I am always working on organizing when it comes to Digital Scrapbooking. Whether it’s tagging files, putting files away, figuring out what needs to be scrapped, uploaded, deleted, backed up etc – it’s an ongoing process.

As I am working on organizing and reducing the amount of junk I have stored with my digi-scrap supplies, I’ll be popping in here, on theStudio blog, on the first Saturday of each month to provide a few tips and a little monthly ‘to do’ list to help us all clean up our digi-stashes, organize our files and clear up some space on our computers. There will be some carry over from month to month, as well as tips or suggestions and a mini-tutorial of something we’ll be learning to do specifically each month! This process will grow as we share tips and tricks and learn how others do their organizing!

This month our Monthly Task list is short, I don’t want to overwhelm anyone! We’ll be focusing on cleaning up this month, and learning a little trick to saving space (and an additional tip to help you save money…..).

Monthly Tasks: 

1. Make sure you have downloaded and un-zipped all of your purchases from the last month. You don’t want any downloads to expire, and you want to make sure that all of your files unzip correctly so you don’t miss anything important!

2. Clean up your downloads folder. For me, cleaning out and putting away everything from my downloads folder at least once a month helps me feel on top of things.

3. Follow along with June’s Tip/Trick (below) to clean up some space!

June Tip/Trick: Make Space by Deleting Duplicate Files: 

Most of the time when you download a kit, there are multiple zip files holding all of your goodies. Designers usually put a copy of the kit preview, a copy of their TOU and perhaps additional information in each of the zips. There is a reason designers do this, or at least a reason I do it as a designer, and that’s to protect myself. I want to make sure that my customers have my terms of use in any folder that contains my products! In anything you download by Nibbles Skribbles, you will find a preview as well as a folder containing my TOU, a link to my blog, a fan blinkie and a piracy notice. Additionally, when you download freebies, you will often find extra information inside like details about the coordinating products for sale, coupons, ads etc. Take a look at these files and delete what you don’t need.

When I download and unzip a kit, I start by creating a new folder that I name like this: KIt Name by Designer Name. I move all related downloads into this folder, and I consolidate them. Inside the kit folder I have a folder for Papers, Elements and Alphas (sometimes there are more categories, perhaps clusters, stacked papers etc.). I move all relevant items into the folders. In the main folder I put the kit preview/s and the designer’s TOU. I delete all duplicate copies of the previews, terms and other stuff. Let’s take a look at how this works. For this example, I’m using Around the House by Nibbles Skribbles (Brand new and on sale at the time of this post!!)

Here’s what it looks like when I first move all of the related downloaded files into one folder I’ve created and named Around the House by Nibbles Skribbles:

The size of this folder, with everything included in the downloads is 90.8MB

After deleting the duplicate previews, TOU etc. I have reduced the folder size down to 90.1 MB – now, .7MB might not seem like much, but if you multiply this number by every kit you download, it adds up really fast.

Assignment: So, now that I’ve showed you a way to clean up some space in your digi-stash, let’s take at least 30 minutes this month to remove some of our duplicate files! Make sure to track how much space your saving, so you can feel just how productive you were with your time! I’d love for you to share in the comments how many MBs or GBs of space you free up after removing your duplicate files!

Additional Tip – Organize Your Coupons to maximize savings: I mentioned above that sometimes you will find a coupon included in your downloads (or on blogs, in newsletters, on Facebook and in forums) Let’s organize these, so we can easily check for additional discounts before we make a purchase! Let’s create a text document and name it COUPONS! Find any coupons you get with your downloads and list them out in the document. Be sure to include the designer, the value of the coupon, the coupon code and the expiration date (sometimes these coupons are valid for a week or even a month! Sometimes they are single use, sometimes they are multiple use) so everything is together in one easy to find spot. Not sure that you have any laying around? Let me get your list of coupons started: Here is a coupon code for Nibbles Skribbles PU store at theStudio. It’s valid for 25% off your entire Nibbles Skribbles purchase (excluding collabs) and it expires on June 30. Code: NS_CleanUp25 (and I’ve encouraged some of the other Studio designers to share a coupon with you as well. They will be sharing these in the comments of this post – so check back for more savings)!

Here’s an example of how I would write this one in my coupons list:

Nibbles Skribbles (theStudio): 25% off until June 30  CODE: NS_CleanUp25

Alright, that’s enough for this month. Like I said, we’re keeping it a little low-key this month as we get started! Be sure to come back and let me know how much space you got back after deleting duplicate files! Feel free to leave questions or tips in the comments here as well. Let me know what kinds of clean up/organizational things you want to learn, suggestions for monthly tasks and any tips or tricks you might have up your sleeve to share with me!

See you next month!

Other Tutorials that might help in your adventure of Digi-Stash Clean Up and Organization:

Folder Images for Mac Users 

Layered Files: PSD vs. TIFF

<3 Mandak
Nibbles Skribbles

Check out my products available at: theStudio PU and theStudio CU

PS: For those of you looking for the follow up post for PSE users on shadowing translucent elements, Karen will be here next Saturday to post that!