A mom hired me to organize decades of disorganized, printed photos kept in mangled boxes tossed in an unused closet. For her daughter’s Sweet 16 birthday, mom wanted to give her a precious photo from each year since birth. She created a lovely pictorial gift and keepsake. Organize your life in photos is a phrase both will remember.
After a client, her husband and two young daughters returned from a European vacation, they had over 700 new digital photos – just from this trip. (No one is going to organize 700+ photos!)
Photos. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Digital. Print. In no particular order. People say photos are their most precious possessions and the first thing they’d grab in a fire.
Then why are they kept in a jumbled mess in old cardboard boxes in a dirty basement, garage or attic? Do people even revisit their photos?
Here are tips to protect your life in photos.
Organize
- Gather all photos
- Back up digital pics often
- Lose the losers
- Curate the keepers
- Sort by month, year, decade, holiday, person, family, vacation
- Label
Ways to Keep – Print
- Photo albums
- Photo frame
- Decorative memory boxes 8”x11”x5” (available at Michaels)
- Use archival materials for preservation (e.g., University Products)
- Give some to family, friends
Ways to Keep — Digital
- In your device(s) using photo organizing software
- Photobooks/albums – TechRadar.com lists the 5 best online sites for 2019:
Chatbooks: From photos on your computer, social media or directly from your camera roll, you can order a photo book in 5 minutes. Get the free Chatbooks app for ios or Android.
This is a lengthy, often tedious process that requires planning. Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time (1-3 hours) in your calendar. To estimate amount of time, a 1” stack of photos equals ~100 pictures (fewer if thicker). By weight, 6-7 pounds equals ~1000-1200 photos.
Keeping in mind the goal to organize your life in photos helps to stay focused and motivated. If needed, enlist help from family, friends or a pro organizer. This is project worth doing for yourself and your family. Imagine how happy that mom felt when giving her daughter a very special photo from each year of her life! Priceless.
