Conquering a backlog of family photos can take years, but it is worth the effort! They are one of the most cherished things I have seen passed on from one generation to the next. 👴👵 More than any physical item, except the family Bible. 📸 Now that we have our family photos organized (from multiple generations...it took years!!), I've learned two tricks to never let things get out of control again. First, we purpose to take fewer photos at each event and for vacations, and focus instead on being present with family. And then on the first of every month we clear off our phones and camera, transferring all the digital photos onto the computer. Everything gets organized by month and then by event, and poor quality pics get deleted. When I create an annual scrapbook at the end of the year, it goes so much more smoothy now! 🖼️
I love this idea. I've tried doing the once a month thing in the past, but my computer is too old/running slow to hold all my photos/videos. I'm getting a new one soon and going to implement this because photos are something that's very important to me. Thanks for the tip!!
I went through 5 large boxes of photos with my mom. We made 9 albums (one for each of her kids) starting with early photos of mom and dad and then family photos as each child came along. We used an early school photo of the child on the front of their album. Then we sorted all the other photos by each kid and put them into individual zippered cases from the dollar store. Mom gave each of us an album and our case for Christmas that year. Not only did we get rid of the photos, but I heard wonderful memories from my mother. I then started talking with her 1 afternoon each week and by the next Christmas she was able to give each of us and all her grandkids a book of her life story that I helped her write. I got to know her as a strong women, not just as my mother.
Awesome...I regret not doing that when my Aunt was alive she raised me and she passed away at 86. I think everyone should do what you did with your mom. I don't know my parents or grandparents they all passed away when I was young. Now my adult kids don't know them except through photos. Would like to pass on to my grandkids too. Great idea. Thx for sharing. God bless!
So special. My husband was able to have long talks about family history with his Mom. We're thankful because we lost her this summer to COVID. Pictures tell stories and are such a treasure.
I have basically binge watched all your videos this last week. I am a SAHM. We have 7 children - his/hers/ours. Our 3 youngest have Autism. Over the last 3 years my Mother, Father and last living Grandparent all passed away. Yes, its a lot to process. But you can imagine...I inherited ALL of the furniture and photos and décor and clothing etc. etc. from my Mom and her Mom...I am the only daughter. As a result of that...along with therapy schedules and children who don't function well...I am become pretty overwhelmingly buried. My biggest obstacle was WHAT to throw out and WHAT to keep. I have the idea of "passing things down" because I am after all the last one that can. For the purpose of this video lets just cover the photos. I received thousands of family photos dating back 5 generations! Beautiful old shots of my 5th Great Grandmother in the late 1800's. I am a book lover and a lover of history. I didn't want to toss any of the photos...but I had to start somewhere. One thing I did was sort by decade. In my grandmothers generation, they always wrote on the photos, so many have dates. Next I separated the people I knew and didn't know. Then I had to look through albums to find duplicates. This process took months. I spread out on a large table and then had a cousin come over to take some and to verify certain people. Long story short, I decided to make an album/scrapbook of all the Grandmothers...including their stories (found on various other documents and journals). That way my daughters can learn where we came from through the eyes of each grandmother. The rest of the "random" photos I have sorted by shape and size...and color vs. black and white. I have tossed all blurry photos...or unattractive shots...OMG and scenary pictures! How many mountain and ocean pictures did my mother need! lol. Thank you for your cheerful spirit and your time in making such detailed organization tips. I am making my husband watch these next :)
Long ago, someone might have had a picture of themselves as a toddler, maybe a wedding picture, and one in their older years. I actually hate that today we are drowning in pictures. The only time I look at my pics is when I want to declutter them. I'm probably an anomaly in this smart phone selfie world.
Thank you so much! I didn't know how and where to start. Your idea of not putting the photos in chronological order was so good for me. It gave me a big push to start. I loved your video, thanks again.❤
I made photo cubes from our loose favorite photos. I sand and stain wood cubes, mod podge photos onto the cubes and display them in crystal bowls, vases, etc. Each cube holds 6 pictures. Seeing them on the coffee table makes me smile. 😊
I find that photo books are really the solution for our family to enjoy the digital mountain of photos. Each year, I pick the highlight pictures for our family and create one album as soon as there's a great coupon available. For the paper photos, I radically eliminated photos that show buildings, landscapes etc. and only kept photos that captured the spirit of the event or vacation and that had loved ones in it. If I ever feel the need to look at pictures of the Eiffel Tour or a certain beach, there are thousands available online in better quality.
Yes! Thank you thank you thank you for not just saying we should scan them! I also LOVE being able to physically flip through an album, and I find I do it more than looking through pictures on my computer. In terms of how to sort them, my dad ALWAYS said that nobody will care about landscape pictures, only about the people in pictures. I didn't understand that when I was younger, but now I do. It also helps keep me in check with how many pictures I actually even take to begin with. If someone isn't in the shot, I try not to take it. I think being conscious of how many pictures we're taking AS we take them is incredibly important in managing the inventory later. It's the same concept of only bringing really quality items into your house, but we don't apply it to taking pictures for some reason. We got a really big album of every single wedding picture made because I didn't pay all that money to have the pictures sit on a computer! I have looked at it with friends and family members so many times, and it was 100% worth the time and cost. I'm super curious to hear your take on digital pictures because that's where I'm overwhelmed. I would love to make them into albums, but I struggle with actually doing that.
"Children want to be noticed and know where they fit in." This is going up in my craft room. I've been struggling with how to scrapbook my step children (we are at a hard place right now.) This gave me a lot of clarity on why/how to scrapbook our family!
Winner of a video, I have been researching "organizing the ideas" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Ponrooklyn Xeyichael Secret - (search on google )? It is an awesome one off product for discovering how to declutter and keep your house tidy without the headache. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my brother in law got great success with it.
My mom past away 5 yearss ago and I'm still putting off going through her photos. My parents traveled and after my dad passed she continued to travel with groups. The pictures are numerous. Not to mention family pics. My criteria for what I keep in this ...... if the picture makes me smile, I keep it. I've started going through one album a week because trying to do it all at once was to emotional. I hope to be through them all by the fall. 😘
@Patty at rumdy creations My mom also passed 5 years ago. My dad passed only 2 months ago. Like you, the number of photos is overwhelming, but I love your approach of one album each week! Thank you so much!!
I did the exact opposite. I took all the photo albums and took the photos out and put them in photo boxes that take up less space, protect the photos better and I have them in order. We always got doubles, so I gave the boys their childhood photos and we still have a set here.
I'm going that right now. Putting pictures in albums required A LOT of time for me to lay them out, decide which go in and in which order, etc. Now I'm just getting them into ~1" deep plastic photo boxes with each dedicated to a specific year (or several years or longer). I label the outside of the little box with the timeframe, and I'm done.
With the number of photos we have and how fastidious I am, I would've grown old and died before I ever got even half of mine into albums. 😂 Now, I follow a variation of Cass's method, and it's amazing! I just sort photos into ~1" deep clear, plastic photo boxes with each box dedicated to a specific year (or several years, or longer). I label the outside of the little box with the timeframe, put them in a pretty decorative box, and I'm done! Now, instead of our photos remaining buried at the back of my closet indefinitely, they live in the living room where they can be enjoyed by all! In the last few days, I've sorted through ~110 years of photos (with the bulk of those spanning ~60 years)! I still have ~15-20 years left, but it'll actually get done!
@@472_d3 1839. But, people would have only had major life event photos. Not a photo for everywhere they went. I struggle with this. And it wasnt really popular until kodak got into it and made it accessible to the common people. Polaroid cameras helped a lot too.
I think the same. My mother had so many photos but my siblings and I didn't really want many...including the ones from her Mum, my Nan's albums. I kept the best, shared and ditched the rest. I am doing my Swedish Death Cleaning: Margareta Magnusson now I have Marie Kondo's spark joy konmarie method sorted. I will keep only that which sparks joy and maybe do a forgiveness ritual when ditch the ones that bring up negative memories so my girls won't have too much to sort through when I fall off my perch. I have had my photos in my too hard basket for decades but brought them into the lounge to go through with your statement in mind. Memories can be triggered by a scene in a movie or a person walking by...I see my Dad in many older men's faces. I have an old port that I think I will use for storing my photos...shoebox style...for the moment...maybe...we'll see...lol. I may take two, or ten, sort throughs it is time...
Scanning is overwhelming to me also. Chronological order was important to me so I took 3 months to go through every photo and discard and organize. It was a bit painful but oh so very rewarding and worth every minute of it! We do enjoy going through them as a family 😊
I watch your videos with my 6 year old and whenever you say a thumbs up is the best compliment, she actually gives you a physical thumbs up while smiling at the screen. It's the best! So know there is always another thumbs up added to your total, probably the best one of all... 😊
Dealing with all the photos, including slides, that my parents have is my main goal for this year and it is crazy overwhelming. I really need to remember that not all are worth keeping and archiving. Thanks.
I’m currently in the “ everything shoved in bins in a closet/under the bed” stage Pictures are the one area I haven’t had the mindset to deal with, but I can now thanks to you! I was so stressed with the idea of having to scan everything in and/or put everything in chronological order that I didn’t want to tackle it I love looking through photos and have fond memories of doing so with my grandparents... thank you for motivating me to start!
Thank you! I’ve been so overwhelmed with all the photos. I’m an only child and I’ve inherited both sides of my grandparents photos, my parents and my husbands family photos. I’m pretty sure my kids don’t want to be left with thousands of photos in boxes. I also stress out thinking about trying to get them in chronological order, so I like the idea of not worrying about that because it seems like an impossible task.
I want to be able to grab the photo albums & run if I have to. So, I'm taking every one out of the frames and getting them ready for when I have the right kind of albums. A nice seated organizing project.
I hate throwing out pics but love taking a bunch of my family. So I started making collage books of them. I take all the pics from the year and print them out in different sizes, and make pages for the album that are completely covered in pictures. It's a mix of scrapbooking, crafting, puzzles and photos which makes it fun for me to assemble. My family loves looking thru them and it seems like you find a new picture everytime you go thru them.
Thank you for watching!!! I know it's not "one size fits all" when it comes to topics like photos and other sentimental items but I hope this helps!! PLEASE share your best tips for simplifying family photos below (you have such GREAT ideas!!) or other roadblocks you're running into with them! Oh! And PHOTO ALBUM (holds 300 photos with room to write next to the phots): amzn.to/2IDLN8f or a set of 4 ALBUMS for an even better deal amzn.to/31tCMY4 😘 Dawn
Thanks so much for tackling this subject Dawn!! It is a HUGE help! I will be returning to this video to help me reset my mind while I sort through ALL THE PICTURES!! 😅
Love your channel. I scrapbook for my kids and because it's a creative outlet for me and it makes me so happy to see them look through them. I am so glad you mentioned digital ones not being enjoyed bc when people dont ever print pictures it's unlikely the future generations will actually see them! I recently decluttered childhood photos of my husband and me and realized we didn't need everything. We took time to mail some to family members and friends which made us happy :) I'm recovering from surgery now and so happy to have gotten in that one big project beforehand!! Keep up the good work!! P.s. love your hair!!
