I used to write a great deal and have boxes of journals and other notebooks filled with writing ideas and pieces of novels, etc. While I've pretty much given up my dream of being a writer, and would really not want what I've written read, I just can't throw it all away or burn it. I have a very small house with a damp basement and no attic. I do have a garage in my camp but it would be very easy to break into. My challenge is trying to find a way to store the tubs of written material in a way that will protect it from unwanted intruders. Is there any kind of cabinet or tub that I could use to store them in my basement up on a pallet or something? Or a lockable rubberized cabinet that I could put in garage at camp? Right now, I'm paying $65 a month to a storage company and it seems silly but I'm not ready to destroy what's left of my writing life. Any advice?
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Sounds as though on-site storage for you may require a variety of investments; lock-boxes are typically metal, which won't really serve if your available storage areas are not climate-controlled.
It seems that for the cost of a few months' storage you could buy a really good scanner and feed your pages through for true, permanent storage on your home computer or one of the online data archive services.
Obviously that would take some considerable time. But it may be worth it to you to spend the time, versus spending so much money for secure storage.
BUT since this is Unclutterer, and we are all trying to get to the bottom of our various difficulties in letting stuff go, I think it may also be worth it to you to examine your heart of hearts about this material.
If you don't want other people to read it, and you don't plan to publish it (self publishing is a lot easier these days), why keep it? Do you read it again? Do you have someone else in your life who you think would value this material? Have you really given up that writing dream, or have circumstances just made it seem out of reach?
What would happen if you started transcribing your writing to computer? Do you think it would light your fire again, or fill you with regret? Do you think perhaps seeing it in type on a screen would make it feel more or less real or worthwhile?
Writing is something I have rather a lot of as well, and while some of it has merit and is worth pursuing, most of it doesn't and isn't. It's not *bad* - it's just not, to my mind, better than work by others that I've read. The act of writing was fun. I'm not sorry I did it. But I am certainly not going to keep anything I wouldn't want someone else to read (hello, teenage journals).
Being shy about it is one thing. People do get judgy. But actively thinking "this should stay private" is a signal that it is not something you want to hang onto forever, because there is no forever.
If you yourself do not use and enjoy it in the here and now, and it is causing you anxiety and expense ... your writing life still happened, regardless of the physical pages. You still did that work. I think it's okay to feel pleasure and pride in that, and let those physical pages go.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Everything @chacha1 said.
And no, there is no such thing as secure, damp-proof, critter-proof storage that you can use in a damp basement. I had stuff in my Mom's basement in Ohio for six years while I was living in Hawaii, wrapped in two layers of plastic and put inside seriously tight-closing Rubbermaid tubs up on pallets, and it all came out smelling like mildew and the silverfish were cavorting within. I trashed a bunch of it and spent many days rescuing the rest (old journals, a few especially good school papers, mementos) with days in the sun and bugsmacking. Eight years later, it still has a whiff of mildew about it.
Scanning is on my to-do list; I'm saving for a ScanSnap so I can do it easily.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@ Lori "the silverfish were cavorting within" - LOL! And ugh!!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Have you thought about scanning them? If you get a flat bed scanner it is easy to scan things like notebooks.
I am in the process of scanning in all of my hand written stories and such that I don't want to part with.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Not to be direct or anything, but if it's stuff you do not want read, I would not take the chances of keeping it.
I never thought I'd get cancer at age 41 (totally healthy and lifelong athlete). Cancer forced me to go through my stuff and get rid of a ton of things. I ended up shredding a lot of things. Even though I am healthy now, I have no regrets getting rid of the stuff, and I look for more stuff to get rid of every quarter.
I totally agree with what chacha1 and Lori said. If you don't want to let go of your writing, maybe scan them as the others suggested, then encrypt the scanned files.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Winnow it down, too. I have one remaining small file box of writing from college - journals, poetry, misc. when I condensed it, I found that I frequently had multiple copies of things, as they went through various edits. Ditch the red-lined versions, and save the finished work. I ended up with about 1 page for every 8 I had originally kept.
My file box has a note on the inside for my sister, my only remaining family member. "It's crap, Sis. Just burn it."
Posted 1 year ago # -
If you go first, I think she will read some of it with fondness. :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just want to add one more vote to scanning it, especially if you are paying to store it. It's what is written on the pages that is important, not the physical pages themselves.
Posted 1 year ago # -
LeftBank, I also have not much to add to chacha's and everyone else's excellent advice, except maybe: How long has that stuff been in storage and when was the last time you have taken a look at it all?
