Photo Organizing Guide Spring 2011
|
Do you need help getting photos organized? Have you ever wondered how to organize photos?
This is an easy to follow Photo Organizing Guide to help you. If it seems overwhelming, remember you don’t have to do it all in one day and you can ask for help! Let’s Get Organized! has lots of experience organizing photos and we will be a fun partner that will help you get it done in half the time!
Before you even start dragging out all of those boxes, bins, albums....wherever your photos are currently living, do a little planning.
PLANNING Set aside 10 - 30 minutes to do some planning. Write down the answers to the following questions:
Why do I want to get my photos organized? What am I going to do with my organized photos? Who else will benefit from having my photos organized? Where are my photos now? How does the current state of my photos make me feel? Where am I going to store my photo collection once its organized? When I am looking for a particular photo or set of photos, how do I go about finding it? (this is a clue for your organizing structure) When would I like to finish the project of organizing my photos?
Ok. Now that you’ve done a little bit of soul searching, you are ready to tackle the project of getting photos organized. Depending upon your current state, this could be a pretty big project, so its important to set realistic expectations about how long it might take and how much time to set aside to get it done. Looking back on your answers to your questions will remind you of the benefits of spending the time and sticking with it to finish the job. In the end your photos will be organized and easy to find and enjoy!
Next, you will need to set a schedule for completing the work. Look at your priorities and figure out how you can fit the time its going to take into your schedule by the time you want the project completed. If you schedule it, you will get it done!
ORGANIZING STRUCTURE If you’re like most people these days, you probably have a combination of “hard copy” photos, negatives and digital photos. This requires 3 different strategies and systems for organizing. Right now, let’s just worry about the hard copy photos and negatives.
The first thing that you will need to do is think through how you want your photos to be organized when you are done, some options include:
This is the structure that you will use to set up your photo organizing system. This same structure should be applicable to both hard copy and digital photos.
While you are going through all of your photos, be sure to document the when, where, who. When you are documenting on your photos be sure to use an archival safe pen available from your local scrapbooking store.
SUPPLIES Once you know the organizing structure you are going to use, you will know what supplies you are going to need to complete the project. Here are some basic things that might be helpful:
PREPARE AND START! Create a basket or other container to hold your photo organizing supplies while you are working on the project so that you can put them away together if you get interrupted.
Start with your boxes of hard copy photos, once you have these organized tackle your digitial photos using the same organizing scheme. There are many computer programs that make sorting and organizing your digital photos super easy.
The first step will be to go around and gather up ALL the photos: the ones in the box downstairs, the ones under the bed, the ones in the photo albums, you get the point. Gather them ALL together in one place. Now you can physically see how big your project is. Decide if your time allocation is going to be sufficient now that you see them all in one place.
Write each of your categories from your organizing structure on a sticky note. When you start organizing if you are missing a category, just create a new sticky note. Arrange your sticky notes on a table where you can begin creating piles. I highly recommend not putting them into the boxes at this point, its easier to move or rearrange the piles if you decide you don’t have the right categories. Once they are all sorted into piles, you can put them in their boxes.
As you go thru your photos, sorting them into the appropriate category try to move quickly through the pile. You will have time to admire and reminisce later when you have them organized and put away. Your task right now is to get them sorted into categories. Make notes of any duplicates that you might need of particular favorite photos. Pull out your favorites that you want to frame.
After you have sorted ALL of your photos into these categories, its time to get the individual piles sorted and organized to be put away in your boxes or albums. Start with one pile. Think about the pictures in the pile to determine what makes the most sense in terms of how to store them - chronologically, by location, whatever scheme makes sense to you and will make them easy to find. Sort out your first pile according to your scheme. NOW, you are ready to put this first category away in its box or album. If you are putting them in a photo box, use the dividers that came with the box to sort the photos out by your chosen scheme. If the box didn’t come with dividers, create your own from cardstock or other heavy paper you have around the house. Label each divider with the scheme. Label the outside of the box with the name of the category. Yay! Celebrate your progress - your first box is done!
Follow this same procedure for each category/pile of photos until they are all put away.
Now, its time to admire your handiwork. Take the time to appreciate your photo collection, maybe enjoying your favorites that you pulled out to frame or duplicate.
Finally, put your albums or boxes away in the place you designated for them. Be sure they are in a place where they won’t be exposed to sunlight, dampness, humidity, excess heat/cold or water.
Once you are done, set aside a box or a basket...someplace you can keep the random photos that show up in your life to be organized later. You know the ones: the baby picture that comes in the mail with the announcement, your friend’s Christmas card, that old photo that was stored in your jewelry box. Gather them all in one place so they can be put away at a later date.
NEGATIVES If you’re not ready to part with all of those negatives, you are going to need a system for them. Here are 2 options:
You are going to need to decide how important it is to you to take the time to label each of the negative strips as you are organizing. It will depend upon how likely you think it is that you are going to need to go searching through them at a later date to get a print made. It’s very time consuming to label the negatives and it may be easier to just make a copy of the hard copy photo! At a minimum, you may want to note the location of the negatives on each box of photos.
Check back for our blog on digital photo organizing.
Happy sorting!
Brenda brenda@letsgetorganized.org Tweet |
