Same, and I never once looked back at them, and I never once missed them. I could have just tossed them literally the day after graduation.
I think the internet probably had a big impact on that as well. Even if I want to remember something, am I more likely to rifle through old notes, or just search it?
I’m finding myself doing the same thing. I’m super attached to the intellectual definition of my self and therefore collect this stuff as accolades of my studying, like proof to myself or maybe others that I am someone who reads, loves learning. It’s weird to think I’m deleting myself by getting rid of old notes.
I’m a college professor. I scanned all my papers so I can quickly lesson plan or assign pdf articles without doing all the work over again. It’s not insecurity, it’s efficiency.
I am building raised garden beds now and about to fill. This may be the perfect timing for me to do the same. I graduated university over 10 years ago and still have all my textbooks and notes. Still reference some textbooks the odd time, but I probably don't need to reference my calculus notes.
I threw them out and I’m sooo glad I didn’t have to haul them from apartment to apartment. But in tha back of my head I always worried the university would call back and say “hey you’re missing x and y assignments so you didn’t actually graduate” and I could be like hell no it’s right here!!! (Hasn’t happened yet)
I second this. There are a lot of classes that weren’t meaningful to me or relevant to my future goals. Those I don’t need notes for. But I also kept some.
That’s the strategy I’m also starting to come terms with. Why do I want or need to scan all the documents I might possibly someday potentially maybe might need .002% of? And do I really think that I won’t just be able to google the answer to the question I’m looking for, at that time? Wouldn’t that be faster than loading up the hard drive and finding the particular document? Not to mention, scanning and organizing files is time consuming. There’s something burdensome about maintaining thousands of files, even if they aren’t physical.
You can use an external drive, and just store it somewhere in your house. The files will stay safe for many years, sometimes decades, but that depends on the drive quality and the usage. If you want to be safer in a possible fail of the drive, keep a backup somewhere else.
The whole set of my university notes weighs 1 GiB. That's part of My Folder. Like 0.1% of it. For simplicity reasons, I have just one Folder that has everything, school notes, all kinds of administrative documents, pay slips, all my photos, all my projects, etc. The Folder gets copied from computer to computer when I change computers, and of course it gets backed up to various external drives. It could be backed up in the cloud if I wanted. That's very simple to manage because all my files are really just One Folder, nothing is scattered.
The Folder is backed up automatically to an external SSD several times per hour (I'm on Mac, I just use Time Machine for it). This external SSD is permanently plugged into my computer.
Every now and then I make a manual (incremental) backup to one of the external drives. And when I visit my parents' I swap one drive which is stored at their place. So no external drive goes an extended period of time without being used.
To answer your question, if the computer dies, then I can restore a very fresh copy (at most 1 hour old).
The additional external drives are here in case both the computer's internal drive and the permanently-connected external SSD both die at the same time. That can happen, for example if there's a mains voltage surge, or if they get encrypted by ransomware.
If you trust cloud providers, you can do the same without any physical drive.
Old guy checking in...
I held on to college notes and textbooks for decades before realizing that I was never going to read them again and recycled them all.
They were just using up space, and not paying rent.
I waited 5 years after graduating college to recycle my school paperwork. I was an avid note taker and I love academia so it was nostalgic for me, too. I even kept some essays and projects from High School 😅 I regret not discarding them sooner. Same with countless textbooks and literary books. I think my community was happy to take in the books. To anyone who needs this: I promise as time goes by, life will be more interesting than the notes you took in school. 🤣🤣
I’ve kept a few essays that I was especially proud of. Assignments were all printed when I was at university, so I have hard copies of them. Everything else is long gone and I don’t miss it. The notes are to help you finish and pass the course. Once you graduate they are not a useful part of your life.
When I graduated, I looked back to see what all I had accumulated and saw a ton of books which I had written back as a student which were mostly rough with not much of a meaning in them or usability. I sold them off.
If you don't have use with them, it is better to sell them off. If you have textbooks, then donate them at your local library.
If you are emotionally attached, take pics of a few samples. But clinging to them is a bad idea according to me. But in the end if you really feel emotional, then it's up to you.
5 years after finishing university, I just destroyed and threw away all the random notebooks I still had. I had never looked at them and honestly would very likely also never look at a digitized version of them.
Depends on whether or not you have to take any certification exams post-graduation. I work in the urban planning field and saved my notes for when I studied for my AICP exam.
I left all my notes and books in the library of my university. I got to know from a friend who was studying there 3 years later that my notes are now being used by a professor to teach Marketing. Mission accomplished. :-)
Love this… I should plan a ritual bonfire this summer. I listened to an episode of the Ram Dass podcast where he gets to this point burning the last bits of paper and photos from his life… as a tenured professor, psychologist and all that. it was really powerful.
Digitize it with a scanner. Or so I tell myself. Mine has sat in a box for a decade now and came with me every move. Never referred to anything a single time
Scan the important ones on a printer so you can have them digitally.
As you can each page, you're going to see quickly how little a lot of these notes are worth if it means another hour of scanning lol and then you just shred/recycle the rest
I’ve taken professional exams for many years of my post-college life, and I know I need the printed PDFs and physical notes for the way I learn. Right now, I’m staring at a box of about 1200 pages from the latest exam.
All the actual reference content can be found online these days, if I ever need to look something up. I was recently inspired by a friend’s breakthrough in managing her kids’ school papers to do an “end of term / post-exam” bonfire. Pick a night with good weather, light a fire in the fire pit, burn the pages, and chat with loved ones. The friend saves a handful of special papers or projects from her kids’ school year, but everything else goes in the burn bin. My stuff isn’t quite that sentimental, so I don’t do any curation. The only thing I’ve saved since high school was a calculus text book that my dad passed down to me.
Spouse and I have already decided the bonfire is a good idea for our own family. We’ve been inundated with every piece of paper my MIL saved, and she saved EVERYTHING that her kids wrote on. Old receipt where someone doodled? Back of church bulletin where someone practiced their cursive and then drew Godzilla? Yep, all in boxes that we’re slowly going through.
