Organizing Photos

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!First, 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 photographs in albums or in photo boxes?

Once you decide on the themes and titles for your albums or boxes you can 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 pile, you can have some fun! Large albums or boxes are often too bulky to get out and share on a regular basis. But pictures were meant to be shared! The solution: turn bulky albums and 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. You can make your own – or Silver Lining Organizers can make it for you! You can choose from many themes and customize them any way you wish. They are much easier to share and can be created in a variety of sizes. Some themes include: weddings, baby books, vacations, school years, sports, birthdays, reunions, honeymoons, anniversaries, holidays and year in review. For more information on how we can help you create your photo book click here: http://cms04.initial-website.com/app/869609237/161277197/

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 bingers to store larger 5×7 and 8×10 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 all 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 as well.

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 categorize mine like this: Family, Portraits, Child’s Name, Pets, Friends and Misc. They are easy to find if I need photos for nametags, crafts or school projects.

What about backup storage? I save my photographs online and on a backup disc. I label the disc according to the online file name: by month, or event, and year. I love the disc organizer by DiscGear. It holds 50-100 discs. There is a pull out menu listing all the discs and their corresponding number. Simply move the lever to the disc number of your choice and press the button – up pops your disc! Click here for many other photo storage ideas: http://www.pinterest.com/silverliningorg/organizing-photos-memories/

If you prefer to go completely digital, there are several online photo sharing sites. Many of these sites offer free photo sharing services. These sites, such as Shutterbug.com, Joomeo.com and Flickr.com, are a great way to keep your digital photos organized. Photos are easy to upload into digital albums. Then you can share with family and friends, and even publish albums and photos directly to a blog, social network or website. You can view albums as a digital photo book or a slideshow. Some sites allow you to make your own private website to share your photos. You can also make and share digital photo books. (Make sure you use a site with an unlimited number of allowable uploads.)

Finally, show 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. Click here for creative photo display ideas: http://www.pinterest.com/silverliningorg/organizing-photos-memories/

If you would like help getting your photos organized contact Silver Lining Organizers at http://cms04.initial-website.com/app/869609237/150611804/

We can help you with photo albums and customized photo books! Start enjoying all the photographs YOU have today! To view this blog with pictures of every step visit http://www.silverliningorganizers.com/how-to/