When we were selling our family home to downsize to a very small house, I was motivated to declutter the photos. I made an individual album for each child, my husband and myself. Then another one for special occasions ( holidays, vacations, graduations) and then one for just everyday life, so 7 in total. I kept the photos to 200 per individual in their personal album. EVERYTHING else was divided up and given to the grandparents and our grown children. What was crucial to this step was knowing that I only have about 20 photos from my own childhood, but it’s enough. So I was confident that 200 would be plenty. 😂
This is one of the best minimalistic photo storage & sharing methods I have learned about. I personally will need a backup storage of all family photos, but I love this idea of curating up to 200 photos for each child, plus another album for holidays, etc. The curated photo albums can easily be shared on Google / Amazon photos.
The whole point of simplifying our house, is so we can highlight the things we enjoy and we like and we appreciate. I had to type this to remind me of the purpose. Well it is one of many reasons, but this one motivates me the most.
Thank you so much for this video! I have on my list to tackle our photos this week...to get them into something manageable and that we can look at often. I have put it off because I want the albums I create to be perfect and organized by exact date of the event. But my son brought home his binder yesterday from preschool and has not stopped talking about how much he loves to look at his photos and projects. That binder is not perfect or in order but it is his work and he just loves it. It was a great reminder that he doesn't want perfection and I dont have to try so hard to give him the perfect photo album. Thank you for the affirmation that we are enough for our families without having to be perfect. ❤
The tip on not putting your photos in chronological order is golden! When I first learned I don't have to have my photos in order, it was so freeing & so much easier to organize photos. The system I used, grouped photos into 4 categories (& I created sub-categories from there): 1. Us (our immediate family - hubby, kids & g-kids), 2. People (extended family & friends, or others), 3. Places (travel photos or where location is the main focus of the photo) & 4. Things (food, the new car, ... ). I still try to organize in order as much as possible, but no longer view it as a requirement of getting photos put into albums so we can actually enjoy looking at them & reminiscing with loved ones. Blessings!
Some time back I started looking through all my loose pictures and dividing them between my three older kids so they would have some pictures of them with family. Then I put them in albums for them to have. (It was because I was not getting any younger and they needed to go...) On my oldest daughter 40th Birthday 🎂 I had hers fixed and gave it to her ... she was so excited! I then brought out the two boys albums for them! So they they all looked at each other’s and laughed ... remember this or this ... it was just a blessing to hear and see. (I was witnessing how it would have be if I had passed and they where looking at single pictures and deciding which one got what picture!) I still have their 8x10 pictures in an album with me. Just could not let them go! I sit down and go through them every now and then!🌹
I sorted pics into events and holidays and then went through each pile. Example: Christmases. I did each year looking for duplicates and I got rid of dups and then bad or very similar pics. I did this for all holidays and then events like birthdays, camping and the like. It worked great cuz I first separated and then put each event in a big envelope and labeled it. Then I was able to sort them one event at a time without any mess. So much easier.
I actually just had to go through my photos to make a video for my daughter's wedding and wished I had them organized already because it took so long. Since I had to get them all out, I researched ways to organize while I was dealing with them and I cannot remember where I saw this, but they have these plastic containers where you can put pictures in smaller plastic containers (clear) and it is like a suitcase, but the little individual containers fit inside the suitcase so you can separate by category, etc. I found one at Hobby Lobby. That is a good alternative instead of the boxes you cannot see through and to keep in one place, but after trying to utilize that, I am with you in thinking the albums are the way to go so we can all enjoy. I too remember going to my grandmas when I was younger and I would ask her to pull out the pictures and she loved showing me and sharing, so I know my family would love that. I am glad you said do not try to put them in an order because that is overwhelming because that is exactly why I kept putting it off - thinking of how big of a task that is....this is motivating to get it going!! Thank you!!
Many years ago I spent several weeks with my grandmothers going through their photos, dividing them up, making albums of each of their kids and extra albums of extended family and friends. My grandmothers were able to identify many people and appreiated my time and efforts.
A word on Culling, Storage, and Sorting - Culling - This really helps, especially when you talk about saving just a few of the special occasions. Sentimentality can get in the way of culling less-than-good photos that should be tossed. Storage - Photo albums are way too expensive for those of us with hundreds of photos. I will purchase archival sleeves that can be put in 3-ring binders. The sleeves on Amazon are fairly inexpensive. Sorting - I started sorting my photos by primary person, that way when the photos are eventually given to family members, each of my children has their own album of them and their children. As you mention, this is always a work in process, but getting photos out of boxes, and keeping them safe is the primary goal. Thank you for this! - gus (Florida)
It never occurred to me that I could put photos in an album out of order! That tip made me stop and realize I can theme it any way I need ("kids before age 8") and just put them in! Soooo much better than having them uselessly hidden in a box!
I made albums for each of my kids several years ago so they can see their childhood and then I inherited my grandparents albums, so I intend to go through them and create new albums of just the important pictures so I am not carrying around 10 messy albums that can’t even be opened without stuff falling out. Once again you have inspired me.
I have watched this probably 5 times in the past day. So much resonated with me….especially that kids/people want to be noticed and a part of a group. That statement alone has hit the nail on the head from my life of feeling unnoticed and not part of a group. After 48 hours of impleminting some of your tips, i am still drowning in photos and still have 27 scrapbooks that are now bringing me more misery than joy. I have discarded well over 1000 pics and have more to go through. Thank you for lighting a fire under me.
I love your pragmatical approach to this overwhelming task. I'm slowly learning to accept that 'done is better than perfect'. Your videos help a lot! Thank you!
Me too!! I used to edit my digital photos before making them into albums and I got nowhere. Now I’m just leaving them unedited and creating the albums. I feel that if any photos are so special when then I can go back and edit them individually to print out for display but having a physical album of slightly imperfect images is better than them all just sitting on my pc waiting for me to edit them 😁
My husband made a collage slideshow for our Amazon Fire screen saver on our TV. My girls love seeing their pictures and other family members pop up on the screen.
Yes I love this. I have something similar for my computer screen saver. But I need to limit it to favourite specials photos. At the moment I have random things like pics of things I've sold or things my hubby took a photo of for work puts all the blurry pics or ones that didn't work out.
Unfortunately, my folks had been putting off going through loads of photos for years. It wasn't until near my Father's death that we took the time to sort through them. We threw out so many that never needed to be saved in the first place! When it came time to choose photos of my father for the funeral home presentation , it became an easier task to search through it all. Additionally, it opened my eyes up to the fact that I avoided being in pictures for years. I was fat and hated how I looked. So I was either out of the shot or I was the photographer. It was surprising to me. Now still fat and in my 50's I will make a point not to avoid the camera any longer.
You nailed it, Dawn, when you said that one of the problems is that we'd get duplicates of our pictures and we would often take multiple pictures to make sure at least one was good. Because of those two things, I have way too many pictures!!
I have watched this three times during the process of cleaning up old photos...I had soooooo many and it was overwhelming. This helped to give me permission to keep one or two photos from events rather than all 24 x 2 photos.
I have do many photos, so overwhelming. they are in boxes they are in the containers that they came in from the store so so many all over the place. A few are in albums but way too many still in the bags when I pick them up from the store. I have been putting this off for years! Still working on clearing the clutter and getting rid of things, but I am going to take care of these photos as soon as I pair down. Thank you for this video. I did get into scrapbooking, a ways back when my son was little. That became overwhelming to, because you wanted to make the perfect page and I had so many pictures that I wanted all of them there. It was just crazy, so now I have some books that are scrapbooking some half-done just crazy. I just need something simple get the pictures in label be done. Thanks again have a great day.
Me too! We also get photo books done through Snapfish. We are much more likely to flick through a book than a folder on the PC. E photo frames are great but they never last more than a year or two.
I did a major organizing of our photos in the Winter. I pulled all the photographs out of their bulky padded albums, which I gave away. I purged as I went; getting rid of all duplicates, poor quality, unflattering, and forgotten/incomprehensible photographs. All the photographs were stacked in order, and set into storage boxes which my husband took to work. There he scanned them onto a cd at high speed with the photocopier. We made copies of these discs for each of our four adult kids and put them with our Will. Then for good measure I took down the shelf that had held those forty years of photo albums. Done.
THANK YOU for mentioning not keeping ALL photos! I throw out photos because there are tooooo many and also, as you said, not all are needed to tell a story! Knowing that someone else says this makes me feel better about tossing photos.
I love those kinds of photo albums too. I have scanned 3 generations of our family photo's but that was before I had my daughter. Now the pressure is on because my daughter wants photo albums for her from since she was born which is all digital. Nine years of photo's and photography use to be my hobby. I gives anxiety when ever I think about were too start oh my ...lol....
I started scrapbooking when I was 11 and it was my hobby for years. I stopped about 5 years ago bc we moved into an apartment and I lost my craft room so it was inconvenient to search for every tool, embellishment, or paper I needed and eventually everything was packed up in storage. Now I have a craft room again but I started minimizing about 3 years ago and now I don't want scrapbooks lol. I dont want an entire book for 1 event. I have so many already. Although I do have one 12X12 for my high school years. I did a 1 or 2 page spread for special occasions and I get alot of enjoyment from that one. But I have scrapbooks for anything and everything that I don't find enjoyment in. Now I'd rather frame 1 or 2 nice photos from an event or occasion and put them on the wall and make a nice statement wall with family photos so they can be seen and enjoyed all the time. But I feel bad getting rid of the old scrapbooks I already have even though I don't want them lol
Same here…..i am deconstructing my albums, cutting off those edges and putting the pages i want to keep in a 3 ring binder 12 x12 page protector. I am drowning in Scrapbook pages about the mundane.
Thanks Dawn! We’ve gone to making/ printing photo books but I do have one box of old photos that I would like to get albums. Thanks so much for all your encouragement! I am on my 4th pass through my home and making another pile to give for an upcoming garage sale. I can’t believe all the things I missed the first 3 times! We have 5 kids and it gives me so much peace to see all these items leaving my home!
It took days but I went through all of our photos. I purged and focussed on people rather than places. Now the books are in order and fun to flip through. Thanks for sharing your method.