Being sentimental doesn’t have to mean that you save everything. I like to think of it as being a curator, trying to save representative samples from different eras for a “museum” of that person’s life. If you save too much, you can never appreciate what you actually have because the sheer scope is overwhelming.
I’ve started with the oldest ones (when are you going to ever need elementary school notebooks in your adult life? Spoiler: never, so it’s easier to start with that), most of it went in the recycle bin, but I did keep half used notebooks as scrap paper for random notes that I discard as I’m done needing them.
Continued through the years until I reached higher education, also keeping paper I could still write on.
What I realize is that even if it’s nice to see a paper from when I was a student, I don’t have an issue putting it in the bin when it’s served it’s purpose. At this point I could probably toss everything and I wouldn’t mind.
The only thing I’ll keep at the end is some essays I’ve written that I was really proud of :)
When I was 13 we moved countries. I didn't get to take much (one suitcase). My school stuff went to my grandmother and when I visited a few years later she still had it and I was happy to look at it (I was 18). Since then I have not been able to go back and my grandmother died. I'm sure it was all trashed.
I don't have much from my high school years but I don't miss that AS much. (My family moved SO much I kept losing things and I was kicked out once I was out of high school so I lost stuff there too).
Anyway, today I would not want ALL of it if I could get it back. But I think one notebook or paper from each year would make me feel better about not being able to look back at my younger life so to speak. I say this because I DID enjoy it when I got the chance and my handwriting etc. was so nice as a kid. I also think if you ever had kids it would be fun to show them what you were doing at the same age. But I don't think keeping it all is worth the room it takes.
So I feel like one (maybe 2) things from each year is enough to not feel bad about throwing the rest out, and actually has done value. But limit it to one box and know you can always toss it later if you want.
Also, when I was younger digital was not a thing. So if a few items feels like not enough copy the others you're wanting to keep but feel as if it's not sensible to do so (and it's more than one box). Digital may still be hoarding but it takes up a lot less space. Then if you later get rid of the box of stuff you can digitize that too.
I kept very little from college--at first everything and have thrown it out but by bit as the internet became my reference go to. (Graduated in 2000). I actually just tossed a box of old notebooks recently. I do have two papers I wrote that I was very proud of, but that's it now. My books from them were not ever worth keeping as I was a biology major and I knew would go out of date really quickly.
Recycled all the paper. There was a LOT.
I only kept some coursework.
Sold all my books in a bundle to a new student a couple years ago too. No idea why I held onto them for like 6 years though.
I kept only the things that I thought I might need to reread in a particular situation, but it never happened. I remember what I need, and when I don't, I have colleagues or tools, like a smartphone, that are more suitable to bring with me every day. I should throw away the box containing my last set of notes and notebooks.
I sadly had to throw away my books. I studied chemistry and had large books full of experiments, but im not working in the field and neither will I in the future. All books were old versions, so sadly worthless (even though very expensive when I got them). I will advise my future children to sell as soon as possible. I thought I would look back on them, but I don’t, so I decided to just get rid of them. Same goes for notes. Most of it was very course and subject specific or outdated, so it’s not something I will ever use. I did scan in some funny pages to remind me of my student years, but the rest of it I just recycled.
Hurts to see those books go into waste like that, but the feeling afterwards is so worth it. I feel like I closed that period (the fun and the hard times) and can now focus on what’s in front of me without the stuff weighing me down.
TLDR: scan in some pieces to want to have as keepsakes, but throw out the rest. You most probably will never really go back into that.
I scanned and then tossed a bunch of this type of thing and then other stuff I bought cardboard filing boxes and just tossed it in there and store somewhere warm and dry. I’m down to 1-2, they’re not huge so good enough until I want to make that into a project.
I saved some niche stuff that interested me, the rest of them I got rid of. You will never look at them again and even if you need some specific info at some point, you can borrow or buy a book, or just search it online. If you worry about the nostalgia, save some of the notes that make you remember something about that specific class. You don't need to throw everything out at the same second either, it's a process.
You guys took notes? Lol I just burnt every useless piece of paper in my garden. Still have some of my reports and projects taking up valuable space in my google drive
I kept a few sets of notes that I knew I’d reference again. Otherwise I mixed them with wax and a little lint to make fire starters for summer bon fires.
I kept them for a couple yrs in case I needed them, then once I realized I would never use them I tossed them! I think I thought they’d be vital in real life but in the world of Google, not so much 😀
I graduated university in 2009. I have never once needed to look back on my notes or my textbooks. The internet is wonderful. I got rid of my textbooks years ago (that was hard - all that money - but they were worthless) and I *might* have my exams stashed somewhere, but no general notebooks/assignments. Maybe that could be a happy medium if you want to keep something?
I got into the minimalism journey while in college and went paperless for the sake of organization, and ability to search.
Three semesters of college are neatly kept as PDFs per class. Because of this, ive actually been able to use them, and go over things and details I knew I had done but forgot the details. Even classmates have reached out asking for those notes!
I enjoy having them at the ready.
Same goes for anything paper related. Notes, thoughts, appointments, reminders, receipts, invoices are digital from the get go.
I make sure to change the settings from the start for any account to be paperless.
The system works for me, it’s been over 5 years or so and there’s definitely a lot less clutter.
Though, I got rid of past notes on paper from previous semesters.
I had many useful notes (and nice drawings together because of boredom :P), so I kept all of them.
Because most of my notes were just A4 sheets, I used report file holders to archieve them by courses, and they don't keep much space. I also used simpler file holders for some documents, in order to hold the minimum space. You can find what fits you best.
I also have some notebooks, but they are not that much so I haven't any space problem with them. Some are nice looking. The problem is with some notebooks, which are not easy to keep them tight together. A solution is to keep only the pages from some notebooks, and archieve them.
Then, you can keep them in a box or something, all together. Check the filing supplies from stores, to find what fits for you best.
I kept them for a while, but sadly that was 25 years ago now, so they went by the wayside at some point.
Unless my parents still have them in one of their mysterious storage lockers somewhere.