I often found that I kept stuff I just could not part with because it was so very important to me, and only half a year later I would be able to let it all go because it somehow lost its importance. I think the brain needs time to process and come to conclusions, without us even actively taking part. So maybe, instead of deciding something now, you could go to that storage unit and give yourself an hour or two to get an overview of what there is and how much it is, maybe sort it a bit, and listen to your feelings. Then, if you can afford it, keep the unit for three more months, then go back and do the same. I bet your feelings will have changed a bit, and depending on where they shifted, you can make a decision :o)
Good luck!
Oh, there is a thread here that links to an article where someone says "Self-storage is about storing the self". It might be interesting for you, too: What are you going to leave behind you? NYTimes article
@jbeany: I love that "It's crap, Sis. Just burn it." note!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks for your post LeftBank. I kind of have the same problem, thought probably with not so much writing and hadn't really sat down and thought about it before. I read carefully through this post at the different options, then I read jbeany's note for her sister and thought about it. It's not great writing, at the time I was proud of it, but I'm never going to do anything with it, and I've written other things since that I've got stored digitally, which takes up less space and are better. That same writing is now ripped up and in the bin ready to go out. There are plenty of things I won't throw away, but I've weighed up the options on this one, and it was pretty easy to let go!! Hope you find the right solution for yours!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have several tubs of old uni and professional development course notes that I can't bear to lose just yet ("You never know when I'll have a job that requires that I remember how to do X!" hehehe). I'm in the process of scanning them and sending the PDF files of them to myself via my Google account. That way I don't even need to take up my computer's hard drive space - Google stores them for me. :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thank you all for your well considered responses and advice. I am going to consider scanning and throwing away extra drafts. I guess part of me just doesn't want to revisit the work because I will get pulled back into my writing life. My reservation also has a little something to do with not having much around to remember my past... few pictures, one or two letters, and two birthday cards. I have no family and the bulk of the material is journals. I guess without the writing, it's like I've never been here at all. No evidence of life spent...well or otherwise. I think that's what really is in need of resolution and acceptance, not the stuff. Again thanks, I very much appreciate your feedback.
Posted 1 year ago # -
scan it. toss the paper.
there are scanning services if you can afford them.
otherwise do it yourself one notebook at a time.many cameras have a COPY function.
You can light the page and shoot it (without flash)
then one day you can open the picture with Windows imaging software (included in Windows) and convert the photograph to text. but you will always have the picture to recreate the original journal.I use the copy function on my camera all the time when i am doing research.
Posted 1 year ago # -
LeftBank,
I totally relate, it is the emotional significance that seems to make your writing papers so important, they represent a portion of your life to you.what might be helpful in winnowing the papers down are thoughts on forgiving. letting go of the papers does not mean those years went unlived! are there key events that took place back then? Maybe just keep writing that deals with what mattered most would help. I am in a similar situation with all my travel mementoes that i never got pasted in scrapbooks and am practicing forgivenness - forgiving myself for having piled travel mementoes, instead of getting scrapbooks done - and am weeding old travel souvenirs out, envelope by envelope, box by box.CathyPosted 1 year ago # -
Cathy11, that's a lovely idea! I think a LOT of us have trouble getting past the "I should have taken care of this and now it's an overwhelming task" thing. We DO need to forgive ourselves for not doing everything the way we think Perfect Me would have done it. :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Cathy11, what a new way for me to look at the collecting habit! Forgiving one's self for not having organized the collection. Thanks for the great thought.:-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
i allow myself ONE shoe box of mementos that have no other function.
(granted it's a large plastic one now)
in it are my handwritten journals from my youth, pictures of ex boyfriends.
name tags from every job i have had that required one.....
it's just one box on a shelf.
that's not clutter.I say if your work means a lot to you as a representation than it's not clutter.
it's meaningful. save it.Posted 1 year ago # -
If it's actually something you just want to store so that you have a reminder of it, I would invest the money you're spending on storage in a scanner (or hire someone to scan it all for you). Scan everything and recycle the originals. If you really don't want to read it because you don't want to get back into that lifestyle, I'd recommend hiring someone else to do the scanning for you, and just send you the files when they're done.
Also invest in a couple of good external hard drives to back all that work up to on occasion, and keep one off-site (such as in a safe deposit box, at your office, in your car, etc). That way if something happens to one hard drive, you have another one with all the data on it as well.
Posted 1 year ago #
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