Thank you so much! Very timely! I appreciated too that the albums don't need to be perfect. We can all be hard on ourselves, can't we?! I've wrestled with how to begin - I literally do not have one album created, but LOTS of boxes of photos. I've recently decided on a way to do it, and wondered if others have done it this way, or may like the idea. I am going to buy acid/lignin free oaktag and acid free protective sleeves for a 3 ring binder, put photos on the paper and insert two pages back-to-back into the protective sleeve, then put them into the 3 ring binder in chronological order. When I find random photos, since its a 3 ring binder, I can insert a page where it belongs. And, I can write on the oaktag. I think this will be the least expensive route for me to go knowing I have so many to do. I searched for bigger protective sleeves and albums - besides 8.5 x 11" but the price was so much more that I'm sticking to normal paper size and albums. Wondered for a long time about "how many" albums to make (as in: 1 for each child, etc?) - decided to make ONE set of albums, and then I plan to take them to a copy center to make a hard copy for each child as well as a digital copies for them and one on a flash drive to keep in a safe place. Thought I'd share in case others are at this wondering/beginning stage as well. It helped with not having to have everything perfectly in order, since I can insert later if I come across things - and can just get started.
@@TheMinimalMom Thank you so much, I am hoping the plan works as well as it does in my imagination!! I get lots of ideas! :) I truly enjoy how you share about your journey with minimalism with your family - it has been very helpful, and also your Sunday messages with your sister. You've done a great job with your site, and have been such a blessing, thank you. Also, I sent an email recently to your Ithinkwecouldbefriends, and I'm sure that you get overwhelmed with so many messages from people, but wanted to share that I had also written there. Thank you again for all you share - and how you share! Blessings to you!
After a year of cleaning out the basement, I have just now started to tackle the kids’ (ages 20 and 25) school memories, art, and photos. I just kept putting them all in the one location for the past year whenever I was minimizing other areas. Now I have put together a simple scrapbook (with the old magnetic page photo albums) with the school memories. I also took pictures of my daughter’s fabulous art and am making a simple photo book through Snapfish. Thanks for the advice and helping me see that I only need 1 or 2 good photos for the best memories!
I just got tired of photos taking up head space so I shredded 90% of my photos and all negatives plus the cd's that came with developing the pictures. 😲 I don't regret shredding most of it. Now I have a very small container of SD cards of pics, it's never ending lol Calgon take me away! Hello from Alberta Canada 💛
You know how some people feel the need to leave a legacy, I feel that this life is not about me and it's solely about Jesus (God). However I did keep a handful of pictures of my family. God bless you and your family....💜
After bringing home all my Mothers pictures, I felt totally overwhelmed!!! So, I took ALL of my pictures, grandparents, my childhood, my family, etc., and went in my spare room. In increments of time, I separated into piles on the floor all of the photos starting with my grandparents, and coming to the present, the pictures into decades. I got picture boxes from Hobby Lobby and started with the first decade pile. I tackled one decade at a time into order and put them, labeled by decade, into the picture boxes. This took a few weeks, but I didn't pressure myself for time. It's finished now and I am happy with my solution. I hope maybe this idea can help someone with this emotional and time consuming job!! 😊❤️💕
I have to get past that notion that it has to be organized into years or holidays or events. I've been telling myself for years that I will get to it... first the physical photos, then making photobooks from digital ones (looking forward to next week's video!). Time to finally just tackle it.
Your videos have helped me when minimizing the items in my home. Your phrase of "managing items" definitely keeps things in perspective for me when decluttering ❤
I don't think I have commented before, I have on Diana's page. You are both so dear. Thank you...I have decluttered pretty much my whole house, been through every closet and drawer, even my storage room. I've been married 33 years and have 3 grown sons. My muscle for decluttering has gotten stronger, but I have saved my photos for last. Have started some, and sentimental things...it is hard, but easier now that I have done so much already. You have to be ready and in the right frame of mind. My parents and grands are all gone now, aunts and uncles too, our boys did not know them, except my mom, so downsizing is more about for them in the future. I have my memories. I like your ideas about only keeping a few photos of each event. That is what I am going to do and only the really good ones. God Bless you
How funny! I'm binge watching your channel to catch up on the last few videos I haven't seen before I'm all up to speed. This video popped up as I'm going through two full photo boxes of my own from childhood! Luckily I grouped the photos into years at one point, and now I just mindlessly getting rid of doubles... but I'm ready to let go of the mediocre pictures and just keep the photos that tell the stories best, and get them into books where they can actually be enjoyed! What's even more daunting though are the boxes of my husband's family photos... Slowly but surely I'm getting more organized. I won't let another 15 years of marriage pass before we can start enjoying our memories! Thank you for all your valuable advice! It really has been so helpful and relatable!
Scanning photos or having a physical album is NOT an either/or concept. I love my photo albums and the scrapbooks I've made, but I've also taken the time to scan. If there's ever a fire or other event that can ruin my photos, I still have access to them because of the scans. The other bonus of having scanned the pictures is that I can create meaningful cards with the pictures for my friends and family. Everyone anticipates the personalized cards I send.
Wow! I currently have quite a few boxes stuffed full of tons of photos that I have been too overwhelmed to deal with for several years now. Needless to say, I really needed these tips. Everyone else I've heard always talks about scanning them all and I find that way too daunting to fool with. I appreciate how you always keep things so simple and practical! Thank you girl! God bless you ❤
This is my project right now (well last 3 years it has been an on/off project!) I am not brutal with photos I keep no blurred no duplicate and agree with backgrounds they tell a story. I only use albums for my children’s 1st photos, big holidays abroad then the rest are in photo boxes where they hold 6x 100 each so it helps me keep my limit to 600 a year! Still a lot but my family is extending & I don’t like just keeping them digitally…I want to touch & see them😁
I love journaling, scrapbooking and the tactile feel of the paper (vs all of this in digital format). So I will be hopelessly and willingly unable to part with my albums and journals. I will say that I agree with using one or 2 photos that evoke the feeling and memory and chucking or scanning the rest. Photo keeping has to be done consistently in order to not get behind and that takes commitment and diligence if one does not want it to get overwhelming. Since I like journaling and scrapping I throw all my stuff in a box and then go back and spend some happy time structuring it in my journal or album. I use not only photos but other things like receipts, tickets, programs, etc to make the page. But that's my preference because it's my hobby and a joy not a hardship. Very good tips here for the folks who just want to get a handle on photos.
I bought a high speed photo scanner with a feeder. Best money I ever spent. Scanned in hundreds or thousands of photos, uploaded to a Google drive, shared access with multiple extended family, and then, gulp, threw out a bunch, then put precious ones in a box. I also make digital photo albums, slideshows for TV viewing (my fave) and physical albums for my daughters who love those things.
You gave me permission 😁😊 to use a regular album. 👍 I used to scrapbook back when it was so popular. What a daunting task! I started to smashbook and that was fun. Now I just need to get the rest in an album and be done.
I love this video. We started to upload on photos to familysearch.org so we could type our memories with each photo. Then all our family could see the images and they were safe too. It is what works for us.
Scrapbooking is my passion so photos bring me the ultimate joy, but because of that I also take a lot of photos. I can understand how it can easily get overwhelming. One way that people can sort photos without doing so chronologically is using Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories system which basically just sorts them into four categories - Things We Do, Places We Go, People We Love & All About Us it works for photos in albums or just stored in boxes. Scrapbookers will have lots of ideas on photo management so they’re a great source of help and knowledge if anyone needs assistance with their photos and best thing is they’ll actually enjoy helping out in this area.
I think albums are definitely the way to make photos safe and accessible; my family has quite a few because I used to put everything in chronological order (this was WAY back...in my younger days). One thing I would love to mention about yours...PLEASE GET YOUR PHOTOS OUT OF THE "MAGNETIC SHEET" ALBUM IF YOU WANT TO PRESERVE THEM. Those albums are NOT acid free (can you see the bit of yellowing around the edges of the pages) and that acid will destroy your photos (they will crumble into bits!). Almost all albums use photo safe paper these days, but those old ones didn't. :)
Just started to scrapbook our homes we have lived in 40 years of marriage getting it down to f5 or 6 per house is reducing my photos by too many to count we've lived in 19 homes during this time. Not because of our jobs but because I loved to paint and wallpaper and then sell and flip 34 years ago it was ever an event on a television show! It was my way of providing a income while being a stay at home mom! Have a great week! Love your channel!
Thank you. Yes, we have photos here that need attention. For our daughter’s 50th Birthday I put together an album of photos from her baby days until now. She loved it. She said, “Thank you for my gifts, especially the photo album.”
When I started looking through pictures of vacations, I realized there are a lot of them that are just scenery. New rule: If no one is in them, they're gone! Thanks so much for all your inspiration!
I have been making such amazing progress in decluttering my home, but those boxes...& boxes...& boxes....of pics in my storage closet are mocking me....
Cindie, I have 5 plastic shoe boxes of photos to organize. I stopped on my decluttering process with this part. I will pick back up after back to school. I see the boxes everyday. But it will be completed soon. You got this!
Help! Minimal Mom Dawn, I cleaned out a cabinet with 9 bins of clutter. I put them in categories but the amount of stuff in the categories is huge! I am asking myself questions to minimize but I'm stuck. I think I need everything on the boxes.
So wonderfully timely for me! I gathered and saved my grandmother's albums when she moved from her home to assisted living. I need to go through them and make it a manageable amount. Now I have some tools to make that task seem possible. And then I can tackle my own hoard of photos next!
You are a life saver, Dawn! ❤️. Because of this video I had the skilled mindset to conquer my Leviathon of 120 years of family photos and film and paper “keepsakes”. The closet no longer makes me cringe in my gut when I open it. The burden is gone! You are Proberbs 11:25 - thank you for sharing with us what you’ve learned. Blessings!
Honestly, the only photos I kept printed were the ones from my younger childhood from birth to around age 12. After that, I was in charge of taking pictures digitally and storing them on an external hard drive so there was no need for printing them out. When I was decluttering I saw that I have thousands of pictures from over the years of people that made me upset, sad, or angry. I ended up ripping up all the scrapbooks and albums that I had made in my youth and tossed many away in the bin. I am happier now that I only kept the ones that were rare and special. Now my mom... that's another story. I will be going through her loose pictures she has giant bins of them in her house. I know I am going to be the one who has to sort and place in albums and I am excited about it. :3
Green Serene thanks for your comments as this helps me realize what I’m keeping may not be what my child enjoys. I do have a daughter who does have a lot of bad memories from childhood so I may ask her to go through photos and see what makes her happy to keep. Then put those in an album for her.