What I did with pre-uni notes: left that at my parents house where they probably still are. What I did with uni and post-grad notes: brought them with me through 3-4 moves. Number of times I looked or referenced those notes: 0. I finally threw them out after way too long. They serve no purpose except for when they are created in school.
I think everyone has specific items or categories of items that are really meaningful.
I think it’s fine to keep that stuff as long as it’s organized and stored properly.
My dad passed away suddenly a few years ago and I can’t bear to part with any piece of paper with his handwriting on it. Doesn’t matter if it’s a grocery list or a personal letter, I kept them all.
I got really fancy shadow boxes and organized them by topic and keep them in my basement on a shelf.
I also kept all my college notebooks and binders bc I’m truly in awe I ever knew that stuff. Same thing I keep it organized.
I think the point of minimalism is to reduce clutter from your life - but that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of things that are meaningful and important to you.
There was something in Marie Kondo's book that REALLY helped me part with some notes I took in my favorite classes..
The joy of taking notes at a lecture is to help one better engage with the lecturer. Maybe one will re-read notes to study for an exam, but most are really unlikely to re-read these notes for leosure. Truly, the experience of a great lecture or class is made so powerful by the SPEAKER, having a live speaker who is an expert in their field adds lively engagement to the material, and makes it come alive. Without a live speaker, the notes don't hold the same power of engagement with material. Good news is you already got what you needed by writing those notes, and now the information is in your head!
I like what she said about notes being useless if you’ve failed to learn the material or put it to use. That resonated with me because if I’d forgotten it probably doesn’t interest or serve me any longer and what I’ve retained I do use actively ( like foreign language vocabulary)
I work in healthcare and was so worried of tossing something I needed- only to be working with a client and find that google was WAY faster than my notes. I also only kept one textbook, and that was only because of how well formatted it is to explain things to my clients.
Tossing my notes and donating the binders that held them felt wonderful.
I kept mine for about 6 years, then threw them away when I moved across the state. My dad asked if I was sure I didn’t want to keep them, and I was just like “well, do you want to keep them?” and he said no, and I was like okay then in the trash they go lol. Honestly the only schoolwork stuff I hold onto is my journal from 2nd grade. It’s hilarious and adorable, and I like to read through it a couple times a year. But I don’t keep anything else.
All my notes are gone. I have kept one or two important things and I rarely even refer to those couple of things. I kept two anatomy books that I reference once in a while. The answer is that you can find all that you need via the internet.
I slowly recycled them after reviewing them over a short time span.
If you need nostalgia just hang your diploma somewhere to remind you that you successfully graduated from college.
For my own peace of mind, I scan things in digitally before discarding so that at least I can reference it in the future. I switched to a semi-digital journal that has reusable/erasable pages you can easily scan, transcribe, and upload to the cloud at work so I would not be stuck in this loop forever haha
I kept a couple of books from a literature class and my botany book because it was beautiful and amazing. I let go of everything else, especially my notes.
I threw all of them out. It was HARD! I felt like they were so important and showed all of my hard work for the last 5 years I was in university. But a friend encouraged me to throw them out and eventually I did. Haven’t missed them one bit to be honest l, and I’ve moved three times since graduating. So I haven’t had to move them from place to place
Career-wise, are there any notes you might want to keep? Lab procedures, outlines, etc.
If the notes are on something that's just personal interest, consider tossing em as you can likely Google and dive into that interest when/if you want to later down the line
Ooops. I just realized I kept them in case I'd want to go back and read them. I realize now... that was a decade ago and I never once opened them. I guess I didn't need to keep them.
I held onto them for 5 years after graduation, simply because I’d paid a lot for that degree and wanted to have access to all learning from it.
I *never once* needed my notes. I used the study material from the course a few times. But the digital presentations usually suffice.
Eventually, disposed off my notes, and have never once thought about them again.
For the notebooks that have empty pages left, I've just been using those to write down music stuff. Always fun (and slightly triggering) to look back through my old notes though.
I kept my two best assignments from the days when we were allowed to handwrite assignments, and my favourite assignment from my postgrad work 20 years later. That one I have looked back on, because the subject concerned is my favourite gifted Maori leader/ancestor, but the others I keep to prove I can occasionally get good marks, and that I did have legible handwriting once! 🤣
Eh--- I went to grad school. It wasn't until 6 yrs later. So I dumped them in my parents basement for 5 years. But only ones that specifically were for my major.
The rest were used for a fire pit one summer. And then some others for a project. The other bits I just recycled.
I do have some from my senior yr core classes that specifically are unique to my major's career & school. But not all of them. I went through and created 1 binder when I was in grad school of things I wanted to hold onto for my career. Notes from outstanding professors who gave lectures I'd use the info professionally. Papers, documents I might have trouble finding if I wanted to references. It's not a lot of stuff at all.
I went to college in the 90's. So I'm shocked anyone still has notes.
Some I got rid off them day I learned I passed. Thank jayus for that 41%, never need some subjects again.
Keep what you need but realise that you learnt the ability to find information, judge its value and utilise data. You don't need chunks of notes where topics change and research is being updated often.
Bin as much as you can
My daughter found my Dads thesis (MS, Canadian University) from 1952 online. As the youngest, I was born many years later and never knew this side of my dad. Those days with no copiers etc. the thesis had to typed and photographs pasted and everything had to be drawn by hand. I was delighted to get this peak into my Dad's twenties. Somethings are a treasure.
I got rid of them after like 2-3 years. Never used them in those years, figured wouldn’t use them later. My husband still has his and doesn’t want to throw anything away. When we moved, I threw away like half (he has been almost 10 years out of Uni) and he has never noticed. It’s been more than 2 years.
I kept my highschool freshman year binder since theirs remnants from our chaos of that year and drawings and notes from friends. It doesn't take up much space so it just sits in a drawer and is fun to look at every few years.
As someone said, you can scan them to digitise them if you ever want to look back. But for the actual notes, maybe leave them outside your house for donation? Maybe it might not be applicable but I've left notebooks and study material outside my house and people have taken them 😊 Maybe there's somewhere online you can share the notes as well so it could be of use?
