They say one of the easiest ways for a pack rat (such as myself) to part with old treasure is to take a pictures of items before tossing them out. One of the reasons I (and many pack rats) hang on to things for so long is because I/we attach our memories to physical items. Theoretically, by keeping pictures of the items you can retain the associated memories without retaining the stuff. I’m willing to try it.
I’ve added a new photo album simply named “Trash”. As I throw things away during my little cleaning episodes, I’ll digitally document them, sort them into sub-categories and post them online. Earlier this week I tossed out a bunch of old posters I’ve had for between ten and twenty years. I decided Susan’s not going to let me hang my old Metallica posters in the living room anytime soon, so into the trash they went (after taking pictures of each one, of course!). While posting the pictures online I noticed on my hard drive that I also had a few pictures of old computer parts and clothes I recently got rid of, so I made separate categories for things and posted those pictures online as well.
If you feel like rifling through my digital trash pile, be my guest.
I’m a little sad and a little happy at the same time.
This is the same strategy I’m employing as I distance myself from physical media (i.e. stuff on tapes and discs) – I scan the booklets and other stuff, and even the disc itself. If I somehow need the experience of seeing the physical thing in front of me, I can open a folder. I’ll probably be liquidating a goodly chunk of my CD collection at OVGE along with games and DVDs, and this makes it easier to part with stuff.
The only problem is that I’m gonna need a bigger hard drive to hold all the scans of the stuff. There’s always an achilles’ heel to the plan…
For once, “they” are absolutely correct, Rob.
It’s the same approach I’ve been taking for many years already prior to tossing out obsolete dust-collecting matter: give it one last glance, thought, viewing, listen, read, or flip-through as part of bidding the item/s a final farewell, and then take a few photos or scans of the item before it’s truly gone and buried.
As Earl Green so eloquently states, “If I somehow need the experience of seeing the physical thing in front of me, I can open a folder.”
Even storage space for those scans should be a non-issue but if, for some reason, it is — even that can be outsourced to numerous online services and shared with the rest of the world: Places like http://www.librarything.com or http://www.amazon.* (for books and other assorted media, see http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/pdp/profile/A2JLXINSYK7LPJ ), http://www.discogs.com (for music items), or even the wikipedia commons (old computer stuff) would gladly “host” your photographs — though I’m not sure if there’s a museum for old t-shirts. Failing that, there’s always http://www.flickr.com.
There are many ways your trash can live on as someone else’s treasure.
You chucked a Star Wars poster and a giant network switch? Hard to believe you couldn’t liquidate those on eBay… but what’s up with the 2 for $1 soup cans?
It’s not a switch, it’s a hub. I put it on Craigslist for $5 and nobody would buy it. It was also solid metal so it would cost a hundred dollars to ship. I think I have a second one out in the garage; cover shipping and it’s yours.
To be honest, Mason nabbed one of the Star Wars posters; it’s in his room now. He also got a White Zombie poster.
I have no idea where the soup can poster came from (other than, you know, the Dollar General). Maybe a thrift store? I remember thinking it was really funny at the time. It’s also a really big poster, much larger than all the others.
Ah, that’s cool. I guess these days you would just get a wireless access point that could serve more PCs than that hub… and even 802.11b is quicker than 10 mbps.
Something my mom did with old T-shirts that my sisters and I acquired over the years was to cut out large squares with the logo inside, and stitch them together into a big T-shirt quilt. It was a pretty neat piece of memorabilia that you could leave out on the couch as a conversation starter and a blanket, etc. I’ve thought about keeping some shirts to do a similar thing, but of course you know how most “re-use eventually” projects turn out… you rarely end up going through with it and instead you have a cardboard box full of old shirts.
I suppose you could also cut out just the logos and stuff them in a photo album or scrapbook if you like the look on fabric. That’s a lot less space usage than a box o’ shirts (or worse – a drawer!), but… still more than a 3mp digital image.
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Here was the comment I was going to leave on the TeleVideo TS803 but it got eaten by the spam filter:
“If you’re ever interested in more info about this machine (the TeleVideo TS803), you can read a little more about it at the Old Computer Museum: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=1077
BTW is it sitting on your kitchen counter just for this photo, or was that its permanent home before you tossed it?”
And Pearl Jam takes another hit in popularity!
I believe the soup poster was one of those notorious bet scenarios I think we (I mean someone ofcourse) nabbed it out of the store window while the special was still running. Not sure if this was the same period we were “acquiring” serving trays from all the various fast food resteraunts
In my day it was serving trays that hooked on the side of your car from Sonic, A&W Rootbeer mugs, and speakers from the drive in movie (I never tried for the speakers :-). I still have one of the mugs!