I am a scrapbooker so the amount of photos I have is insane. I have made a conscious effort to really only keep the ones with people in them, and always journal in my scrapbooks as well. For trips or special occasions with a lot of photos I do mini albums. My grandchildren love to look through them all.
I'm a scrapbooker and I totally share your thoughts on photos. I don't have an album for each trip or event because it becomes something to store. I choose a few photos to represent things we've done. I don't scrapbook in chronological order. I scrapbook what I feel like in the moment and don't worry myself with things being in order. The things I write tell the story and timeframe. I need to get better about getting rid of the extras but I'm working on it. Thank you for inspiring me to take a better look at everything I own. I like that you say "you do you" and remind us that we all need to do what works for us. I don't think I will ever be able to be a minimalist but anything less than what I have now is an improvement.
After our parents passed (both within 7 months) we found 15 large (as in large regular cardboard boxs) of photographs. Unbeknownst to my brother or me, my mother had taken a photography course in the 50's. No wonder she always had a camera in her hand!. We used to joke and say you could flip through the photos and you would have a video of our childhood. I am taking on the task of scanning every one of them (yep!). I have been using the highest resolution. While it is very time intensive, for me it is worth it - both personally and to pass on the documentation to other family members and to children and grandchildren. While I know you concentrate on minimalism, I think that even similar photos should be kept - perhaps not in the photo album on the shelf, but in appropriate storage. Unless the photo is of a finger in front of the camera lens or totally unfocused, I keep them. One never knows might be important to a family member down the line.
I know I'm watching this video 2 years after it was published, but I want to thank you for the ideas and the link to the albums you like. I scrapbooked for several years but had a huge backlog of pics that was overwhelming, yet I knew the journaling about them was the important part. This winter some water damage forced me to go through them and I only saved the pictures worth scrapbooking. I spent about $24 in dollar tree containers with lids and sorted them by family members and categories, but still don't know if I will ever actually scrapbook them. Your solution with slide in albums that have a space to write is a game changer for me. I followed the Amazon link for the multi set and found a set of 4 "used" in original packaging and like new condition for $35. Now I can get all those pics out of bins and into a "working" album with a brief description. Once it's not so overwhelming, I can go back and separate them into albums for myself and my 2 children and only have "wasted" one of the 4 set of albums. This really solves a huge problem that's been hanging over me. I also think that it might bring back the joy in scrapbooking to me - because I'll be able to choose the ones I WANT to work on, not feel like I have to do all of them. Thank you, thank you!
1) 1:42 how do you want to store your photos? 2) 3:00 simplify and pare down the photos (keep highlights, keep the ones that tell the story) The goals is to get it to a manageable amount. 3) 5:50 select you album. Remember that it doesn't happen to be perfect and doesn't have to be in chronological order. 4) 6:52 don't tackle sentimental items first.
My simplifying journey is coming along so slowly. I'm a little lost in photo/scrapbooking clutter. I have taken thousands of pictures of my son in the past two years. I planned to create some scrapbooks and have a huge box full of pictures, momentos, scrapbook paper and stickers. I really want to get back to it once my son is a little older, or when I have more time. Thanks for turning me on to FlyLady. I have decluttered a lot and learning to have more grace and patience with the process, with myself and others. Thanks for the tips on managing a household, raising kids, having a healthy marriage, etc. I also enjoy your and Diana's Faith + Simple Living videos. I also am using your meal planning/grocery template, which I have made my own. I can't say "Thanks!" enough. I'm also stuck in the weightloss struggle. I should probably go back and watch your videos from earlier this year.
So I have an idea for the extra photos.... I don't know about you but with my family every time they flip thru an albumn someone will always end up saying something along the lines of wanting a copy etc...but some of those family members are not always reliable for returns or one photo turns into twenty that they want to copy... so what I do is put a few extras of the same photo behind the photo in the albumn. It is not the best way because your still keeping them (however all in ome place and not in a separate box) but it never fails that someone always mentions wanting a copy of certain photos. I also love throwing photos in with bday cards,etc so it keeps me from driven an extra trip to the walmart photo centre!
I’m very fortunate that my mom likes to scrapbook, but my husband and I have a huge bin full of his and his siblings’ childhood photos. Thanks again for the great tips, it’ll make helping him pare down so much easier! We plan to scan the best ones and give memory cards to everyone in the family.
Thanks! I started going through my photos late last month with the goal of getting them all cataloged this year (I started throwing pictures in boxes in 1994!) I have seen several videos on how best to do it, but I like yours the best because you like albums and your suggestions were practical, especially copying just the *special* photos to digital as backup.
Wow, only 5 year ago and you look so incredibly "glown-up" now if I may say. Love your brown hair and natural make-up these days. Advice is as always on point :)
I really like making printed Photobooks. I know it can be time consuming but they take up way less space then a regular album and you can fit so many pictures in a relatively thin book so you don’t have to sacrifice on deciding which memories to keep. It also helps keep the photos organized by year, event, vacation etc. I do this with all my Digital photos and have started the process of scanning in my printed photos and creating printed books with them as well. It does take time but it’s worth it. You can also order copies of the same book to give to kids, grandparents etc.
Great video. This is a big topic I love how you make it practical to start. When converting a lot of pictures digital instead of scanning I took a picture with a tablet of the photo. Much faster and simpler than scanning. With device cameras so good these days it looks as good as original. It makes it easy to share the photos with friends and family too. Just make sure you have good lighting on the photo and click away. I then uploaded from device to shutter fly with their app and then backed up all on hard drive.
Thank you Dawn for the reminder! I have gone through physical photos but have over 7,000 in my iPhoto library....... I have been dreaming of making some albums because the children love to see our wedding album and I'm sure they'd love to see more of themselves too. I needed the reminder and encouragement. The Lord is using you in ways you can't imagine ;) Keep it up my sister!
Your approach is very reasonable. I just might get started on some albums. My husband helped me purge many about a year ago but we still have so many. (Married 43 years with three children and five grandchildren) You've given me the encouragement to pick up an album next time I am at Walmart...little steps! Also looking forward to your digital topic. I've stopped making prints because I've felt overwhelmed by what I already have. My husband did scan all our photos...massive job but we still could not part with the prints. It did give us comfort that we had the backup discs in the safe.
Yes! I have both many many albums and boxes and boxes of loose photographs along with framed photos that came out of our parents homes. I also have negatives which are really worthless now. I tried to have a reprint made and the young girl at the photo department had no idea what a negative was! We are moving next year and need to go through all those boxes and my husband does not want to throw any photographs away!
This is perfect timing! I’m pretty much down to the more sentimental items I’ve hoarded throughout my childhood, youth, teen years, and early adulthood. And by hoard I mean hoard! I kept every picture anyone ever gave me, every movie ticket to every movie I ever saw and the ones of those who went with me, every picture a nephew, niece, cousin, or kid from church drew for me, every summer camp T-shirt...I could go on and on! Really excited to pare down and make these memories more accessible through photo books and photo albums so I can enjoy them now and with my kids someday just like you said, but without the clutter! Thanks for all the tips.
Also, any tips for handling sentimental items that were not given as gifts and that are not photos? Like summer camp memorabilia, journals from my teen years, and just odds and ends items that remind you of well loved events? I have a few ideas but I’d be really curious to know how you might handle these. Thanks!
I spent hours and hours scanning ALL our pictures (we have 6 kids) a few summers ago and it was a HUGE project but I am glad I did it. I also keep a few photo albums, like the one you mentioned that came from Walmart, where I keep favorite random pictures of the family and I can write a little snippet next to it. It’s not in any particular order but that is what makes it fun to look through!! Thanks for another great video! You’re awesome!
I have about 30,000 photos on my computer 😱. I’ve started to make a big album online of each year and then a separate album for each holiday which is then printed out. It takes ages but I’ve loved looking at the albums and now the photos can be seen and shared. I’ve started with the most recent ones first and am working back in time. Not sure I’ll ever finish but it’s a rewarding project to do and even when creating the albums, it’s a lovely way to remember happy and special times.
A very helpful video! What motivated me to sort through old photos and put them into albums is when you said they do not have to be in chronological order. As I began to place pics in my album, I just started to gain a better understanding of where to place them. They are not in order, and that is okay, in fact it makes it a far better adventure when leafing through. I agree, too, that leafing through a physical photo album is nicer than just digital pics. My happiness level went way up after completing my first album and seeing lots of happy moments with family and friends. Thank you!!!
My neighbor includes old photos in the birthday and holiday cards she sends to friends and family. I think it's a great idea I hope to try this year.
Conquering a backlog of family photos can take years, but it is worth the effort! They are one of the most cherished things I have seen passed on from one generation to the next. 👴👵 More than any physical item, except the family Bible.
📸 Now that we have our family photos organized (from multiple generations...it took years!!), I've learned two tricks to never let things get out of control again. First, we purpose to take fewer photos at each event and for vacations, and focus instead on being present with family. And then on the first of every month we clear off our phones and camera, transferring all the digital photos onto the computer. Everything gets organized by month and then by event, and poor quality pics get deleted. When I create an annual scrapbook at the end of the year, it goes so much more smoothy now! 🖼️
Great idea!!' Thank you!
I love this idea. I've tried doing the once a month thing in the past, but my computer is too old/running slow to hold all my photos/videos. I'm getting a new one soon and going to implement this because photos are something that's very important to me. Thanks for the tip!!
@@billy77511 Show some respect, please! Praying for you. 🙏
I went through 5 large boxes of photos with my mom. We made 9 albums (one for each of her kids) starting with early photos of mom and dad and then family photos as each child came along. We used an early school photo of the child on the front of their album. Then we sorted all the other photos by each kid and put them into individual zippered cases from the dollar store. Mom gave each of us an album and our case for Christmas that year. Not only did we get rid of the photos, but I heard wonderful memories from my mother. I then started talking with her 1 afternoon each week and by the next Christmas she was able to give each of us and all her grandkids a book of her life story that I helped her write. I got to know her as a strong women, not just as my mother.
Wow! This is SO cool Karla!!!
Love this idea
Awesome...I regret not doing that when my Aunt was alive she raised me and she passed away at 86. I think everyone should do what you did with your mom.
I don't know my parents or grandparents they all passed away when I was young.
Now my adult kids don't know them except through photos. Would like to pass on to my grandkids too. Great idea. Thx for sharing. God bless!
So special. My husband was able to have long talks about family history with his Mom. We're thankful because we lost her this summer to COVID. Pictures tell stories and are such a treasure.
@@spcatmom so sorry you lost your mother-in-law. May God bring comfort to you.
