January 8 Photo organization Part 1

One of the last huge organization tasks that was left after last winter and spring's organizing and purging blitz that I undertook in my home was to organize our family photos. It's a goal to get them sorted and organized in the new year, but what a job! I've always taken a lot of photos, and then you add to that the fact that we used to get doubles of photos when we got them printed, and add that I have years of photos in scrapbooks already, it becomes an almost overwhelming task.

Here are some photos of what I'm facing... these four metal drawers are filled with photos, as well as the two Cropper Hopper photo storage boxes, and shoe boxes of photos, and photo albums...

Some of the scrapbooks are up on this closet shelf - family albums, two for each year in Creative Memories albums, huge Disney vacation albums, and individual vacation albums in 3-ring notebooks...

The bottom shelf of this next photo is filled with completed mini albums filled with photos of vacations and friends and other occasions...

On another closet shelf are the 3-ring scrapbooks I did for our family photos for years... and other scrapbooks...

Here's a peek inside the Cropper Hopper boxes... thankfully most of these were organized by year. In this photo, I had already gone through and emptied the one on the right...

Then there are piles and piles of photos that were never organized at all...

So this is when I started... the first step was to go through the random shoe boxes, sorting the photos into categories like Christmases, NYC, specific trips, my friends, my work, general extended family photos like picnics, etc, Thanksgivings, weddings, and more. As I sorted the photos into piles, I did a first purge of photos that were terribly blurry, of mountains or sunsets or something that I couldn't even identify - mostly just a quick purge of the photos that I knew I didn't need or want to keep. They went in the garbage without a second thought.

The photos seem to be never ending as the piles grow...

I've gone through most of the photo albums, throwing away photos that I definitely don't want and keeping the rest in the album for now.

The photos in the front of the next photo in the plastic cases are what's left of going through the Cropper Hopper boxes - I'd say that about half of the photos from them are gone now...

Here's a wide view of the table today... the first purge is almost done. The next step will be to re-categorize the piles on the table because they've gotten out of control. I think I will put post-its on the table to keep the piles easier to find.

I need to figure out what photos are already in scrapbooks and then decide which of the duplicate photos to keep outside of a scrapbook. Once I've done that step, I'll be ready to go through and do a second purge and then maybe even a third. I'm trying to examine the photos thinking whether it's something that my kids (or someone else in the family) might care about someday.

I'll keep you updated on how it's going and if I discover any insights to make it easier to do. Here's the steps I'm following:

1. Get out every photo from every spot where they have been stored around the house and bring them into one place.
2. Sort the photos by general subjects, occasions, or people.
3. As you do that, throw away any photos that you immediately know you don't want to keep. Lay out photos of an occasion, for example, a child's birthday party, and think, "Do I need six photos of them blowing out the candles?" Get rid of the ones that aren't the best. At this point, you might still keep three but later might be able to go back and just keep the best one. It's baby steps for me!
4. Reorganize the piles to make them easier to identify.
5. Go through each pile again, trying to cross-reference with the scrapbooks that have already been done. For example, I might have 50 photos of our vacation to Vermont and New Hampshire from many years ago, but I already did a whole beautiful scrapbook about that vacation, so I definitely don't need to keep those 50 photos. I'll look through them and see if there are a few that I might want, but chances are that I don't need to keep any of them. (One thing that I've thought about is that I have two sons but one scrapbook for that vacation. Will one care about the scrapbook more than the other? Should I save a few of the duplicate photos for the other one? I think the answer is probably no.)
6. I'll figure out what the next step is later. How will I store the photos I want to save? Will these photos ever be scrapbooked? Stay tuned!

Have you ever organized years of photos and have any hints for me?

Comments

[Deb J]

One of the things I did was to put duplicates and pictures where I didn’t remember where/who they were in a box. Then the next time anyone from the family was around or where I could send pictures of groupings I asked if they wanted them. Once those were culled I then threw them out. I found that more of the scenery ones were tossed. Most of the people ones were taken by someone in the family. It’s a big job. When my father died he had 12 carousels of slides and enough more slides for probably 12 more. I ended up keeping three a PhD the rest were either trashed (3) or sent on the family or our former church. I’m glad I did that because I had 24 scrapbooks that I did this year. All of it is gone. Now when I die some non-family executor won’t have to do it.

[Estelle]

This is on my next project to do list. Hardest thing is to get started. These ideas are very helpful!

[Jane]

I did this job a few years ago. I made a box of photos for each of my kids (besides their scrapbooks) and a box for myself. I pitched and sorted like you did. My kids will get their scrapbooks and their box. What will you do with all your scrapbooks that are not child specific? I have some of those and hope one of my kids will want them! This is rewarding yet onerous project - good luck!

[Claudia Fries]

Thank you for these posts Debby. I am in the process of selling my home and moving to a two bedroom apartment. Cleaning out but do not have the time for the photos that desperately need this type of organization. They are all packed and being stored for me at another place, not in a cold storage bin} and I am looking forward to finally playing with the photos when I am settled. This is really perfect timing for me to gain your perspective and your “keep on keeping on” attitude. I will check back on your finished product in the near future.....have fun...