First of all, if you are organizing printed photos, not in albums, you need a safe place to put them. Creative Memories Power Sort boxes are perfect for this. There are a LOT of products out there, the biggest problem is that many are made of card board, or plastic. While they may claim to be acid free, they are not chemical free and over time chemicals from these products will leak in and damage your photos. Creative Memories tests all of it's products in a time vault that can simulate hundreds of years later. This allows us to be clear about what will happen to your photos over time.As far as how to organize that will depend on what you wish to someday do with your photos. Chronological is a great way to organize. I do keep my photos organized in this way, as well as by child, school, sports, and other potential albums I might like to create. Album making does not have to be scrapbooking. Using Memory Manager software I created a Picfolio album layout for my 2013 photos. At the end of the month as I was going through the photos from the month I just moved them into the layout part of the software, and put them in order. I sent them off to print at Walgreen's, and in 30 minutes slid 125 photos into their correct spot in the album. I am waiting for the journaling paper I ordered to arrive, but once it does I will have completed pages for all of January and February of 2013, in a total of about 2 hours time. That is over the course of multiple days, and 15 minute increments here and there. As, none of us have 2 hours these days to just sit down and work on a project.
This is the picfolio I am using for 2013, and the pages that fit into it. I also quarterly print out photos to put in various frames in our house. I think it's important to update them, in order to keep special moments in your life yearly. I do this quarterly, so that I keep up with it, but also so that it isn't a constant job.
Once you have your photos organized, and stored somewhere working on albums, frames and other projects with them becomes so much easier.
Here are some more tips:
-Do use acid free storage- acid can discolor your photos over time, make sure to use products tested and not just listed as acid free. Look for ISO# that means these products are up to International Standards.
-Photos need to live where you do, not in a hot attic or damp basement!
-Don't use plastic bags, or the cardboard sleeves the photos come back from the store in to organize your photo's.
-Don't use post it notes. After time, the adhesive will stick to your photo.
-Don't use pencil or ink on the back of your photos. If you are not having them printed with information on them, then use a photo marking pencil. Yes, Creative Memories has these!
Now Get started!
- create a large space to work
- realize it is a process
-decide how you wish to organize and create post it note labels to put above the stacks as you sort them
-decide what you will store them in
-sort and file
-give yourself permission to throw out those photos that are horrible (over exposed, or just plain bad!)
-once you get everything you have organized, create a space to always put those that need to be filed, if you are not filing them right away.
-keep up with it, like paper if you don't stick to it, it will pile up.
I've been working on several photo projects lately and my file of photos to put away has gotten pretty full, so I'll be getting those put back into their boxes this weekend.
I'm grateful for the tips shared on http://delightfulorder.blogspot.com/2013/02/february-challenge-organizing-photos_19.html?spref=tw I'm hoping next month's challage is one that involves a place I haven't given much thought, to keep me motivated for getting my home even more organized.
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