I have basically binge watched all your videos this last week. I am a SAHM. We have 7 children - his/hers/ours. Our 3 youngest have Autism. Over the last 3 years my Mother, Father and last living Grandparent all passed away. Yes, its a lot to process. But you can imagine...I inherited ALL of the furniture and photos and décor and clothing etc. etc. from my Mom and her Mom...I am the only daughter. As a result of that...along with therapy schedules and children who don't function well...I am become pretty overwhelmingly buried. My biggest obstacle was WHAT to throw out and WHAT to keep. I have the idea of "passing things down" because I am after all the last one that can. For the purpose of this video lets just cover the photos. I received thousands of family photos dating back 5 generations! Beautiful old shots of my 5th Great Grandmother in the late 1800's. I am a book lover and a lover of history. I didn't want to toss any of the photos...but I had to start somewhere. One thing I did was sort by decade. In my grandmothers generation, they always wrote on the photos, so many have dates. Next I separated the people I knew and didn't know. Then I had to look through albums to find duplicates. This process took months. I spread out on a large table and then had a cousin come over to take some and to verify certain people. Long story short, I decided to make an album/scrapbook of all the Grandmothers...including their stories (found on various other documents and journals). That way my daughters can learn where we came from through the eyes of each grandmother. The rest of the "random" photos I have sorted by shape and size...and color vs. black and white. I have tossed all blurry photos...or unattractive shots...OMG and scenary pictures! How many mountain and ocean pictures did my mother need! lol. Thank you for your cheerful spirit and your time in making such detailed organization tips. I am making my husband watch these next :)
Long ago, someone might have had a picture of themselves as a toddler, maybe a wedding picture, and one in their older years. I actually hate that today we are drowning in pictures. The only time I look at my pics is when I want to declutter them. I'm probably an anomaly in this smart phone selfie world.
Thank you so much! I didn't know how and where to start. Your idea of not putting the photos in chronological order was so good for me. It gave me a big push to start. I loved your video, thanks again.❤
Photo organizing can feel overwhelming at first. Good for you for getting started! How is it going so far?
I made photo cubes from our loose favorite photos. I sand and stain wood cubes, mod podge photos onto the cubes and display them in crystal bowls, vases, etc. Each cube holds 6 pictures. Seeing them on the coffee table makes me smile. 😊
I find that photo books are really the solution for our family to enjoy the digital mountain of photos. Each year, I pick the highlight pictures for our family and create one album as soon as there's a great coupon available. For the paper photos, I radically eliminated photos that show buildings, landscapes etc. and only kept photos that captured the spirit of the event or vacation and that had loved ones in it. If I ever feel the need to look at pictures of the Eiffel Tour or a certain beach, there are thousands available online in better quality.
Tanja Hermann this is a great point .... thank you!
Yes! Thank you thank you thank you for not just saying we should scan them! I also LOVE being able to physically flip through an album, and I find I do it more than looking through pictures on my computer. In terms of how to sort them, my dad ALWAYS said that nobody will care about landscape pictures, only about the people in pictures. I didn't understand that when I was younger, but now I do. It also helps keep me in check with how many pictures I actually even take to begin with. If someone isn't in the shot, I try not to take it. I think being conscious of how many pictures we're taking AS we take them is incredibly important in managing the inventory later. It's the same concept of only bringing really quality items into your house, but we don't apply it to taking pictures for some reason.
We got a really big album of every single wedding picture made because I didn't pay all that money to have the pictures sit on a computer! I have looked at it with friends and family members so many times, and it was 100% worth the time and cost. I'm super curious to hear your take on digital pictures because that's where I'm overwhelmed. I would love to make them into albums, but I struggle with actually doing that.
"Children want to be noticed and know where they fit in." This is going up in my craft room. I've been struggling with how to scrapbook my step children (we are at a hard place right now.) This gave me a lot of clarity on why/how to scrapbook our family!
That's so cool!!! Glad to hear!!♥️
Winner of a video, I have been researching "organizing the ideas" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Ever heard of - Ponrooklyn Xeyichael Secret - (search on google )?
It is an awesome one off product for discovering how to declutter and keep your house tidy without the headache. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my brother in law got great success with it.
Yes I think this should be in print and hung
My mom past away 5 yearss ago and I'm still putting off going through her photos. My parents traveled and after my dad passed she continued to travel with groups. The pictures are numerous. Not to mention family pics. My criteria for what I keep in this ...... if the picture makes me smile, I keep it. I've started going through one album a week because trying to do it all at once was to emotional. I hope to be through them all by the fall. 😘
Love this approach Patty!! ♥️😘
Yes, my husband doesn't understand but when his parents pass, I hope he will have an epiphany.
@Patty at rumdy creations
My mom also passed 5 years ago. My dad passed only 2 months ago. Like you, the number of photos is overwhelming, but I love your approach of one album each week! Thank you so much!!
@@Sentimentalist0923 The hardest part is just getting started. Once you get over that hump it starts to get a bit easier.
@@pattyatrumdycreations134 thank you for the encouragement ❤️
I did the exact opposite. I took all the photo albums and took the photos out and put them in photo boxes that take up less space, protect the photos better and I have them in order. We always got doubles, so I gave the boys their childhood photos and we still have a set here.
Me too. Takes up less space!
I'm going that right now. Putting pictures in albums required A LOT of time for me to lay them out, decide which go in and in which order, etc.
Now I'm just getting them into ~1" deep plastic photo boxes with each dedicated to a specific year (or several years or longer). I label the outside of the little box with the timeframe, and I'm done.
With the number of photos we have and how fastidious I am, I would've grown old and died before I ever got even half of mine into albums. 😂 Now, I follow a variation of Cass's method, and it's amazing!
I just sort photos into ~1" deep clear, plastic photo boxes with each box dedicated to a specific year (or several years, or longer).
I label the outside of the little box with the timeframe, put them in a pretty decorative box, and I'm done!
Now, instead of our photos remaining buried at the back of my closet indefinitely, they live in the living room where they can be enjoyed by all!
In the last few days, I've sorted through ~110 years of photos (with the bulk of those spanning ~60 years)! I still have ~15-20 years left, but it'll actually get done!
It's helpful to keep in mind that up until the last century, people just had to remember their memories without ANY photos.
Photography was invented in 1800
@@472_d3 1839. But, people would have only had major life event photos. Not a photo for everywhere they went. I struggle with this. And it wasnt really popular until kodak got into it and made it accessible to the common people. Polaroid cameras helped a lot too.
And they were incredibly precious when they did have them. They are still precious.
I think the same. My mother had so many photos but my siblings and I didn't really want many...including the ones from her Mum, my Nan's albums. I kept the best, shared and ditched the rest. I am doing my Swedish Death Cleaning: Margareta Magnusson now I have Marie Kondo's spark joy konmarie method sorted. I will keep only that which sparks joy and maybe do a forgiveness ritual when ditch the ones that bring up negative memories so my girls won't have too much to sort through when I fall off my perch.
I have had my photos in my too hard basket for decades but brought them into the lounge to go through with your statement in mind. Memories can be triggered by a scene in a movie or a person walking by...I see my Dad in many older men's faces. I have an old port that I think I will use for storing my photos...shoebox style...for the moment...maybe...we'll see...lol.
I may take two, or ten, sort throughs it is time...
Scanning is overwhelming to me also. Chronological order was important to me so I took 3 months to go through every photo and discard and organize. It was a bit painful but oh so very rewarding and worth every minute of it! We do enjoy going through them as a family 😊
That's awesome, way to go!! ♥️
I watch your videos with my 6 year old and whenever you say a thumbs up is the best compliment, she actually gives you a physical thumbs up while smiling at the screen. It's the best! So know there is always another thumbs up added to your total, probably the best one of all... 😊
Looooove this Becca!!! Thank you!! 😘♥️
Dealing with all the photos, including slides, that my parents have is my main goal for this year and it is crazy overwhelming. I really need to remember that not all are worth keeping and archiving. Thanks.
I’m currently in the “ everything shoved in bins in a closet/under the bed” stage
Pictures are the one area I haven’t had the mindset to deal with, but I can now thanks to you!
I was so stressed with the idea of having to scan everything in and/or put everything in chronological order that I didn’t want to tackle it
I love looking through photos and have fond memories of doing so with my grandparents... thank you for motivating me to start!
Thank you! I’ve been so overwhelmed with all the photos. I’m an only child and I’ve inherited both sides of my grandparents photos, my parents and my husbands family photos. I’m pretty sure my kids don’t want to be left with thousands of photos in boxes. I also stress out thinking about trying to get them in chronological order, so I like the idea of not worrying about that because it seems like an impossible task.
I’ve been scrapbooking for 15 years and it has completely changed through the years from my dating early 20’s to my married with kids life! I love it.
I want to be able to grab the photo albums & run if I have to. So, I'm taking every one out of the frames and getting them ready for when I have the right kind of albums. A nice seated organizing project.
It's a great feeling when you know your photos are safe in case of a disaster. Have you considered scanning them?
@@thephotomanagers What does scanning your photos do?
@@rowan0331 create a digital backup copy so you can share your photos
I hate throwing out pics but love taking a bunch of my family. So I started making collage books of them. I take all the pics from the year and print them out in different sizes, and make pages for the album that are completely covered in pictures. It's a mix of scrapbooking, crafting, puzzles and photos which makes it fun for me to assemble. My family loves looking thru them and it seems like you find a new picture everytime you go thru them.
Good idea looking back good memories with family yes is it's true
Thank you for watching!!! I know it's not "one size fits all" when it comes to topics like photos and other sentimental items but I hope this helps!! PLEASE share your best tips for simplifying family photos below (you have such GREAT ideas!!) or other roadblocks you're running into with them! Oh! And PHOTO ALBUM (holds 300 photos with room to write next to the phots): amzn.to/2IDLN8f or a set of 4 ALBUMS for an even better deal amzn.to/31tCMY4 😘 Dawn
I have stacks of photos just waiting for a video and here it is! Thank you Dawn.
Thanks so much for tackling this subject Dawn!! It is a HUGE help! I will be returning to this video to help me reset my mind while I sort through ALL THE PICTURES!! 😅
You have a video about scaling down sentimental items... could someone here direct me to it, please?
@@sunshine3914 Here you are!! ua-cam.com/video/h9go0-q2UMU/v-deo.html
Love your channel. I scrapbook for my kids and because it's a creative outlet for me and it makes me so happy to see them look through them. I am so glad you mentioned digital ones not being enjoyed bc when people dont ever print pictures it's unlikely the future generations will actually see them! I recently decluttered childhood photos of my husband and me and realized we didn't need everything. We took time to mail some to family members and friends which made us happy :) I'm recovering from surgery now and so happy to have gotten in that one big project beforehand!! Keep up the good work!! P.s. love your hair!!
