Making memories digital

Courtesy of Laura Davis

Our lives are becoming increasingly decluttered; bulky videos have been replaced with slim line DVDs, digital cameras have replaced film cameras and video recorders, mobile phones have replaced all of the above, and, Flickr has replaced family photo albums. Some bits and bobs in our lives, however, don't come neatly packaged in a minimalistic fancy box or can be carried around on a little USB and which carry a higher value than any camera, iPod or mobile phone could. Baby's hospital bands, wedding certificates, spur of the moment photo booth pictures, concert tickets, your child's first painting, etc the list goes on… all these pieces of paper, pictures, photographs and memories remain locked away in a shoebox stuffed under a bed eventually to be discarded during some mad spring clean, or they will end up lost… as so much of our memories always do.

If these items, which to others are no doubt completely pointless, carry great meaning and you are like many joining the minimalist regime and/or are just simply scared you lose those moment captured in a single object or picture forever, then preserve them by, like everything else in our modern lives, digitalising them.

Although you cannot exactly digitalise the first teddy you ever got from your husband; you can scan in your wedding pictures or your child's first test results. Anything that hold value to you that is in paper form you can capture inside your computer and treasure forever.

Having your memories in digital format also allows you to share them with other, whether it be by email or social networking sites, you have the ability to show someone a thousand miles away your first ever ticket to see the Rolling Stones. The preservation and sharing of memories is not the only benefit of scanning documents; the ability to send important documents through email is more efficient than photocopying and posting.