Holiday Photo Organization

The holidays are here. Hard to believe right? I bet you’re going to take a lot of photos! Now, it’s time to do something with them!

Having your photos printed right away gives you the luxury of remembering the order in which events occurred.  Most people want to show off their photos when they return home, not six months down the road.

Once you have selected your vacation photos and had them printed, make an appointment with yourself to put them into an album, or a scrapbook.  Try to do this within one month of returning from your vacation.  After all, you want to show them off right away don’t you?

While still on vacation, write down your daily itinerary.  At dinner each night, have your family write down their favorite moments, rides, or meals. Use these cards to help you create albums and scrapbooks.  Make sure to pack index cards and pens when you go on vacation!

If you have a digital camera and a laptop, use down time in your hotel room each evening to take the photos off of your memory card and put them onto your laptop.  This will allow you to have the maximum amount of memory space available to take photos the next day.  Some stores also allow you to upload your photos online.  Once your photos are uploaded you can order photos, and have them ready for you when you get home!  Many sites also allow users to email and share their photos with friends and family at home.  Its much cheaper, easier, and more personal than a postcard!

 

If you are ready to organize all of your photos, start by gathering them from all over your home.  Next, discard any unwanted duplicates, blinking photos, or just plain bad shots.  If you don’t want to show it off, is it worth keeping?

Then organize the remaining photos by year, child, or event.  Set aside the photos you want to put into albums or scrapbooks, and purchase plastic photo storage boxes for the rest.  Clearly label the contents of each box.  Some direct marketing scrapbook companies offer photo-sorting classes.  Consider hosting one for your friends.  This will help everyone get organized!

If you want to learn how to scrapbook, summer is a perfect time.  When purchasing scrapbook materials look for acid and lignin free products.  Products specifically designed for scrapbooking will help preserve your photos’ longevity.  You no longer have to seek out a specialty scrapbook store to buy products.  Large craft stores and superstores carry scrapbook materials.  There are also many direct marketing products available.

To ensure that scrapbooking is as easy on you as possible, keep a stockpile of materials (stickers, pages, adhesives, etc) on hand.  This way when you have ten minutes you can scrapbook instead of having to take a trip out for supplies.  A scrapbooking consultant can assist you with purchasing the basic necessities to get started.  However, a visit to your local craft store can also provide you with most of the supplies you should have on hand.  Some suggested products to have on hand: paper that fits the size scrapbook you will be creating, stickers for your family’s activities (soccer, camping, gardening, etc), double sided adhesive tape, and scissors.  If you want a more in-depth “how to” session, take a class through your local adult education, or host a scrapbooking class for your friends.  Many companies offer these free of charge.

If learning to scrapbook is more than you have time for, consider creating “lazy albums” for your kids or other family members.  When you order your photos, have extras created of at least one photo per event.  This can be a group shot of all the people that attended, or something especially memorable from the event.  Purchase albums or scrapbooks for these photos.  Every time you have a set of photos developed, add your selected photo to the album.  This creates an album that showcases all of life’s greatest events.  These albums are great to give your kids when they leave for college.  They are also great to give as gifts.  If your child is creative and loves art projects, allow them to take part in creating a “lazy album”.

If organizing all of your photos is a daunting task, hire a professional organizer to assist you.  Photos are often the only items we have left from life’s most important events.  Keep them organized so that future generations can enjoy them!