When we were selling our family home to downsize to a very small house, I was motivated to declutter the photos. I made an individual album for each child, my husband and myself. Then another one for special occasions ( holidays, vacations, graduations) and then one for just everyday life, so 7 in total.
I kept the photos to 200 per individual in their personal album. EVERYTHING else was divided up and given to the grandparents and our grown children. What was crucial to this step was knowing that I only have about 20 photos from my own childhood, but it’s enough. So I was confident that 200 would be plenty. 😂
This is one of the best minimalistic photo storage & sharing methods I have learned about. I personally will need a backup storage of all family photos, but I love this idea of curating up to 200 photos for each child, plus another album for holidays, etc. The curated photo albums can easily be shared on Google / Amazon photos.
@@Jerry_McKimm
Thank you! I hope it works out as well for you as it did for us.
The whole point of simplifying our house, is so we can highlight the things we enjoy and we like and we appreciate.
I had to type this to remind me of the purpose. Well it is one of many reasons, but this one motivates me the most.
Thank you so much for this video! I have on my list to tackle our photos this week...to get them into something manageable and that we can look at often. I have put it off because I want the albums I create to be perfect and organized by exact date of the event. But my son brought home his binder yesterday from preschool and has not stopped talking about how much he loves to look at his photos and projects. That binder is not perfect or in order but it is his work and he just loves it. It was a great reminder that he doesn't want perfection and I dont have to try so hard to give him the perfect photo album. Thank you for the affirmation that we are enough for our families without having to be perfect. ❤
The tip on not putting your photos in chronological order is golden! When I first learned I don't have to have my photos in order, it was so freeing & so much easier to organize photos. The system I used, grouped photos into 4 categories (& I created sub-categories from there): 1. Us (our immediate family - hubby, kids & g-kids), 2. People (extended family & friends, or others), 3. Places (travel photos or where location is the main focus of the photo) & 4. Things (food, the new car, ... ). I still try to organize in order as much as possible, but no longer view it as a requirement of getting photos put into albums so we can actually enjoy looking at them & reminiscing with loved ones. Blessings!
Some time back I started looking through all my loose pictures and dividing them between my three older kids so they would have some pictures of them with family. Then I put them in albums for them to have. (It was because I was not getting any younger and they needed to go...)
On my oldest daughter 40th Birthday 🎂 I had hers fixed and gave it to her ... she was so excited! I then brought out the two boys albums for them!
So they they all looked at each other’s and laughed ... remember this or this ... it was just a blessing to hear and see. (I was witnessing how it would have be if I had passed and they where looking at single pictures and deciding which one got what picture!)
I still have their 8x10 pictures in an album with me. Just could not let them go! I sit down and go through them every now and then!🌹
I sorted pics into events and holidays and then went through each pile. Example: Christmases. I did each year looking for duplicates and I got rid of dups and then bad or very similar pics. I did this for all holidays and then events like birthdays, camping and the like. It worked great cuz I first separated and then put each event in a big envelope and labeled it. Then I was able to sort them one event at a time without any mess. So much easier.
I actually just had to go through my photos to make a video for my daughter's wedding and wished I had them organized already because it took so long. Since I had to get them all out, I researched ways to organize while I was dealing with them and I cannot remember where I saw this, but they have these plastic containers where you can put pictures in smaller plastic containers (clear) and it is like a suitcase, but the little individual containers fit inside the suitcase so you can separate by category, etc. I found one at Hobby Lobby. That is a good alternative instead of the boxes you cannot see through and to keep in one place, but after trying to utilize that, I am with you in thinking the albums are the way to go so we can all enjoy. I too remember going to my grandmas when I was younger and I would ask her to pull out the pictures and she loved showing me and sharing, so I know my family would love that. I am glad you said do not try to put them in an order because that is overwhelming because that is exactly why I kept putting it off - thinking of how big of a task that is....this is motivating to get it going!! Thank you!!
Many years ago I spent several weeks with my grandmothers going through their photos, dividing them up, making albums of each of their kids and extra albums of extended family and friends. My grandmothers were able to identify many people and appreiated my time and efforts.
I like digital photo frames. With just (one or two) special photos. Kids, weddings, family pet, brother, sister, parents, grandparents. That's it.
A word on Culling, Storage, and Sorting - Culling - This really helps, especially when you talk about saving just a few of the special occasions. Sentimentality can get in the way of culling less-than-good photos that should be tossed. Storage - Photo albums are way too expensive for those of us with hundreds of photos. I will purchase archival sleeves that can be put in 3-ring binders. The sleeves on Amazon are fairly inexpensive. Sorting - I started sorting my photos by primary person, that way when the photos are eventually given to family members, each of my children has their own album of them and their children. As you mention, this is always a work in process, but getting photos out of boxes, and keeping them safe is the primary goal. Thank you for this! - gus (Florida)
It never occurred to me that I could put photos in an album out of order! That tip made me stop and realize I can theme it any way I need ("kids before age 8") and just put them in! Soooo much better than having them uselessly hidden in a box!
I made albums for each of my kids several years ago so they can see their childhood and then I inherited my grandparents albums, so I intend to go through them and create new albums of just the important pictures so I am not carrying around 10 messy albums that can’t even be opened without stuff falling out. Once again you have inspired me.
I have watched this probably 5 times in the past day. So much resonated with me….especially that kids/people want to be noticed and a part of a group. That statement alone has hit the nail on the head from my life of feeling unnoticed and not part of a group.
After 48 hours of impleminting some of your tips, i am still drowning in photos and still have 27 scrapbooks that are now bringing me more misery than joy. I have discarded well over 1000 pics and have more to go through.
Thank you for lighting a fire under me.
I love your pragmatical approach to this overwhelming task. I'm slowly learning to accept that 'done is better than perfect'. Your videos help a lot! Thank you!
Me too!! I used to edit my digital photos before making them into albums and I got nowhere. Now I’m just leaving them unedited and creating the albums. I feel that if any photos are so special when then I can go back and edit them individually to print out for display but having a physical album of slightly imperfect images is better than them all just sitting on my pc waiting for me to edit them 😁
My husband made a collage slideshow for our Amazon Fire screen saver on our TV. My girls love seeing their pictures and other family members pop up on the screen.
Yes I love this. I have something similar for my computer screen saver. But I need to limit it to favourite specials photos. At the moment I have random things like pics of things I've sold or things my hubby took a photo of for work puts all the blurry pics or ones that didn't work out.
Unfortunately, my folks had been putting off going through loads of photos for years. It wasn't until near my Father's death that we took the time to sort through them. We threw out so many that never needed to be saved in the first place! When it came time to choose photos of my father for the funeral home presentation , it became an easier task to search through it all.
Additionally, it opened my eyes up to the fact that I avoided being in pictures for years. I was fat and hated how I looked. So I was either out of the shot or I was the photographer. It was surprising to me. Now still fat and in my 50's I will make a point not to avoid the camera any longer.
Bless your heart Lori, I always felt that way, untill someone said to me, how will anyone remember you?
I am glad to know I am not the only person with boxes of old photos in my house 😁Good advice!
You nailed it, Dawn, when you said that one of the problems is that we'd get duplicates of our pictures and we would often take multiple pictures to make sure at least one was good. Because of those two things, I have way too many pictures!!
I have watched this three times during the process of cleaning up old photos...I had soooooo many and it was overwhelming. This helped to give me permission to keep one or two photos from events rather than all 24 x 2 photos.
I have do many photos, so overwhelming. they are in boxes they are in the containers that they came in from the store so so many all over the place. A few are in albums but way too many still in the bags when I pick them up from the store. I have been putting this off for years! Still working on clearing the clutter and getting rid of things, but I am going to take care of these photos as soon as I pair down. Thank you for this video. I did get into scrapbooking, a ways back when my son was little. That became overwhelming to, because you wanted to make the perfect page and I had so many pictures that I wanted all of them there. It was just crazy, so now I have some books that are scrapbooking some half-done just crazy. I just need something simple get the pictures in label be done. Thanks again have a great day.
I like real photos best ! more fun flipping through an album then clicking through it
Me too!
We also get photo books done through Snapfish. We are much more likely to flick through a book than a folder on the PC.
E photo frames are great but they never last more than a year or two.
I did a major organizing of our photos in the Winter. I pulled all the photographs out of their bulky padded albums, which I gave away. I purged as I went; getting rid of all duplicates, poor quality, unflattering, and forgotten/incomprehensible photographs. All the photographs were stacked in order, and set into storage boxes which my husband took to work. There he scanned them onto a cd at high speed with the photocopier. We made copies of these discs for each of our four adult kids and put them with our Will. Then for good measure I took down the shelf that had held those forty years of photo albums. Done.
Wow Angela, that's awesome! Way to go!!
Excellent!
I am impressed. Wow. That was a lot of effort but so satisfying!
Hallo, I do the same ! :)) Lg Angela
THANK YOU for mentioning not keeping ALL photos! I throw out photos because there are tooooo many and also, as you said, not all are needed to tell a story! Knowing that someone else says this makes me feel better about tossing photos.
I love those kinds of photo albums too. I have scanned 3 generations of our family photo's but that was before I had my daughter. Now the pressure is on because my daughter wants photo albums for her from since she was born which is all digital. Nine years of photo's and photography use to be my hobby. I gives anxiety when ever I think about were too start oh my ...lol....
I started scrapbooking when I was 11 and it was my hobby for years. I stopped about 5 years ago bc we moved into an apartment and I lost my craft room so it was inconvenient to search for every tool, embellishment, or paper I needed and eventually everything was packed up in storage. Now I have a craft room again but I started minimizing about 3 years ago and now I don't want scrapbooks lol. I dont want an entire book for 1 event. I have so many already. Although I do have one 12X12 for my high school years. I did a 1 or 2 page spread for special occasions and I get alot of enjoyment from that one. But I have scrapbooks for anything and everything that I don't find enjoyment in. Now I'd rather frame 1 or 2 nice photos from an event or occasion and put them on the wall and make a nice statement wall with family photos so they can be seen and enjoyed all the time. But I feel bad getting rid of the old scrapbooks I already have even though I don't want them lol
Same here…..i am deconstructing my albums, cutting off those edges and putting the pages i want to keep in a 3 ring binder 12 x12 page protector. I am drowning in Scrapbook pages about the mundane.
Thanks Dawn! We’ve gone to making/ printing photo books but I do have one box of old photos that I would like to get albums.
