So how do YOU organize the photos?

**canadian gardener** · 02-06-2006, 04:00 PM

It's an area I fail MISERABLY at. I've put some into albums, but around the time we began homeschooling I started just shoving the envelope of photos and the negatives into a drawer.

Dd would put some into the albums, but she moved away this summer and I've got a drawer full.

This morning on CITYLINE TV they had Helen Buttageig on who does that NEAT show on HGTV about organizing.

She was talking about a low effort way, first culling all the duplicates, fuzzy shots, ugly shots or stuff you don't want to keep, and buying a bunch of matching photo file boxes and filing the keepers by year or by subject matter.

She mentioned buying all the boxes at the same time so they match and you can leave them out on the bookshelves or on display somewhere and just leaf thru the photos.

What I wanted to ask was -- WHAT ABOUT THE PHOTOS CURLING UP????? Unless the box is jammed tight so they stay straight.

What do you photo mavens in the village think?

How do you organize your photos?

What works well and is minimum effort?

Do you do the file box method?

**leeleeaub** · 02-09-2006, 01:24 AM

Until we got a digital camera I organized all photos in albums. As soon as the film got developed I would write on the back the date and where it was etc. Then I would either put them in a photo album or put them in a binder inside plastic sheets.
Since the digital camera I keep all pictures on my computer in seperate files according to the occassion.

**homesteadmamma** · 02-14-2006, 10:22 AM

Good question Margery. I've always kept them in the envelope they came in. I'd go through them first and throw out the ones I didn't want or the duplicates if I had too many. Then I'd file them in a drawer until I had time to put them in a photo album.

Now that I've started scrapbooking, I'm wishing I had kept them all in the envelope because now I have the job of taking them out of the albums and putting them on acid free pages.

**Nana2two** · 01-02-2009, 10:34 PM

Hello, i was curious on how you all organize pictures and keepsakes.I have 2 totes of pictures and and few totes of keepsake items,includes school projects and awards, ribbons. I have never done scrapbooking and thought of doing something along those lines with pics, so that way when the girls get out on there own and old enough to understand how many memories these things hold.they can have them. My 23 year old daughter with 2 boys is just now understanding about the memeories that these things hold.You know,that painted picture your little 1 brought home and they said it was most beautiful painted picture and to this day your still trying to figure out what its suppose to be.

**Momto2Boyz** · 01-03-2009, 09:13 AM

I've finally come into the technological age and I save them all on a disc.

I have a all in one printer/scanner/waffle maker (ok, I don't think it really makes waffles, but these days, it wouldn't surprise me).

It does a really good job of scanning art projects that my kids bring home from school. I have a disc of family photos for each year, then each child has a disc for their artwork. I make sure I save it with the date in the photo title. It is a huge space saver for us, becuase they bring so much stuff home with them. And while I am not keeping the original, I am still keeping the memory and can go back and look at them anytime!

**elphie** · 01-03-2009, 11:32 AM

For keepsakes/school projects I have a large hanging file box. My dd's files are yellow, my ds's red. There is a seperate file for each grade. The box is large enought (the size of a storage box) that I can also keep things too big or bulky for the folders in it as well. It is really fun for them to go back and look at how much they've learned and changed.

For pictures I have scrapbooks for each of the kids first year but then I got too busy to keep up with that. I now simply have a family album for each year and they are labeled with a white-out pen on the side so I can easily pull down 2003 if I'm looking for a specific picture. I buy the albums that have a place for journaling so I can still write in any precious memories without the hassle of creating scrapbooks.

**nvmommyx6** · 01-03-2009, 11:42 AM

I keep mine on CD also, the ones of the paintings from grade school age are in frames on the walls and for those pictures I still have in phisical form that are not in frames, well they are organized in totes, just smaller categorized ones!
I do suggest getting them onto CD just for the sake of making sure you have them so they can never be ruined!

**StartingOver** · 01-03-2009, 11:49 AM

Each one of my kids have one of those clear plastic storage boxes that you can slide under the bed. It's up to them what they want to save and what they want to pitch.

Everything from report cards, award ribbons, special art projects etc...go in that box. They can take that box with them when they leave or leave it for me to cherish.

**Patty A** · 01-03-2009, 01:03 PM

I am wondering how it would work to save the "papers" yearly. Then go through them at the end of the school year and pick a "FEW" favorites. Take a three ring binder, sectioned in grades that they were in and slide each one that you want to save in to a page protector and add it to the binder. Then when they was out of school you would have a binder of memories, with a few of the papers, ribbons, report cards, and special things all in one book. I have to wonder if this would be a good way of reducing the amount of papers we keep with each of the kids and all the things we keep.
What do you think? Do you think it would work to help reduce the amount we keep of those things?