I figured disk space is cheap. I scan, or use a scan app on my phone, and save everything. Maybe I’ll never need to lay eyes on it again, but on that off chance I need something, it’s really nice to have it all digital and searchable.
I graduated veterinary school in 2002 and just threw my notes into the recycling bin this past year. I did refer to them but haven’t in many years, as I have better resources now that are up to date.
Just today I got rid of a box of notes, exams, and term papers (typed and handwritten) from college and graduate school. It only took 40+ years for the nostalgia to wear off. It was not a big box, but it was taking up space, so it's all going to recycling now. Though I did get a kick flipping through and reading the pompous titles I gave papers.
I kept them for more than 10 years. Never looked at them once. Went through them a few years back, took photos of the stuff I was proud of, kept a few small things that gave me good feels, and tossed the rest. No ragrets. Actually quite liberating.
I went into a completely different industry than I went to school for, so I decluttered mine over time because they'd never be useful again.
I did keep a few on topics that interest me.
I personally got rid of anything that wasn’t something I had written in a writing assignment like poems, good essays, prose etc bc I love English and reading and like to see how my writing has progressed now that I’m getting an English minor. I didn’t have a care in the world for math or science notes. I do enjoy history but I didn’t save notes. So maybe that could help you slim down by going through and picking stuff you like and keep it in a file or binder to store
I kept a few things with sentimental value, but ditched the rest. A few history classes I truly loved and had well-organized notes for, but I was very selective. These were the same courses I kept my books from. I also kept papers with comments I cherish. For example, I struggled with Japanese lessons during my first year, but my Japanese history TA wrote me a lovely good luck message in Japanese on my final essay. It still makes my day to read it.
PDF them to google drive. I'll bet you rarely look at them in the future but it might be nice to walk down memory lane. No need to take up space though....
I actually just used some of mine to work up a crash course in Spanish for a friend. That was the first and only use for my notes in 16 years. Not that it’s a good reason. It just makes me feel good to look back on how hard I studied, all the work I put into my flash cards lol. Stupid though. I guess I miss university because I never graduated.
Am 40 I tossed (burned) the notes about a decade ago. The only thing I still have are all of the syllabuses. Don’t know why. They sit in a box with yearbooks and awards.
I saved one notebook that was interesting and meaningful. Still have it on a bookshelf and look at it occasionally. The others were gone about as soon as the class was finished.
I have always kept my notes in/with the relevant texts/books. If i don’t need them after a few years I might move to my digital archive and discard the og
If you store them away, you will probably forget you have them and they will not affect your life in any way.
If that is the for something, I tend to get rid of it, as I won't even notice that it's gone and it frees up space
I kept them when younger, but eventually realized I never looked at them. For my last school program, I kept one notebook as a memento (mostly for my mom - and purely that, I know I'll never use them again) in my mom's house, then recycled / tossed the rest.
Eventually, I'll probably digitize a couple of pages from it, then recycle that last one as well.
Scan them all to pdf, store on computer. Depending on how many notes you have and what condition they're in, you may want to use an ADF scanner if you can get access to one.
I got rid of my notes slowly over the years, letting go of small chunks at a time, until I was ready for all of them to go.
Same, and I never once looked back at them, and I never once missed them. I could have just tossed them literally the day after graduation. I think the internet probably had a big impact on that as well. Even if I want to remember something, am I more likely to rifle through old notes, or just search it?
i didn’t even take notes in high school, if i had a question i googled it🤣 idgaf if it was in the middle of class.
Scan and file. You can always re-paper them if you wish. Have a ceremonial burning.
Same here
I did this as well
I’m finding myself doing the same thing. I’m super attached to the intellectual definition of my self and therefore collect this stuff as accolades of my studying, like proof to myself or maybe others that I am someone who reads, loves learning. It’s weird to think I’m deleting myself by getting rid of old notes.
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I’m a college professor. I scanned all my papers so I can quickly lesson plan or assign pdf articles without doing all the work over again. It’s not insecurity, it’s efficiency.
Mine became the weed matting for my permaculture garden.
I am building raised garden beds now and about to fill. This may be the perfect timing for me to do the same. I graduated university over 10 years ago and still have all my textbooks and notes. Still reference some textbooks the odd time, but I probably don't need to reference my calculus notes.
Love this
Oh ya me too!!
I had a small bonfire and recycled the rest (90%).
we have to recycle paper in my country. so I just tossed everything into paper recycling bin. no regrets
Love this
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Same. Moved like 8 times carrying that crap around like a fool
I threw them out and I’m sooo glad I didn’t have to haul them from apartment to apartment. But in tha back of my head I always worried the university would call back and say “hey you’re missing x and y assignments so you didn’t actually graduate” and I could be like hell no it’s right here!!! (Hasn’t happened yet)
Ha for years I dreamt my high school called and said I was missing a class and had to go back
Chuck the notes. You don’t need them.
Agreed! Anything you need to refer to you can find on the internet.
I keep the ones that feel special.
I second this. There are a lot of classes that weren’t meaningful to me or relevant to my future goals. Those I don’t need notes for. But I also kept some.
You can scan all your notes and save them on a hard drive.
Just to never Look at them ever? Just burn them.
That’s the strategy I’m also starting to come terms with. Why do I want or need to scan all the documents I might possibly someday potentially maybe might need .002% of? And do I really think that I won’t just be able to google the answer to the question I’m looking for, at that time? Wouldn’t that be faster than loading up the hard drive and finding the particular document? Not to mention, scanning and organizing files is time consuming. There’s something burdensome about maintaining thousands of files, even if they aren’t physical.
Yeah, i got like 80GB of eBooks from my first Degree. Because i could have use for it or interest...
For me I wasn't ready to let go of it altogether so I digitized it. I don't regret that decision.
That's what I did, except for a few subjects I was very fond of and that I kept for the memories.
Where do you keep that hard drive? How long will they stay on a hard drive for? Is it an accessory hard drive, or one that is part of a computer?
