Everyone has pictures they want to Organize, but just don’t know where to start. When I meet with people and talk to them about the organizing process this is the the statement I hear the most — where do I start!!!!
1. The most logical place to start is Sorting the photos. This could take you many hours or just a few depending on how many printed photos you have. If you are storing them in the original envelopes from the developer, you will need to determine if there are duplicates that are not needed anymore. Back a few years ago, like in the 1990’s, duplicate copies were given at no charge. You could give copies to family members or scrapbook them which many people would do.
2. Once you have successfully sorted all those photos and removed the duplicate copies you can begin fine tuning that process. I suggest your first sort would be by year. This way you can have a decade of photos all together. The second sort would be by person or occasion, like birthday or holiday. To make storage easier you can put those photos into archival safe boxes that look like a shoe box with dividers. Archival Methods has many types of these boxes and supplies which I highly recommend.
3. Then I suggest you scan your most important photos to make sure they can be kept in a safe place for family to access at a later date. After scanning and putting in all of the metadata about each photo you should have a record, in order, of your photo legacy. You can use cloud storage to store your photos in like www.forever.com where you would actually buy the amount of storage you think you need. You own it and can add photos as you like. Your photos will be kept for 100 years and they can be printed or downloaded by your family.
4. Now that everything is sorted and organized you can actually make wonderful gifts out of those photos. I like to make a year book at the end of each year using the best, fun photos taken during the year. It is a great gift for someone special or a keepsake for yourself.
Sue's Organizing Solutions 