Organizing my piles and piles of physical photos has been on my to do list for a long time now. There is no “perfect” way to organize photos but you do need to have some sort of a system. For me, the first step is to get photos out of random places, get them into photo boxes, and then put photos that I want to make scrapbook pages out of into clear plastic cases. The majority of these photos either don’t have digital counterparts or are not on my current computer.
Not Quite the Beginning
I have been diligently working on the first two steps for the past couple of weeks. One of the reasons this project is being done now is because it goes along with the living room refresh.
This photo actually represents the middle of the process. Initially, I grabbed a TON of photos that were spread out in different envelopes or loosely in a container but not housed in any boxes. I had laid out the photos on my coffee table to get them into some sort of order. I mainly organized them by event versus date because I can’t recall when some of them were taken! At some point, I may go through ALL of the boxes of photos and further organize them but we’ll see. I know that I won’t remember all of the dates and some of the photos are so old that they are not digital and/or on my computer.
This basket has loose photos as well as holiday cards which I had mostly already organized by year. I like to keep all of the cards that I receive each year together and create a scrapbook page of each year. I may be the only one but I enjoy looking back and being amazed about how kids have grown, what hair styles looked like, etc… I’ve been pretty good at keeping each year together but realized when I went through this basket that I haven’t made a page since 2011!!!
I also have this rectangular box (with the plaid lid) where I keep over sized photos.
Photo Keeping
This basket also contains some scrapbook pages that I started but never finished. The other good thing about doing this project is that I can finish what has been started and everything will be together in one place.
For now, the photo boxes are being housed on a bookshelf. One thing I will need to figure out is what to do after I have scrapbooked an event. Do I just leave them in the box or what???!!
I am also pulling out photos from these old 4×6 photo albums that we all used to have and use!
The Process & The Plan
I separate these stacks of holiday cards separated by year. It should be fairly easy to do these holiday pages, even 10 years worth!!!
Memory Keeping Area
This area is for my memory keeping items. I am definitely going to get a 3rd unit and am hoping that many of the photo boxes and more memory albums can go here. I put the scrapbook pages that I have started but not finished into one of the fabric bins. They fit perfectly and I can flip through them to find what I want. Ultimately, the pages will be done and go into an album.
This is a labor intensive project with a very nice pay off in the end! I still have several boxes of photos in another closet which will stay there until I figure out my next steps.
I am open to suggestions regarding what to do with photos once I’m done with them. Please share in the comments.