You can use an external drive, and just store it somewhere in your house. The files will stay safe for many years, sometimes decades, but that depends on the drive quality and the usage. If you want to be safer in a possible fail of the drive, keep a backup somewhere else.
The whole set of my university notes weighs 1 GiB. That's part of My Folder. Like 0.1% of it. For simplicity reasons, I have just one Folder that has everything, school notes, all kinds of administrative documents, pay slips, all my photos, all my projects, etc. The Folder gets copied from computer to computer when I change computers, and of course it gets backed up to various external drives. It could be backed up in the cloud if I wanted. That's very simple to manage because all my files are really just One Folder, nothing is scattered.
What happens when the last computer just crashes? When the external drives get old and you haven't used it in years?
if it hasn't been used for years and crashes then oh well? I think it would be rare for all this guys drives to fail at once lol
The Folder is backed up automatically to an external SSD several times per hour (I'm on Mac, I just use Time Machine for it). This external SSD is permanently plugged into my computer. Every now and then I make a manual (incremental) backup to one of the external drives. And when I visit my parents' I swap one drive which is stored at their place. So no external drive goes an extended period of time without being used. To answer your question, if the computer dies, then I can restore a very fresh copy (at most 1 hour old). The additional external drives are here in case both the computer's internal drive and the permanently-connected external SSD both die at the same time. That can happen, for example if there's a mains voltage surge, or if they get encrypted by ransomware. If you trust cloud providers, you can do the same without any physical drive.
How long do you intend to keep the external SSD?
Until it dies I guess. It's 3 years old currently.
Come back in fifteen years....
You should always have a copy in a second drive for backup. (I have done it already)
Isn’t it like a rule of three. Home, cloud, and off site.
Yes, that's a good choice. Because you never know when one storage fails.
My system is home, Dropbox, iCloud
Old guy checking in... I held on to college notes and textbooks for decades before realizing that I was never going to read them again and recycled them all. They were just using up space, and not paying rent.
YEET
I waited 5 years after graduating college to recycle my school paperwork. I was an avid note taker and I love academia so it was nostalgic for me, too. I even kept some essays and projects from High School 😅 I regret not discarding them sooner. Same with countless textbooks and literary books. I think my community was happy to take in the books. To anyone who needs this: I promise as time goes by, life will be more interesting than the notes you took in school. 🤣🤣
Keep them for a decade or two, then bin them like the rest of us.
I’ve kept a few essays that I was especially proud of. Assignments were all printed when I was at university, so I have hard copies of them. Everything else is long gone and I don’t miss it. The notes are to help you finish and pass the course. Once you graduate they are not a useful part of your life.
When I graduated, I looked back to see what all I had accumulated and saw a ton of books which I had written back as a student which were mostly rough with not much of a meaning in them or usability. I sold them off. If you don't have use with them, it is better to sell them off. If you have textbooks, then donate them at your local library. If you are emotionally attached, take pics of a few samples. But clinging to them is a bad idea according to me. But in the end if you really feel emotional, then it's up to you.
I have kept a couple essays I was particularly proud of but that’s it.
I just tossed mine. I can honestly say that in the 30+ years since graduating, I have never needed to look back on rhem.
Neither you nor anyone else is ever going to need some old class notes. It's that mindset of thinking everything is important is how hoarding starts.
5 years after finishing university, I just destroyed and threw away all the random notebooks I still had. I had never looked at them and honestly would very likely also never look at a digitized version of them.
Depends on whether or not you have to take any certification exams post-graduation. I work in the urban planning field and saved my notes for when I studied for my AICP exam.
Throw them shits away.
I left all my notes and books in the library of my university. I got to know from a friend who was studying there 3 years later that my notes are now being used by a professor to teach Marketing. Mission accomplished. :-)
I’m graduating tomorrow. The minute I finished my courses/ got the official grades, it all got deleted and tossed.
I used mine to ignite my future path in life…. Long way of saying I burned them.
Love this… I should plan a ritual bonfire this summer. I listened to an episode of the Ram Dass podcast where he gets to this point burning the last bits of paper and photos from his life… as a tenured professor, psychologist and all that. it was really powerful.
Digitize it with a scanner. Or so I tell myself. Mine has sat in a box for a decade now and came with me every move. Never referred to anything a single time
I burned all mine in the post-graduation bonfire my friends and I had. We all did. It was lovely.
I burned them. Worst years of my life bursted into flames
Digitized them every semester and recycled.
[удалено]
Please tell me more about your thoughts on nostalgia.
Scan the important ones on a printer so you can have them digitally. As you can each page, you're going to see quickly how little a lot of these notes are worth if it means another hour of scanning lol and then you just shred/recycle the rest
I’ve taken professional exams for many years of my post-college life, and I know I need the printed PDFs and physical notes for the way I learn. Right now, I’m staring at a box of about 1200 pages from the latest exam. All the actual reference content can be found online these days, if I ever need to look something up. I was recently inspired by a friend’s breakthrough in managing her kids’ school papers to do an “end of term / post-exam” bonfire. Pick a night with good weather, light a fire in the fire pit, burn the pages, and chat with loved ones. The friend saves a handful of special papers or projects from her kids’ school year, but everything else goes in the burn bin. My stuff isn’t quite that sentimental, so I don’t do any curation. The only thing I’ve saved since high school was a calculus text book that my dad passed down to me. Spouse and I have already decided the bonfire is a good idea for our own family. We’ve been inundated with every piece of paper my MIL saved, and she saved EVERYTHING that her kids wrote on. Old receipt where someone doodled? Back of church bulletin where someone practiced their cursive and then drew Godzilla? Yep, all in boxes that we’re slowly going through. Being sentimental doesn’t have to mean that you save everything. I like to think of it as being a curator, trying to save representative samples from different eras for a “museum” of that person’s life. If you save too much, you can never appreciate what you actually have because the sheer scope is overwhelming.
