Leaving for college is one of the biggest events of a teenager’s life. For the first time, they are going to learn how to take care of themselves and keep up with their own responsibilities. As a parent, this transition period is full of mixed emotions, from pride in your child’s accomplishments to concern for how they will settle in.
Whether this is your first of many kids heading to college or this fall marks the beginning of living as empty-nesters, now is a great time to curate and preserve your family memories. Here are six reasons to digitize photos and videos with our photo scanning company now that your kids are leaving for college. These will help when dealing with empty nest syndrome.
1. Catch Up on Decluttering Projects
Now that your child is leaving for college, you can go through your house and identify items your family no longer needs. This is a project that many parents want to complete but never have time for during the busy school year. Even lazy summer days can get packed with camps, vacations, and summer sports practice.
Move from room to room and create a pile of items you no longer want or need. Decide what you want to donate, sell, keep, or throw away. Do you still have the tutus from when your child was a ballerina in second grade? It’s time to donate them. Are you tired of the same wall art that you’ve kept since you bought your first home? Donate or sell it.
You most likely will come across boxes of memories in your home. These can range from print photos to scrapbooks of childhood art projects. Put these in a special pile. One of the best reasons to digitize photos is to preserve these memories while also reducing clutter in your house. Once your decluttering project is finished, box up these memories and send them to Memory Fortress for digitization.
2. Maximize Space in Your Home
If your child is attending college away from home, you might notice how much space has opened up in your house. Their closets are empty, their rooms are spacious, and the “teenager stink” is starting to air out. Some parents deal with empty nest syndrome by preserving their kids’ rooms when they move out, while others turn them into home offices, guest rooms, second dens, or other useful spaces.
By digitizing your memories, you can create even more space in your already decluttered home. Some families dedicate entire closets to storing photo prints and VHS tapes. You can digitize thousands of photos and store them on a single flash drive or external hard drive. This way you don’t have to worry about the memories getting damaged while you also enjoy an entirely new closet to store your important items.
3. Look Back on Your Kid’s Developmental Years
While there are plenty of reasons to digitize photos when your kids leave for college, there are some drawbacks. This is already an emotional time for many parents. While they are happy to see their kids start the next chapter of their lives, it means they don’t get to see them every day anymore. It can also be emotionally heavy to realize how quickly they grew up. Going through the digitization process when dealing with empty nest syndrome can bring up even more emotions are you reflect on past memories.
Digitizing your photos and videos can help you remember key birthday parties, past teachers, old friends, and family vacations that you might not have thought about for years. As you gather and sort through photos, you can see how quickly your kids grew up – how shy kids became confident teens and how young babies became working adults.
4. Prevent Homesickness by Sharing Memories
While your child is making new friends and getting a feel for college classes, there are times when they will feel homesick. It’s natural for kids to miss their parents and siblings, especially if they are close.
One of the best reasons to digitize photos and videos is to share memories that can fight homesickness and let your kids know you care. Send a photo of the first day of kindergarten to your teen on their first day of college. Share a video of a piano recital when they need a confidence boost ahead of a midterm. You can continue to connect with your kids through memories.
Photo and video digitization makes it possible to share these memories with just a few clicks. You don’t have to hook up the VHS player just to look at a two-minute video and you don’t have to physically mail photos to your child’s dorm. Sharing a picture from 2002 is just as easy as texting an image from 2022.
5. Find Relatives Experiencing Similar Events
If your siblings and cousins also have college-age kids, they could be experiencing some of the same emotions that you are working through. This might be their first time dealing with empty nest syndrome when one of their kids is moving out or they might be able to provide advice to you if they have been through this before.
Familial connection is one of the best reasons to digitize photos is to share them with relatives. Send pictures of your kids together from a family reunion or a holiday when everyone is together. They might welcome the memories that you share and gather some of their own footage to contribute to your family history documentation.
6. Complete This Project Before Life Gets Busy
You might think that you will be able to enjoy a period of downtime after your teen leaves for college, but life gets busy. You might have other kids that need help getting settled in school or work and volunteer commitments that take up your time. If you don’t set aside time now to digitize your memories, your photos could be stuck in boxes for several more years.
Take advantage of this transitionary period to reorganize your house and turn your print photos into digital files. You only have to do this project once and you can enjoy the benefits of digital memories for decades to come.
There are Countless Reasons to Digitize Photos
We love talking to customers at Memory Fortress and learning why they want to digitize photos. Some people want to preserve memories so they don’t fade or break apart, while others want to make them sharable across the web. Whatever your reasons to digitize photos and videos, don’t wait to start this project. The sooner you have digital copies of your family memories, the sooner you can benefit from the extra space and sharability.
Learn more about our process and contact our team to start your order.
We digitize everything right here at our facility in metro Atlanta, processed by US citizens.