Ready to get your photos sorted out?
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5 Steps for Organizing your photos 1 SORT First you will want to think about the way that you hope to use your photos ultimately. Do you want to create a scrapbook of each child’s life? Do you want to create a scrapbook of Christmases thru the year. Or maybe you want to make a scrapbook of your kids birthday celebrations. Or, it could be vacations. Its up to you and depends on your life. This will determine your organizing scheme and the way you will sort your photos. Designate an archival safe (acid free) photo box for each type of book you want to create. These boxes come with dividers that you can use to further break down your sorting. For example, if you are doing birthdays, you might want ages 1 - 5 behind one divider, 6 - 10 in another, and so on. If you are creating books for each child, keep photos of that child in one box, and designate a box for each child. When you have photos of multiple kids, you may need to make copies if you want to include the photo in multiple books. I like to organize chronologically, since that’s a fairly common way to think about your memories. 2 LABEL Labeling your photos right after you print them will make it so much easier when it comes to scrap them. You think you’ll remember the details, but its amazing once you are ready to scrapbook how easily you forget those details. Use a special photo safe pen for writing on the back of your photos. You can also use sticky labels to write on and stick to the back of photos. Be sure to record the date, who is in the picture, the location and a small description of what’s happening if it isn’t obvious. 3 BOXES Photo boxes are great for storing photographs. Michaels and Joanns has them on sale several times a year. Place an index card at the front of the box as a label to remind you what’s inside.
4 TRASH THEM Don’t be afraid to throw photos away. There’s no reason to keep a picture that is out of focus unless it’s the only shot you have of something important. If a picture is uninteresting, or if you have a million different shots of the same scene, pitch them. Don’t keep anything you know you won’t use. It makes it so much easier to enjoy your good photos when you have fewer to sort through. 5 BACK THEM UP Pictures are precious, so it’s important to have more than one way to get to them. Store printed copies, as well as digital. Back up digital pictures on a disc or removable drive. Several websites also offer online photo storage – some for a fee and some for no cost. 6 TACKLE IT HEAD-ON Schedule a series of 2 hour working sessions to tackle your photo sorting project. A professional organizer (that’s me!) can help you to get started and set up your organizing scheme. If you schedule these 2 hour time blocks and stick to them, you will have your photos sorted out and ready to use. Once you have done this, don’t let your photos pile up, stay on top of it by organize your photos every time you get new ones. It’ll be easier to label them correctly when it’s fresh in your mind, and it’s easier to do a few at a time than it is to organize 500 photos at once. The same goes for your computer or camera – don’t let them gather there either! Print out pictures at least a few times a year, more if you’re an avid picture-taker. Some helpful links 7 Tips for better photography >> Tips for taking fabulous food photos >> A photo a week: Making a year's worth of memories >>
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