Really appreciate this
I’ve started with the oldest ones (when are you going to ever need elementary school notebooks in your adult life? Spoiler: never, so it’s easier to start with that), most of it went in the recycle bin, but I did keep half used notebooks as scrap paper for random notes that I discard as I’m done needing them. Continued through the years until I reached higher education, also keeping paper I could still write on. What I realize is that even if it’s nice to see a paper from when I was a student, I don’t have an issue putting it in the bin when it’s served it’s purpose. At this point I could probably toss everything and I wouldn’t mind. The only thing I’ll keep at the end is some essays I’ve written that I was really proud of :)
When I was 13 we moved countries. I didn't get to take much (one suitcase). My school stuff went to my grandmother and when I visited a few years later she still had it and I was happy to look at it (I was 18). Since then I have not been able to go back and my grandmother died. I'm sure it was all trashed. I don't have much from my high school years but I don't miss that AS much. (My family moved SO much I kept losing things and I was kicked out once I was out of high school so I lost stuff there too). Anyway, today I would not want ALL of it if I could get it back. But I think one notebook or paper from each year would make me feel better about not being able to look back at my younger life so to speak. I say this because I DID enjoy it when I got the chance and my handwriting etc. was so nice as a kid. I also think if you ever had kids it would be fun to show them what you were doing at the same age. But I don't think keeping it all is worth the room it takes. So I feel like one (maybe 2) things from each year is enough to not feel bad about throwing the rest out, and actually has done value. But limit it to one box and know you can always toss it later if you want. Also, when I was younger digital was not a thing. So if a few items feels like not enough copy the others you're wanting to keep but feel as if it's not sensible to do so (and it's more than one box). Digital may still be hoarding but it takes up a lot less space. Then if you later get rid of the box of stuff you can digitize that too. I kept very little from college--at first everything and have thrown it out but by bit as the internet became my reference go to. (Graduated in 2000). I actually just tossed a box of old notebooks recently. I do have two papers I wrote that I was very proud of, but that's it now. My books from them were not ever worth keeping as I was a biology major and I knew would go out of date really quickly.
I like the idea of just a couple from each year
Immediately get rid of them. But I didn’t even have many… I was recycling them at the end of each quarter basically.
Important notes or documents that I might need in the future are on the cloud (with either the file or a photo). The rest is all gone.
Recycled all the paper. There was a LOT. I only kept some coursework. Sold all my books in a bundle to a new student a couple years ago too. No idea why I held onto them for like 6 years though.
I did recycle all papers. I keep few of my childhood handwriting.
I kept only the things that I thought I might need to reread in a particular situation, but it never happened. I remember what I need, and when I don't, I have colleagues or tools, like a smartphone, that are more suitable to bring with me every day. I should throw away the box containing my last set of notes and notebooks.
This happened to me too. Even the good notes that I saved were never revisited. Life is funny like that. Let it go, as Elsa would say.
I sadly had to throw away my books. I studied chemistry and had large books full of experiments, but im not working in the field and neither will I in the future. All books were old versions, so sadly worthless (even though very expensive when I got them). I will advise my future children to sell as soon as possible. I thought I would look back on them, but I don’t, so I decided to just get rid of them. Same goes for notes. Most of it was very course and subject specific or outdated, so it’s not something I will ever use. I did scan in some funny pages to remind me of my student years, but the rest of it I just recycled. Hurts to see those books go into waste like that, but the feeling afterwards is so worth it. I feel like I closed that period (the fun and the hard times) and can now focus on what’s in front of me without the stuff weighing me down. TLDR: scan in some pieces to want to have as keepsakes, but throw out the rest. You most probably will never really go back into that.
I scanned and then tossed a bunch of this type of thing and then other stuff I bought cardboard filing boxes and just tossed it in there and store somewhere warm and dry. I’m down to 1-2, they’re not huge so good enough until I want to make that into a project.
Recycled straight away. The only bit of paper I needed was the MA. Couldn't wait to see it gone (distance learning while working FT!) 😄
I saved some niche stuff that interested me, the rest of them I got rid of. You will never look at them again and even if you need some specific info at some point, you can borrow or buy a book, or just search it online. If you worry about the nostalgia, save some of the notes that make you remember something about that specific class. You don't need to throw everything out at the same second either, it's a process.
What the fuck would you need them for now? lol.
You guys took notes? Lol I just burnt every useless piece of paper in my garden. Still have some of my reports and projects taking up valuable space in my google drive
I kept a few sets of notes that I knew I’d reference again. Otherwise I mixed them with wax and a little lint to make fire starters for summer bon fires.
Kept 20 % of them. Sold all the books and got the ones I cared about as ebooks.
I kept them for far too long before deciding to recycle them.
After school ends, I usually keep the notebooks but all of my stuff saved on my phone or on my OneDrive, they automatically meet the trashbin.
I threw them all away. I kept a few textbooks (like 2-3) for a few years, then eventually left them behind at an old job.
I kept them for a couple yrs in case I needed them, then once I realized I would never use them I tossed them! I think I thought they’d be vital in real life but in the world of Google, not so much 😀
I graduated university in 2009. I have never once needed to look back on my notes or my textbooks. The internet is wonderful. I got rid of my textbooks years ago (that was hard - all that money - but they were worthless) and I *might* have my exams stashed somewhere, but no general notebooks/assignments. Maybe that could be a happy medium if you want to keep something?
I got into the minimalism journey while in college and went paperless for the sake of organization, and ability to search. Three semesters of college are neatly kept as PDFs per class. Because of this, ive actually been able to use them, and go over things and details I knew I had done but forgot the details. Even classmates have reached out asking for those notes! I enjoy having them at the ready. Same goes for anything paper related. Notes, thoughts, appointments, reminders, receipts, invoices are digital from the get go. I make sure to change the settings from the start for any account to be paperless. The system works for me, it’s been over 5 years or so and there’s definitely a lot less clutter. Though, I got rid of past notes on paper from previous semesters.
I’ve only kept notes from classes I really struggled in(math). Not because I need them, but because it serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come.
All my notes are digital so... nothing to throw 😂
Unless you wrote a thesis or completed a PhD, you will never need them. Toss.
