Purging

I admit it.  I have a hard time getting rid of things.  I'm not a hoarder, but it's just so hard to throw away things that, at one time or another, meant something to me.  Pictures are especially difficult.  My finger hovers over the delete key, and I just cannot convince myself that I won't need this random, washed-out picture of a huge garden spider next to a Motorola Razr cell phone at some point in the future. 

Maybe there will be a contest for big spider pictures, and this one could win it!  You don't think so?  Fine.  But it's still hard for me. 

Last night, I stumbled upon this post by Laura over at  Laura's Mommy Journal.  It was written for me, I think.  I realized that I've been holding on to junk for WAY too long.  Starting with my oldest digital images, I began trashing photos according to Laura's method.  Fuzzy?  Gone.  Too similar?  Gone.  Makes me look terribly fat?  Gone.  After an hour or so, it really did become easier to hit that delete key.  After 2 hours, I had worked through the entire year of 2004.  I know I've got a long way to go, but my iPhoto library is feeling lighter and more manageable already.  And after all, isn't that the point of purging?