E hoarding is the accumulation of electronic items or files and can take shape in many different ways.  Often we receive email and hang on to those emails for extended periods of time in case they need to refer to them later.  Some of us delete those emails but neglect to empty the deleted files folder. The Sent folder also accumulates emails and should be emptied occasionally.

Photos are another file that should not only be backed up, but should be purged occasionally.  With digital cameras, we no longer choose the photos that we want to keep as we did with the film that was developed.  Hundreds of photos, good and bad accumulate and run the risk of being lost forever.  Rather then being selective with the photos, with digital cameras we are able to take hundreds of photos and then download them onto our computers for future use. It is always a good idea to back up those photos and to remove the photos that cannot be used.  The best thing to do would be to make a photo slide show on a CD or DVD and then distribute them to friends or relatives.  There are many products on the market to help you accomplish this easily.

Bookmarks are another form of E hoarding. Often we accumulate bookmarks and never visit that sight again.  If you have older bookmarks, you should periodically check those sites because often those sites are no longer valid.

Word documents, music files, scanned documents, pdf files, downloaded program files that you no longer need, etc. the E hoarding list goes on.  So ask yourself are you guilty of being an E Hoarder? If so, happy purging.

Scott's Computer Emporium
www.computeremporium.ca
scott@computeremporium.ca