Where are your family photos? In boxes? In drawers? In envelopes? In unmarked albums? Or are you not sure WHERE they are? Wouldn't it be nice to FINALLY get your photographs organized - once and for all? Wouldn't it also be nice to have a system in place to KEEP them organized? It is not as hard as you might think. It may seem daunting, but with a little motivation and planning you CAN have beautiful albums that you and your family and friends can enjoy for years to come.
Let's get started!
Decide how you want to organize your photographs. I find organizing by year the easiest - I can just add photos to the album throughout the year. You can also organize by event, person, place, or season. Do what feels right to you and think about retrieval. If you want to find that picture of your son's first tee ball game will you look in a 2004 album, a sports album, a summer album or in the child's personal album?
Also, do you want to store your photos in albums or photo boxes?
Once you decide on the themes and titles for your albums or boxes START SORTING the photos into these designated piles. Get all the pictures sorted FIRST, THEN decide what type and size of albums or boxes you need. I use a 4 inch 3-ring binder for a year's worth of photos. Make sure you make a separate pile for duplicates or photos you want to keep, but do not want to put into an album. (I will show you what to do with these later.)
After all your photos are in their designated piles, you can have some fun! Large albums or boxes are often too bulky to get out and share on a regular basis. But pictures are meant for sharing! The solution: turn bulky scrapbooks into thin photo books! They are easier to store and share, make great keepsake books, coffee table books, and memory books. I give them as personalized gifts every year!
There will most likely be photos and memories that just don't fit into a regular photo album
or box. There is an easy solution for this. Simply keep "like" with "like". I use 3-ring binders to store larger 5x7 and 8x10 photos. I have one for professional and school portraits, another for sport portraits, and a third for holiday portraits and cards. I know exactly where to find the photograph I am looking for. Plus, it is fun to see how the kids "grow" from year to year. Get creative and decorate your binders! Make sure to keep binders in chronological order!
In addition to these themed picture binders, I keep a Scrapbook binder. This includes artwork, newspaper articles, notes, and anything sentimental. Keep this binder in chronological order too.
Remember that pile of duplicates and loose photographs you have? Use a box with tabs to store them. These photo boxes are available at many stores. I categorized mine like this: Family, Portraits, Child's Name, Pets, Friends, and Misc. They are easy to find if I need photos for name tags, gift tags crafts, or school projects.
how off your photos! I LOVE decorating with photographs. I believe you should have things in your house that make you happy - and looking at the people I love makes me happy.