Thanks so much for all your encouragement! I am on my 4th pass through my home and making another pile to give for an upcoming garage sale. I can’t believe all the things I missed the first 3 times! We have 5 kids and it gives me so much peace to see all these items leaving my home!
It took days but I went through all of our photos. I purged and focussed on people rather than places. Now the books are in order and fun to flip through. Thanks for sharing your method.
I make photo collages to hang on the wall. It serves as art while cherishing pictures.
Thank you so much! Very timely! I appreciated too that the albums don't need to be perfect. We can all be hard on ourselves, can't we?! I've wrestled with how to begin - I literally do not have one album created, but LOTS of boxes of photos. I've recently decided on a way to do it, and wondered if others have done it this way, or may like the idea.
I am going to buy acid/lignin free oaktag and acid free protective sleeves for a 3 ring binder, put photos on the paper and insert two pages back-to-back into the protective sleeve, then put them into the 3 ring binder in chronological order. When I find random photos, since its a 3 ring binder, I can insert a page where it belongs. And, I can write on the oaktag. I think this will be the least expensive route for me to go knowing I have so many to do.
I searched for bigger protective sleeves and albums - besides 8.5 x 11" but the price was so much more that I'm sticking to normal paper size and albums.
Wondered for a long time about "how many" albums to make (as in: 1 for each child, etc?) - decided to make ONE set of albums, and then I plan to take them to a copy center to make a hard copy for each child as well as a digital copies for them and one on a flash drive to keep in a safe place.
Thought I'd share in case others are at this wondering/beginning stage as well. It helped with not having to have everything perfectly in order, since I can insert later if I come across things - and can just get started.
This is a wonderful idea! I like with the binders you can rearrange the order like you said!
@@TheMinimalMom Thank you so much, I am hoping the plan works as well as it does in my imagination!! I get lots of ideas! :) I truly enjoy how you share about your journey with minimalism with your family - it has been very helpful, and also your Sunday messages with your sister. You've done a great job with your site, and have been such a blessing, thank you.
Also, I sent an email recently to your Ithinkwecouldbefriends, and I'm sure that you get overwhelmed with so many messages from people, but wanted to share that I had also written there.
Thank you again for all you share - and how you share! Blessings to you!
After a year of cleaning out the basement, I have just now started to tackle the kids’ (ages 20 and 25) school memories, art, and photos. I just kept putting them all in the one location for the past year whenever I was minimizing other areas. Now I have put together a simple scrapbook (with the old magnetic page photo albums) with the school memories. I also took pictures of my daughter’s fabulous art and am making a simple photo book through Snapfish. Thanks for the advice and helping me see that I only need 1 or 2 good photos for the best memories!
Thanks for all your advice for the past year. I have been rewatching the videos again as I move forward in this process.
I just got tired of photos taking up head space so I shredded 90% of my photos and all negatives plus the cd's that came with developing the pictures. 😲 I don't regret shredding most of it. Now I have a very small container of SD cards of pics, it's never ending lol
Calgon take me away!
Hello from Alberta Canada 💛
Wow! That's quite the declutter!!! 👍
You know how some people feel the need to leave a legacy, I feel that this life is not about me and it's solely about Jesus (God). However I did keep a handful of pictures of my family. God bless you and your family....💜
@@tignim231 Agreed! 🙌🏻 ✝️
I think an important point is to just make an appointment with yourself to keep working on it. Whether it’s 15 min. Or a day.
Yes! That's a great point!!! 👍♥️
After bringing home all my Mothers pictures, I felt totally overwhelmed!!! So, I took ALL of my pictures, grandparents, my childhood, my family, etc., and went in my spare room. In increments of time, I separated into piles on the floor all of the photos starting with my grandparents, and coming to the present, the pictures into decades. I got picture boxes from Hobby Lobby and started with the first decade pile. I tackled one decade at a time into order and put them, labeled by decade, into the picture boxes. This took a few weeks, but I didn't pressure myself for time. It's finished now and I am happy with my solution. I hope maybe this idea can help someone with this emotional and time consuming job!! 😊❤️💕
Does not have to be in chronological order-I love this and what a help and motivator.
I have to get past that notion that it has to be organized into years or holidays or events. I've been telling myself for years that I will get to it... first the physical photos, then making photobooks from digital ones (looking forward to next week's video!). Time to finally just tackle it.
Thank you for doing a video on this. Scrapbooking and photos occupy almost a full closet and I struggle with them so much
Looking forward to your digital one too!
Your videos have helped me when minimizing the items in my home. Your phrase of "managing items" definitely keeps things in perspective for me when decluttering ❤
I don't think I have commented before, I have on Diana's page. You are both so dear. Thank you...I have decluttered pretty much my whole house, been through every closet and drawer, even my storage room. I've been married 33 years and have 3 grown sons. My muscle for decluttering has gotten stronger, but I have saved my photos for last. Have started some, and sentimental things...it is hard, but easier now that I have done so much already. You have to be ready and in the right frame of mind. My parents and grands are all gone now, aunts and uncles too, our boys did not know them, except my mom, so downsizing is more about for them in the future. I have my memories. I like your ideas about only keeping a few photos of each event. That is what I am going to do and only the really good ones. God Bless you
How funny! I'm binge watching your channel to catch up on the last few videos I haven't seen before I'm all up to speed. This video popped up as I'm going through two full photo boxes of my own from childhood! Luckily I grouped the photos into years at one point, and now I just mindlessly getting rid of doubles... but I'm ready to let go of the mediocre pictures and just keep the photos that tell the stories best, and get them into books where they can actually be enjoyed! What's even more daunting though are the boxes of my husband's family photos... Slowly but surely I'm getting more organized. I won't let another 15 years of marriage pass before we can start enjoying our memories! Thank you for all your valuable advice! It really has been so helpful and relatable!
Scanning photos or having a physical album is NOT an either/or concept. I love my photo albums and the scrapbooks I've made, but I've also taken the time to scan. If there's ever a fire or other event that can ruin my photos, I still have access to them because of the scans. The other bonus of having scanned the pictures is that I can create meaningful cards with the pictures for my friends and family. Everyone anticipates the personalized cards I send.
Wow! I currently have quite a few boxes stuffed full of tons of photos that I have been too overwhelmed to deal with for several years now. Needless to say, I really needed these tips. Everyone else I've heard always talks about scanning them all and I find that way too daunting to fool with. I appreciate how you always keep things so simple and practical! Thank you girl! God bless you ❤
This is my project right now (well last 3 years it has been an on/off project!) I am not brutal with photos I keep no blurred no duplicate and agree with backgrounds they tell a story.
I only use albums for my children’s 1st photos, big holidays abroad then the rest are in photo boxes where they hold 6x 100 each so it helps me keep my limit to 600 a year! Still a lot but my family is extending & I don’t like just keeping them digitally…I want to touch & see them😁
I love journaling, scrapbooking and the tactile feel of the paper (vs all of this in digital format). So I will be hopelessly and willingly unable to part with my albums and journals. I will say that I agree with using one or 2 photos that evoke the feeling and memory and chucking or scanning the rest. Photo keeping has to be done consistently in order to not get behind and that takes commitment and diligence if one does not want it to get overwhelming. Since I like journaling and scrapping I throw all my stuff in a box and then go back and spend some happy time structuring it in my journal or album. I use not only photos but other things like receipts, tickets, programs, etc to make the page. But that's my preference because it's my hobby and a joy not a hardship. Very good tips here for the folks who just want to get a handle on photos.
I bought a high speed photo scanner with a feeder. Best money I ever spent. Scanned in hundreds or thousands of photos, uploaded to a Google drive, shared access with multiple extended family, and then, gulp, threw out a bunch, then put precious ones in a box. I also make digital photo albums, slideshows for TV viewing (my fave) and physical albums for my daughters who love those things.
You gave me permission 😁😊 to use a regular album. 👍 I used to scrapbook back when it was so popular. What a daunting task! I started to smashbook and that was fun. Now I just need to get the rest in an album and be done.
I love this video. We started to upload on photos to familysearch.org so we could type our memories with each photo. Then all our family could see the images and they were safe too. It is what works for us.
Ah, I hadn't heard of that, that's really cool!! ♥️
M Torres are you doing all your memories or just “family history” ones?
Scrapbooking is my passion so photos bring me the ultimate joy, but because of that I also take a lot of photos. I can understand how it can easily get overwhelming. One way that people can sort photos without doing so chronologically is using Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories system which basically just sorts them into four categories - Things We Do, Places We Go, People We Love & All About Us it works for photos in albums or just stored in boxes. Scrapbookers will have lots of ideas on photo management so they’re a great source of help and knowledge if anyone needs assistance with their photos and best thing is they’ll actually enjoy helping out in this area.
I think albums are definitely the way to make photos safe and accessible; my family has quite a few because I used to put everything in chronological order (this was WAY back...in my younger days). One thing I would love to mention about yours...PLEASE GET YOUR PHOTOS OUT OF THE "MAGNETIC SHEET" ALBUM IF YOU WANT TO PRESERVE THEM. Those albums are NOT acid free (can you see the bit of yellowing around the edges of the pages) and that acid will destroy your photos (they will crumble into bits!). Almost all albums use photo safe paper these days, but those old ones didn't. :)
Just started to scrapbook our homes we have lived in 40 years of marriage getting it down to f5 or 6 per house is reducing my photos by too many to count we've lived in 19 homes during this time. Not because of our jobs but because I loved to paint and wallpaper and then sell and flip 34 years ago it was ever an event on a television show! It was my way of providing a income while being a stay at home mom! Have a great week! Love your channel!
Thank you. Yes, we have photos here that need attention. For our daughter’s 50th Birthday I put together an album of photos from her baby days until now. She loved it. She said, “Thank you for my gifts, especially the photo album.”
When I started looking through pictures of vacations, I realized there are a lot of them that are just scenery. New rule: If no one is in them, they're gone! Thanks so much for all your inspiration!
I have been making such amazing progress in decluttering my home, but those boxes...& boxes...& boxes....of pics in my storage closet are mocking me....
Cindie, I have 5 plastic shoe boxes of photos to organize. I stopped on my decluttering process with this part. I will pick back up after back to school. I see the boxes everyday. But it will be completed soon. You got this!
Christine Kennedy Thanks for the encouragement!😊
I wish I could come and help Cindie!!!! ♥️😉
@@TheMinimalMom Rest assured, you ARE helping. Cleaned all 3 bathrooms last night & realized I have EMPTY drawers in every bathroom because of YOU!
Help! Minimal Mom Dawn, I cleaned out a cabinet with 9 bins of clutter. I put them in categories but the amount of stuff in the categories is huge! I am asking myself questions to minimize but I'm stuck. I think I need everything on the boxes.