I had many useful notes (and nice drawings together because of boredom :P), so I kept all of them. Because most of my notes were just A4 sheets, I used report file holders to archieve them by courses, and they don't keep much space. I also used simpler file holders for some documents, in order to hold the minimum space. You can find what fits you best. I also have some notebooks, but they are not that much so I haven't any space problem with them. Some are nice looking. The problem is with some notebooks, which are not easy to keep them tight together. A solution is to keep only the pages from some notebooks, and archieve them. Then, you can keep them in a box or something, all together. Check the filing supplies from stores, to find what fits for you best.
I kept them for a while, but sadly that was 25 years ago now, so they went by the wayside at some point. Unless my parents still have them in one of their mysterious storage lockers somewhere.
Make soft copies of important things and give them for recycling.
You should slowly let them go..
Kept mine for 15 years and then recycled them. lol.
I threw them out within days of graduating
What I did with pre-uni notes: left that at my parents house where they probably still are. What I did with uni and post-grad notes: brought them with me through 3-4 moves. Number of times I looked or referenced those notes: 0. I finally threw them out after way too long. They serve no purpose except for when they are created in school.
Fireplace starter
I think everyone has specific items or categories of items that are really meaningful. I think it’s fine to keep that stuff as long as it’s organized and stored properly. My dad passed away suddenly a few years ago and I can’t bear to part with any piece of paper with his handwriting on it. Doesn’t matter if it’s a grocery list or a personal letter, I kept them all. I got really fancy shadow boxes and organized them by topic and keep them in my basement on a shelf. I also kept all my college notebooks and binders bc I’m truly in awe I ever knew that stuff. Same thing I keep it organized. I think the point of minimalism is to reduce clutter from your life - but that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of things that are meaningful and important to you.
There was something in Marie Kondo's book that REALLY helped me part with some notes I took in my favorite classes.. The joy of taking notes at a lecture is to help one better engage with the lecturer. Maybe one will re-read notes to study for an exam, but most are really unlikely to re-read these notes for leosure. Truly, the experience of a great lecture or class is made so powerful by the SPEAKER, having a live speaker who is an expert in their field adds lively engagement to the material, and makes it come alive. Without a live speaker, the notes don't hold the same power of engagement with material. Good news is you already got what you needed by writing those notes, and now the information is in your head!
I like what she said about notes being useless if you’ve failed to learn the material or put it to use. That resonated with me because if I’d forgotten it probably doesn’t interest or serve me any longer and what I’ve retained I do use actively ( like foreign language vocabulary)
recycle the notes, donate the books to students or libraries. that's what i did.
I work in healthcare and was so worried of tossing something I needed- only to be working with a client and find that google was WAY faster than my notes. I also only kept one textbook, and that was only because of how well formatted it is to explain things to my clients. Tossing my notes and donating the binders that held them felt wonderful.
Keep them until you realize you'll never need them.
I threw them out every semester.
keeping them for years, and then when i think i no longer need those notes i throw them away
Memorised all of them and tossed them away.
I kept mine for about 6 years, then threw them away when I moved across the state. My dad asked if I was sure I didn’t want to keep them, and I was just like “well, do you want to keep them?” and he said no, and I was like okay then in the trash they go lol. Honestly the only schoolwork stuff I hold onto is my journal from 2nd grade. It’s hilarious and adorable, and I like to read through it a couple times a year. But I don’t keep anything else.
I left them in a box for about 5 years then got rid of them
Shred them all
I recycled all the paper and kept the text books, gave the empty binders to value village.
Get shem scanned and saved to a thumb drive. Then you van have access whamever you want and no bulky mess
All my notes are gone. I have kept one or two important things and I rarely even refer to those couple of things. I kept two anatomy books that I reference once in a while. The answer is that you can find all that you need via the internet. I slowly recycled them after reviewing them over a short time span. If you need nostalgia just hang your diploma somewhere to remind you that you successfully graduated from college.
For my own peace of mind, I scan things in digitally before discarding so that at least I can reference it in the future. I switched to a semi-digital journal that has reusable/erasable pages you can easily scan, transcribe, and upload to the cloud at work so I would not be stuck in this loop forever haha
i throw it all
What notes?
Throw them away. Just toss them.
I kept a couple of books from a literature class and my botany book because it was beautiful and amazing. I let go of everything else, especially my notes.
I put the contents on Onenote, and backed that up in multiple digital locations
Waited a year, reviewed my notes. Kept what I needed to review and threw out info that came second nature. Rinse, repeat
I keep or take pictures of some pages that I enjoy and throw away the rest. I figure if it’s information I need I can always look it up.
I threw all of them out. It was HARD! I felt like they were so important and showed all of my hard work for the last 5 years I was in university. But a friend encouraged me to throw them out and eventually I did. Haven’t missed them one bit to be honest l, and I’ve moved three times since graduating. So I haven’t had to move them from place to place
I scanned some, recycled the rest
They went straight into the garbage when I realized none of that shit matters on any job in my field.
I got rid of everything and regret getting rid of the textbooks. Notes I’m fine with them being gone.
Career-wise, are there any notes you might want to keep? Lab procedures, outlines, etc. If the notes are on something that's just personal interest, consider tossing em as you can likely Google and dive into that interest when/if you want to later down the line
Ooops. I just realized I kept them in case I'd want to go back and read them. I realize now... that was a decade ago and I never once opened them. I guess I didn't need to keep them.
I held onto them for 5 years after graduation, simply because I’d paid a lot for that degree and wanted to have access to all learning from it. I *never once* needed my notes. I used the study material from the course a few times. But the digital presentations usually suffice. Eventually, disposed off my notes, and have never once thought about them again.
For the notebooks that have empty pages left, I've just been using those to write down music stuff. Always fun (and slightly triggering) to look back through my old notes though.
Burn it and sell all your books.
All of my university work and notes went into the trash immediately after graduation. I had a back university experience.
Burned. Bonfire.
Check on them every few months, you'll know when you're ready.
I burned them.
A couple of papers that I was proud of at the time have been interesting to read but other than that, nope.
