on the shredding and reorganizing. It feels good to make some progress. I'm hoping it's the kick I need to get moving on everything else, try to keep the momentum going. Pretty much everything else that needs to be done is all me.

[fanofladyvols]

Paper purging is daunting...good job Vantreesta!

I saved the link for the cards for next year ...thanks so much Catahoula Cate!

I have demoted several thrift store bargains to yardwork attire. I struggled with actually purging but sometimes jeans are a little hot so this will be a nice option because as hot as it gets, I need to keep my legs covered working in some areas.

Slowly filling a new bag..some scarves and shoes are leaving.

Oh and two more boxes of games and books (total of 3) are loaded in my trunk. I'm pretty proud of that progress and will leave that project for now.

Keep going everyone...every bit (even a little bit ) counts!

[bzar]

Getting ready for a technology recycle event this Saturday. I started a list about 6 months ago of items that will be dropped off and where they're stored.

My box of donations to thrift stores is full and needs to be dropped off.

Question: have any of you scanned old medical records for archive purposes? i'm referring to hard copies that the insurance provider used to send before they went digital/soft copy?

if so, what scanner do you have, make and model? our scanner is a scanner/printer/copier combo, but the top document feeder is broken. all scans have to be manually placed on the glass. the other feature i want is the type of scanner that scans both sides in one step (laser on top and bottom in other words).

[adawn]

Originally Posted by bzar

Getting ready for a technology recycle event this Saturday. I started a list about 6 months ago of items that will be dropped off and where they're stored.

My box of donations to thrift stores is full and needs to be dropped off.

Question: have any of you scanned old medical records for archive purposes? i'm referring to hard copies that the insurance provider used to send before they went digital/soft copy?

if so, what scanner do you have, make and model? our scanner is a scanner/printer/copier combo, but the top document feeder is broken. all scans have to be manually placed on the glass. the other feature i want is the type of scanner that scans both sides in one step (laser on top and bottom in other words).

I remember there being a thread about this or maybe it was a conversation within a prior year's decluttering thread.

I cannot say enough about this scanner (Fujitsu ScanSnap IX1600)

https://www.staples.com/fujitsu-scan...oduct_24478074

I bought it for $400 from Staples in December 2021. All I have to say is, life-changing. Okay, maybe I'll say more...

I was able to go through and efficiently scan many banker boxes of documentation that I wanted to keep (some stuff I just threw out as I weeded through the boxes but paperwork I did want to keep digital copies of). I try not to digitally hoard too much so I was fairly ruthless in what paperwork was worth scanning, but I do like to save some stuff like the maintenance records for my car and vet bills (before the vet started emailing me digital receipts), and some other stuff that I actually do reference.

The only stuff I've kept originals on are 2-3 slim files that include birth/death certs, car registration, and that kind of stuff that you have to have original copies of for legal purposes.

I still have a couple little file boxes still to go through and decide what I want to scan, but after that I'm craigslisting a TON of file folders. I think I have 3-4 banker boxes jammed FULL of empty file folders in great shape. Maybe I'll craigslist them for free. Not sure yet. (This is the result of digitizing my files and my mom's files and throwing out files we didn't care about saving.)

It's a great scanner, easy to use. Scans both sides at once. Much more efficient and easier to use than the portable Fujitsu scanner we had previously and even the portable scanner was over $100. (We still use the little portable scanner if going to my grandma's house and need to scan something or similar scenarios.)

Anyways, new scanner is fantastic and we just leave it out on the bar counter because one of us is always scanning something incoming every week or two it seems, e.g. landscaping bills my mom likes to save, the handyman bills, and so forth. So easy to use and you can pick which computer in the house you want the scanned file to save to. So usually it's set to save to my mom's macbook pro, but there's a touchscreen on the scanner and I just use that to switch it to save to my laptop PC if I have something to scan.

So now we do a lot of scanning and recycling of paperwork we want to keep instead of scanning and filing stuff.

We're mostly paperless but, like I mentioned, some smaller companies (like our landscapers) still mail hardcopy bills vs. digital. Personally, I only care about saving landscaping bills for MAJOR work done like tree trimming/tree removal/tree planting, yard drainage projects, and we recently had the entire perimeter of the house relandscaped and a garden redone. But my mom likes to digitally hoard the monthly/bimonthly bills as well to see how much costs go up each year for spring and fall cleanup and the mowing and stuff.

[adawn]

lreidgreen was the one who originally mentioned the scanner.

Here's some of my posts about the scanner in prior decluttering thread years:

http://forum.videofitness.com/showth...40#post2950840

http://forum.videofitness.com/showth...74#post2951774 [my full review]

http://forum.videofitness.com/showth...07#post2953607

[bzar]

Dawn, thank you! i read one of the comments about the ability to edit the document (change the order of pages, for example). Does the unit come with software to manipulate PDFs? i don't want to subscribe to Adobe if i can avoid it.

Edited to add: disregard - i saw your comments about the software that comes with it.

...reading Amazon reviews/questions...

[adawn]

Originally Posted by bzar

Dawn, thank you! i read one of the comments about the ability to edit the document (change the order of pages, for example). Does the unit come with software to manipulate PDFs? i don't want to subscribe to Adobe if i can avoid it.

It comes with software called Kofax Power PDF. I've only used it rarely since I have an old edition of Adobe Acrobat X that I downloaded for free (pirated) online years back. (Normally I believe in paying for software but not when it comes to Adobe products.)

So I use Adobe Acrobat for deleting extraneous pages (sometimes if the paper is wrinkly, the scanner will scan the back of a page even if it's blank), reordering pages, combining pdf files and so forth.

I remember Kofax NOT being very good to use on my mom's macbook pro. My mom was trying to compile/combine single page pdfs and I couldn't easily find the feature in the Mac version of Kofax IIRC so I just gave up trying to teach her how to use Kofax and she just sends me anything she wants combined into one file. (When you're scanning you have the option to just keep scanning into one file or each page separately.)

I do occasionally use Kofax on my PC laptop because it's actually easier and gives more options to add text boxes on pdfs compared to Adobe IIRC (another project I have unrelated to scanning project involves added text boxes to existing pdfs).

Anyways, I just opened Kofax now on my PC laptop and opened a multipage pdf and was able to easily reorder and delete pages (I tested it for you). It's similar to how you do it in Adobe Acrobat. Of course, I generally prefer Adobe because that's what I'm used to but if my next laptop doesn't support the version of adobe acrobat I use, I'd be comfortable just using Kofax going forward.