Why you should digitize 'everything'

09.05.2009

Set up an old digital camera on a tri-pod, or a newer one set at a lower megapixel size (You don't want gigantic images to process; 3 to 5 megapixels is about right). You might point the camera down at a table, or set up some kind of easel. But make it easy and quick to set something down, snap a picture and move to the next item.

Then, do what we did. One by one, go through every box, drawer and item in your house that could contain something of value and take a picture of it. Photographs. Awards. Scrapbook items. Clippings. Whatever. Don't agonize, just take a picture of everything that might be of value later on.

Then, grab that camera and walk around the house snapping pictures of everything you own of value - furniture, jewelry, cars. These pictures could help you with the insurance company if tragedy does strike.

Now, sign up for an account with ". Download the desktop application, and drop all your pictures into the application. Evernote will upload them all to its servers, and - here's the best part - index all words it finds in the pictures, which makes them searchable. Later, you can just search Evernote as if it were Google, and find pictures of just about any item. You can also categorize, tag, sort or file everything in any way you choose.