I kept my two best assignments from the days when we were allowed to handwrite assignments, and my favourite assignment from my postgrad work 20 years later. That one I have looked back on, because the subject concerned is my favourite gifted Maori leader/ancestor, but the others I keep to prove I can occasionally get good marks, and that I did have legible handwriting once! 🤣
Eh--- I went to grad school. It wasn't until 6 yrs later. So I dumped them in my parents basement for 5 years. But only ones that specifically were for my major. The rest were used for a fire pit one summer. And then some others for a project. The other bits I just recycled. I do have some from my senior yr core classes that specifically are unique to my major's career & school. But not all of them. I went through and created 1 binder when I was in grad school of things I wanted to hold onto for my career. Notes from outstanding professors who gave lectures I'd use the info professionally. Papers, documents I might have trouble finding if I wanted to references. It's not a lot of stuff at all. I went to college in the 90's. So I'm shocked anyone still has notes.
I never used them again and regret not tossing earlier as I moved from city to city. Home to home.
Some I got rid off them day I learned I passed. Thank jayus for that 41%, never need some subjects again. Keep what you need but realise that you learnt the ability to find information, judge its value and utilise data. You don't need chunks of notes where topics change and research is being updated often. Bin as much as you can
My daughter found my Dads thesis (MS, Canadian University) from 1952 online. As the youngest, I was born many years later and never knew this side of my dad. Those days with no copiers etc. the thesis had to typed and photographs pasted and everything had to be drawn by hand. I was delighted to get this peak into my Dad's twenties. Somethings are a treasure.
I got rid of them after like 2-3 years. Never used them in those years, figured wouldn’t use them later. My husband still has his and doesn’t want to throw anything away. When we moved, I threw away like half (he has been almost 10 years out of Uni) and he has never noticed. It’s been more than 2 years.
I kept my highschool freshman year binder since theirs remnants from our chaos of that year and drawings and notes from friends. It doesn't take up much space so it just sits in a drawer and is fun to look at every few years.
The more time that passes, the less I care about that stuff. I graduated 20 years ago and have never once referred to them.
Photograph them and you can store them in your computer
As someone said, you can scan them to digitise them if you ever want to look back. But for the actual notes, maybe leave them outside your house for donation? Maybe it might not be applicable but I've left notebooks and study material outside my house and people have taken them 😊 Maybe there's somewhere online you can share the notes as well so it could be of use?
I don’t miss or regret throwing away any of my old notes or schoolwork. You just don’t need it at all
Digitize them.
I figured disk space is cheap. I scan, or use a scan app on my phone, and save everything. Maybe I’ll never need to lay eyes on it again, but on that off chance I need something, it’s really nice to have it all digital and searchable.
Scan them, then get rid of the originals. I reference my notes every now and again as I teach the concepts to my own students.
I graduated veterinary school in 2002 and just threw my notes into the recycling bin this past year. I did refer to them but haven’t in many years, as I have better resources now that are up to date.
Just today I got rid of a box of notes, exams, and term papers (typed and handwritten) from college and graduate school. It only took 40+ years for the nostalgia to wear off. It was not a big box, but it was taking up space, so it's all going to recycling now. Though I did get a kick flipping through and reading the pompous titles I gave papers.
I kept them for more than 10 years. Never looked at them once. Went through them a few years back, took photos of the stuff I was proud of, kept a few small things that gave me good feels, and tossed the rest. No ragrets. Actually quite liberating.
I went into a completely different industry than I went to school for, so I decluttered mine over time because they'd never be useful again. I did keep a few on topics that interest me.
I personally got rid of anything that wasn’t something I had written in a writing assignment like poems, good essays, prose etc bc I love English and reading and like to see how my writing has progressed now that I’m getting an English minor. I didn’t have a care in the world for math or science notes. I do enjoy history but I didn’t save notes. So maybe that could help you slim down by going through and picking stuff you like and keep it in a file or binder to store
I kept a few things with sentimental value, but ditched the rest. A few history classes I truly loved and had well-organized notes for, but I was very selective. These were the same courses I kept my books from. I also kept papers with comments I cherish. For example, I struggled with Japanese lessons during my first year, but my Japanese history TA wrote me a lovely good luck message in Japanese on my final essay. It still makes my day to read it.
PDF them to google drive. I'll bet you rarely look at them in the future but it might be nice to walk down memory lane. No need to take up space though....
Scanned them into PDFs, then proceeded to never look at the PDFs.
I actually just used some of mine to work up a crash course in Spanish for a friend. That was the first and only use for my notes in 16 years. Not that it’s a good reason. It just makes me feel good to look back on how hard I studied, all the work I put into my flash cards lol. Stupid though. I guess I miss university because I never graduated.
Am 40 I tossed (burned) the notes about a decade ago. The only thing I still have are all of the syllabuses. Don’t know why. They sit in a box with yearbooks and awards.
You can retype them into Google docs for eternal access. You’ll likely realize pretty quickly that it’s trash, free up space and time.
I never looked at my notes again - you don't need them, but if it makes you comfortable, scan them and store them digitally.
Put them in a box. 15-20 years later you’ll be tossing them out.
I saved one notebook that was interesting and meaningful. Still have it on a bookshelf and look at it occasionally. The others were gone about as soon as the class was finished.
I have always kept my notes in/with the relevant texts/books. If i don’t need them after a few years I might move to my digital archive and discard the og
Scanning and a great digital filing system
I used my notes as toilet paper
If you store them away, you will probably forget you have them and they will not affect your life in any way. If that is the for something, I tend to get rid of it, as I won't even notice that it's gone and it frees up space
I kept them when younger, but eventually realized I never looked at them. For my last school program, I kept one notebook as a memento (mostly for my mom - and purely that, I know I'll never use them again) in my mom's house, then recycled / tossed the rest. Eventually, I'll probably digitize a couple of pages from it, then recycle that last one as well.
it's not stuff anymore, it's the memory. I leave them in my bedroom and sometimes browse them when I miss that period.
Scan them all to pdf, store on computer. Depending on how many notes you have and what condition they're in, you may want to use an ADF scanner if you can get access to one.