What to Keep? What to Pitch? If It Is Scanned Should I Throw It Away?

Life responsibilities continue to take precedence over research and blogging.  I suspect this will continue for another month or two.  I hope I'll be able to post more regularly once Fall arrives, but not sure of that yet.

My husband and I have been trying to de-clutter our house a bit.  As a genealogist, that is a particularly challenging thing to do.  It is hard to know what family-related items to keep and which to let go of. 

I am currently providing a (probably temporary) home for all my parents' photo albums and slides.  That has prompted me to start clearing some of my shelves.  I also came into possession of some account books belonging to my grandparents.  While I probably won't look at them often, I do want to keep them.  I think I'll get some plastic boxes to store them in.

A quick search on the web showed me that the problem of what papers to keep is one most family researchers struggle with.

While on-line services and databases are an easy way to store scanned items and back-up research, there is no guarantee those sites will continue into the future.  Scanning and backing up to external hard drives is useful for some items.  But what to do with all the paper?

With all the new old family stuff finding its way to my house right now, I need to figure out how to manage it. 

I have 2 big boxes of old family financial records that should have been destroyed 20 years ago after my grandparents died.  I am slowly shredding those.  I haven't taken a serious look at the photo albums or slides, yet.  I suspect I will scan some of those, but not all. 

Some researchers only keep paper copies of original documents or items they have had to pay for, like birth or death records from a clerk's office.  Some don't print out a record that they find on-line; they just add the electronic version to their computer records.

Maybe it is because when I started doing research, paper was the ONLY way to do it, but I find it very hard to not keep paper copies of my source material.  Today as I was sifting through old binders of research, I found a notation of the first query letter I ever wrote: in October 1977 to Harold M. Jones in Hankinson, North Dakota.  My notes say he responded.  I wonder if I still have that letter somewhere?  My record keeping then was different than now, so I'm not sure where that letter might be. 

So I have no answer yet to these questions, but wanted to share since it is on my mind.  If anyone has some suggestions, I'd love to hear them.