Scanning Party in Seattle

Minimalism has been the intent of my life for a while now. During one of my main decluttering session, I recycled over 100lbs of paper and photos. The paper were random pages, class notes from high school and college, and notes/letters from friends. The photos I recycled included pictures that had people that I no longer see/talk to, fuzzy pictures from the pre-digital camera era, and duplicate photos (I had hundreds of duplicate photos from when I use to print doubles from photo studios like Walgreens and Walmart). At the conclusion of that decluttering, I still had stacks and binders of paper, and albums full of photos. Since this decluttering, I haven’t glanced at those photos again or referenced the papers I kept. So I wanted to implemented a way to see these photos more often, and enjoy them, and also utilize the papers I kept; and that’s why I attended a “Scanning Party.”

The Minimalists coined the term, “Scanning Party”, which is an event you invite a few friends over, have some food and drinks, and together, go through photos and papers from your childhood/adulthood, and then, you scan all of those items. By scanning these items that were previously hidden away in albums, folders, and binders; I could free up space in my apartment, and also, have these meaningful photos and papers at my fingertips.

Therefore, I bought a portable scanner (I purchased a Doxie Q) that has allowed me to declutter my paper life immensely so far. I attended a Scanning Party with two other fellow minimalists, and we prepared and scanned documents during the party and had dinner. Afterwards, I still had many papers to scan, but the party allowed me to take those first steps towards digitalizing my life. Some of those documents were from work, recipes, Broadway playbills, receipts, product warranties, and contracts, etc. My next scanning assignment is to scan all the maps, trail guides, and magazine pages for hiking and traveling that I have collected for my future wanderings. Currently, all these pages are contained in an expandable file folder, and weighs about 15lbs. So I am looking forward to ridding my bookshelf of 15lbs of papers, and then I will move on to digitalizing my photos.

Can you think of something in your life that you could digitalize? Your papers, photos, music, or movies? There isn't a need to purchased a portable scanner (it can definitely be an investment item); for scanning documents because you can download a scanner app for your phone or tablet for free or under $5. My recommendation is to make sure that you have the documents saved/stored in two different places (backing up files is important, do it on an icloud, USB drive and/or harddrive).

"If we decide to create more and consume less, the world around us will transform through a tidal wave of purpose."

-The Minimalists

My portable scanner: Doxie Q

Digitalizing my teaching notes and pages I have ripped out from magazines I use to be subscribed to a while ago.

When you digitize your documents, you are left with a lot of folders, binders, and clear document holders leftover; so these items have been donated for someone else to get use out of them.

Second round of digitizing my documents.