For many of us, the most daunting thing about living in a tiny house is the idea that we’ll have to get rid of a lot of our belongings. And don’t get us wrong, unless you already live as a minimalist, you will need to downsize in one way or another. But, luckily, we live well and truly in the digital age, making it much easier to reduce our belongings without losing precious memories. Here are some of the things worth digitising if you are willing to downsize for tiny living, and how to do it.
Books
Whether you’re an avid reader or not, the idea of donating all your books can be a challenging one. However, books take up a lot of space, and with all the options to access them online, you’re much better off saving that space for something else.
While there are services available to scan physical books and turn them into PDFs, this is usually an expensive process and would only be worth it for publications that can’t be found online already.
Your best option is to simply sell your current books to a local second-hand bookstore (or donate them to a charity) and re-buy them as eBooks. This can be done with an eReader like Kindle or Kobo, or through their app alternatives on your mobile phone. It may not be the same as reading a physical book, but on the plus side, digital books tend to be much cheaper and, if you’re a big reader, more environmentally friendly. In the long-term, apps like Borrow Box can be a good way to access digital books for free in the form of a digital library.
Photos
There’s something to say about flipping through a photo album to look at printed photos, but there are benefits to making them digital. Saving space is, of course, a big one, but peace of mind that the photos won’t be damaged is also a huge plus. So, how do you upload your images online?
It is possible to scan your images using a phone, but to help maintain more of the quality it’s best to use a proper flatbed scanner or specialised film scanner. Make sure to check your scanner’s settings to guarantee the photos will be uploaded to the highest possible quality or contact a professional to do it for you.
Memorabilia
Most people will have something in their home that serves no purpose, but they keep because of the memories associated with it. But when moving into a tiny house, it’s important to look at everything you own and consider whether it’s worth the space it takes up. While it’s more than reasonable to keep some of your memorabilia pieces, it will likely be very beneficial to throw some out. To make sure you can still look back on them in some form, though, taking a photo can be a good solution. Just pop your item on a nice background with good lighting, snap a photo with your phone and upload it into a memorabilia file. Then, anytime you’re feeling nostalgic, they’re all in the same place for you to look through.
Music
These days, most people access their music digitally through streaming apps like Spotify. But what are your options if you do have lots of hard copies and you still want to own each song without a monthly subscription?
- CD’s – these will likely be the easiest hardcopy form of music to make digital and can usually be done yourself. Known as ‘ripping’ a CD, this involves copying the songs from the disc onto your PC. All you need to do is insert the disc into your computer’s CD drive and open your computer’s media player. For Windows, open the CD in Windows Media Player and select the Rip CD button. For Apple, open the CD in iTunes, select Import CD, choose your import settings and click OK.
- Records – digitising your vinyl collection is more difficult and requires more specialised equipment like a turntable with a USB output. For more in-depth instructions, check out this blog by What Hi-Fi?
- Tapes – using a USB cassette converter is a relatively cheap and easy way to convert your old cassette tapes. Simply plug the converter in, download the accompanying software and follow the instructions.
- Alternatively, you can send your CD’s, records or tapes in for professional conversion. This will ensure the audio quality remains high and will save you the time and stress of doing it yourself.
Documents and instruction manuals
The time of needing a filing cabinet to store all our important documents is over. Now, scanning these documents is easier than ever and can even be done with an app on your phone. This can be done with anything from receipts to contracts, just make sure to check that you’re not legally required to have a hard copy.
On top of this, there’s certainly no need to keep a hard copy of the instruction manuals that you likely only check once every few years. Most are already uploaded online by the product company and a simple google search should be all you need to find it.
Where to store your digital files
Now that you’ve decided to upload your belongings into the digital world, it’s time to decide where you want to store them? For this, you have a few options. You can store them directly on your computer or buy a physical hard drive from any electronics store. Alternatively, you can upload them into the cloud using a subscription service like OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox. Many platforms offer some level of storage for free before you need to start paying regularly.
To ensure no accidents result in everything being deleted, we recommend keeping at least two copies of everything with different storage methods. A hard-copy version could be kept on a hard drive that’s stored in a safe place, and an online version in one of the cloud-based platforms. That way, if something goes wrong with one method, you’ve still got everything backed up elsewhere. For extra protection of your digital versions, be sure to get good antivirus and security software, use strong passwords and get two-factor authentication.
Clutter is a problem in most homes, but getting on top of it will be incredibly important in a tiny house where any clutter is much more noticeable. Digitising whatever belongings you can, could save you a huge amount of space, and be the difference between a tidy, comfortable home and a messy one.
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