So wonderfully timely for me! I gathered and saved my grandmother's albums when she moved from her home to assisted living. I need to go through them and make it a manageable amount. Now I have some tools to make that task seem possible. And then I can tackle my own hoard of photos next!
You are a life saver, Dawn! ❤️. Because of this video I had the skilled mindset to conquer my Leviathon of 120 years of family photos and film and paper “keepsakes”. The closet no longer makes me cringe in my gut when I open it. The burden is gone! You are Proberbs 11:25 - thank you for sharing with us what you’ve learned. Blessings!
I loved these tips. So nice to see someone who likes albums instead of digitizing. The handwritten note next to the photo idea is one I’m going to do!
Honestly, the only photos I kept printed were the ones from my younger childhood from birth to around age 12. After that, I was in charge of taking pictures digitally and storing them on an external hard drive so there was no need for printing them out. When I was decluttering I saw that I have thousands of pictures from over the years of people that made me upset, sad, or angry. I ended up ripping up all the scrapbooks and albums that I had made in my youth and tossed many away in the bin. I am happier now that I only kept the ones that were rare and special. Now my mom... that's another story. I will be going through her loose pictures she has giant bins of them in her house. I know I am going to be the one who has to sort and place in albums and I am excited about it. :3
Green Serene thanks for your comments as this helps me realize what I’m keeping may not be what my child enjoys. I do have a daughter who does have a lot of bad memories from childhood so I may ask her to go through photos and see what makes her happy to keep. Then put those in an album for her.
I am a scrapbooker so the amount of photos I have is insane. I have made a conscious effort to really only keep the ones with people in them, and always journal in my scrapbooks as well. For trips or special occasions with a lot of photos I do mini albums. My grandchildren love to look through them all.
I'm a scrapbooker and I totally share your thoughts on photos. I don't have an album for each trip or event because it becomes something to store. I choose a few photos to represent things we've done. I don't scrapbook in chronological order. I scrapbook what I feel like in the moment and don't worry myself with things being in order. The things I write tell the story and timeframe. I need to get better about getting rid of the extras but I'm working on it. Thank you for inspiring me to take a better look at everything I own. I like that you say "you do you" and remind us that we all need to do what works for us. I don't think I will ever be able to be a minimalist but anything less than what I have now is an improvement.
After our parents passed (both within 7 months) we found 15 large (as in large regular cardboard boxs) of photographs. Unbeknownst to my brother or me, my mother had taken a photography course in the 50's. No wonder she always had a camera in her hand!. We used to joke and say you could flip through the photos and you would have a video of our childhood. I am taking on the task of scanning every one of them (yep!). I have been using the highest resolution. While it is very time intensive, for me it is worth it - both personally and to pass on the documentation to other family members and to children and grandchildren. While I know you concentrate on minimalism, I think that even similar photos should be kept - perhaps not in the photo album on the shelf, but in appropriate storage. Unless the photo is of a finger in front of the camera lens or totally unfocused, I keep them. One never knows might be important to a family member down the line.
I know I'm watching this video 2 years after it was published, but I want to thank you for the ideas and the link to the albums you like. I scrapbooked for several years but had a huge backlog of pics that was overwhelming, yet I knew the journaling about them was the important part. This winter some water damage forced me to go through them and I only saved the pictures worth scrapbooking. I spent about $24 in dollar tree containers with lids and sorted them by family members and categories, but still don't know if I will ever actually scrapbook them. Your solution with slide in albums that have a space to write is a game changer for me. I followed the Amazon link for the multi set and found a set of 4 "used" in original packaging and like new condition for $35. Now I can get all those pics out of bins and into a "working" album with a brief description. Once it's not so overwhelming, I can go back and separate them into albums for myself and my 2 children and only have "wasted" one of the 4 set of albums. This really solves a huge problem that's been hanging over me. I also think that it might bring back the joy in scrapbooking to me - because I'll be able to choose the ones I WANT to work on, not feel like I have to do all of them. Thank you, thank you!
I'm so motivated. I wish I wasn't at work! My mantra is 'progress not perfection!'
Fly Lady Marla and Diane in Denmark both share this mantra! So motivating!
@@shannonengelken4629 Your right. I borrowed it from my friend who heard it from FlyLady. 😀
1) 1:42 how do you want to store your photos? 2) 3:00 simplify and pare down the photos (keep highlights, keep the ones that tell the story) The goals is to get it to a manageable amount. 3) 5:50 select you album. Remember that it doesn't happen to be perfect and doesn't have to be in chronological order. 4) 6:52 don't tackle sentimental items first.
My simplifying journey is coming along so slowly. I'm a little lost in photo/scrapbooking clutter. I have taken thousands of pictures of my son in the past two years. I planned to create some scrapbooks and have a huge box full of pictures, momentos, scrapbook paper and stickers. I really want to get back to it once my son is a little older, or when I have more time. Thanks for turning me on to FlyLady. I have decluttered a lot and learning to have more grace and patience with the process, with myself and others. Thanks for the tips on managing a household, raising kids, having a healthy marriage, etc. I also enjoy your and Diana's Faith + Simple Living videos. I also am using your meal planning/grocery template, which I have made my own. I can't say "Thanks!" enough. I'm also stuck in the weightloss struggle. I should probably go back and watch your videos from earlier this year.
So I have an idea for the extra photos.... I don't know about you but with my family every time they flip thru an albumn someone will always end up saying something along the lines of wanting a copy etc...but some of those family members are not always reliable for returns or one photo turns into twenty that they want to copy... so what I do is put a few extras of the same photo behind the photo in the albumn. It is not the best way because your still keeping them (however all in ome place and not in a separate box) but it never fails that someone always mentions wanting a copy of certain photos. I also love throwing photos in with bday cards,etc so it keeps me from driven an extra trip to the walmart photo centre!
Myheart2yours I do this too!
Being retired, I look for easy gifts, I put in a picture of their childhood in their birthday card for my kids
@@barbfrank917 perfect!
I’m very fortunate that my mom likes to scrapbook, but my husband and I have a huge bin full of his and his siblings’ childhood photos. Thanks again for the great tips, it’ll make helping him pare down so much easier! We plan to scan the best ones and give memory cards to everyone in the family.
You just gave me the freedom to get rid of all of the pictures that I won't use. I don't know why I needed that permission, but I just did! Thank you!
Thanks! I started going through my photos late last month with the goal of getting them all cataloged this year (I started throwing pictures in boxes in 1994!) I have seen several videos on how best to do it, but I like yours the best because you like albums and your suggestions were practical, especially copying just the *special* photos to digital as backup.
Wow, only 5 year ago and you look so incredibly "glown-up" now if I may say. Love your brown hair and natural make-up these days. Advice is as always on point :)
I really like making printed Photobooks. I know it can be time consuming but they take up way less space then a regular album and you can fit so many pictures in a relatively thin book so you don’t have to sacrifice on deciding which memories to keep. It also helps keep the photos organized by year, event, vacation etc. I do this with all my Digital photos and have started the process of scanning in my printed photos and creating printed books with them as well. It does take time but it’s worth it. You can also order copies of the same book to give to kids, grandparents etc.
Great video. This is a big topic I love how you make it practical to start.
When converting a lot of pictures digital instead of scanning I took a picture with a tablet of the photo. Much faster and simpler than scanning. With device cameras so good these days it looks as good as original. It makes it easy to share the photos with friends and family too.
Just make sure you have good lighting on the photo and click away. I then uploaded from device to shutter fly with their app and then backed up all on hard drive.
Thank you Dawn for the reminder! I have gone through physical photos but have over 7,000 in my iPhoto library....... I have been dreaming of making some albums because the children love to see our wedding album and I'm sure they'd love to see more of themselves too. I needed the reminder and encouragement. The Lord is using you in ways you can't imagine ;) Keep it up my sister!
Your approach is very reasonable. I just might get started on some albums. My husband helped me purge many about a year ago but we still have so many. (Married 43 years with three children and five grandchildren) You've given me the encouragement to pick up an album next time I am at Walmart...little steps! Also looking forward to your digital topic. I've stopped making prints because I've felt overwhelmed by what I already have. My husband did scan all our photos...massive job but we still could not part with the prints. It did give us comfort that we had the backup discs in the safe.
Yes! I have both many many albums and boxes and boxes of loose photographs along with framed photos that came out of our parents homes. I also have negatives which are really worthless now. I tried to have a reprint made and the young girl at the photo department had no idea what a negative was! We are moving next year and need to go through all those boxes and my husband does not want to throw any photographs away!
This is perfect timing! I’m pretty much down to the more sentimental items I’ve hoarded throughout my childhood, youth, teen years, and early adulthood. And by hoard I mean hoard! I kept every picture anyone ever gave me, every movie ticket to every movie I ever saw and the ones of those who went with me, every picture a nephew, niece, cousin, or kid from church drew for me, every summer camp T-shirt...I could go on and on! Really excited to pare down and make these memories more accessible through photo books and photo albums so I can enjoy them now and with my kids someday just like you said, but without the clutter! Thanks for all the tips.
Also, any tips for handling sentimental items that were not given as gifts and that are not photos? Like summer camp memorabilia, journals from my teen years, and just odds and ends items that remind you of well loved events? I have a few ideas but I’d be really curious to know how you might handle these. Thanks!
For the summer camp t-shirts, you could make a t-shirt quilt.
I spent hours and hours scanning ALL our pictures (we have 6 kids) a few summers ago and it was a HUGE project but I am glad I did it. I also keep a few photo albums, like the one you mentioned that came from Walmart, where I keep favorite random pictures of the family and I can write a little snippet next to it. It’s not in any particular order but that is what makes it fun to look through!! Thanks for another great video! You’re awesome!
Wow, way to go Loretta!!! ♥️👍
I have about 30,000 photos on my computer 😱. I’ve started to make a big album online of each year and then a separate album for each holiday which is then printed out. It takes ages but I’ve loved looking at the albums and now the photos can be seen and shared. I’ve started with the most recent ones first and am working back in time. Not sure I’ll ever finish but it’s a rewarding project to do and even when creating the albums, it’s a lovely way to remember happy and special times.
A very helpful video! What motivated me to sort through old photos and put them into albums is when you said they do not have to be in chronological order. As I began to place pics in my album, I just started to gain a better understanding of where to place them. They are not in order, and that is okay, in fact it makes it a far better adventure when leafing through. I agree, too, that leafing through a physical photo album is nicer than just digital pics. My happiness level went way up after completing my first album and seeing lots of happy moments with family and friends. Thank you!!!