Managing Memories-How to Organize Photographs

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from clients is: “How do I organize my photos?” As with most sentimental items, pictures are typically left until the end of an organizing project. Or, simply, not dealt with at all. Photo albums and boxes of pictures take up valuable space on shelves and closets. Sometimes, they take up premium headspace too. Especially if you have inherited an album stack of family photos, maybe full of people you don’t know. Where should you begin when it’s time to organize photographs?

You have to establish a goal. Are you looking to open up space on your bookshelf? Identify ancestors? Prove to your kids how awesome you were in the 80’s? Find a better storage solution? Or, get the pictures in order once and for all? Whatever your goal may be, here are a few tips to help get you started.

5 Tips to Help You Organize Your Photographs

1. Take Your Time-You won’t be able to accomplish this type of task in one sitting. Pace yourself, anticipate needing at least an hour to see any progress. Breaks are highly encouraged. Make sure you are comfortable and have enough room to spread out with your piles. Or, if possible, a space where you can leave the project out for a few weeks while you work on it. Pick 1-2 boxes or albums to begin with to avoid becoming overwhelmed and losing motivation.

2. Get Started-Albums are an easy place to begin. Yes, they may already be organized but those acidic glue strips and magnetic albums made in the 1960’s-1990’s are destroying your pictures. Not only can sticky album pages cause your photos to deteriorate, they are bulky and take up useful space. If you are looking to regain space then consider eliminating albums.

To remove stubborn photos from albums, waxed dental floss is recommended. You can purchase contact adhesive remover for removing residue from the backs of pictures. This will be important if you plan to store your photos electronically as many scanners won’t work with gluey photographs. Please note, I have not tried it but am merely stating that it’s available. Maybe test it on a duplicate pic first. Don’t come at me because your wedding photos were ruined. Please, proceed with caution.

“Photographs are just light and time.” Aza Holmes

3. Get Sorting-To be clear, there is no “right way” to organize photographs. It’s what makes sense to you. Your category piles could be themed by: events (birthdays, special occasions, holidays etc.), season, location, person, or chronologically (month, year or era e.g. 1970-1980). Don’t get bogged down trying to put them in flawless chronological order. For example, I have titled photographs from my early to mid-twenties, “The Foggy Years”. Such a great time.

While you’re at it, on the back of your pictures, use a photo safe pencil to write the approximate date, event, location, names of people or subject matter. This will be helpful for you and others down the road. When you are creating your stacks be sure to label them using a post-it, index card or something similar as a temporary reminder.

4. Make Decisions-Removing prints from albums or boxes makes them easier to distribute, copy or store digitally. Deciding what to toss is more difficult. So, focus on the pictures you want to keep instead. Don’t do what I did-take a lengthy journey down memory lane, reminisce about the missing faces in current pictures and end up in tears. Resulting the in the need for a nap. It’s a fine line between organizing and procrastinating on making decisions. There are simple suggestions for building a discard pile that doesn’t involve paralyzing indecision.

Toss pictures of: Unrecognizable locations, people you don’t remember (or would rather not remember), events that you’d prefer didn’t have visual evidence, eyes closed pics and blurry shots. Duplicates can be set aside to give away, copy or toss. Before you toss negatives be sure to check for dates but, unless you are going to take the time to look through them all then just let them go too.

5. Storage Solutions-Pairing down to organize photographs is A LOT of work. If you manage to get through all of them it’s no small accomplishment. Many people will stop there, content to place the photos in a clean, labeled box and tuck them away once again. Storage options don’t need to be expensive. Shoe-sized boxes are a great fit for 4×6 and smaller photographs. Larger photos can be stored in labeled manila envelopes, folders or larger boxes. These are readily available at local craft and dollar stores.

One progressive individual that I spoke with has a folder of photos set aside for display at her eventual funeral. She wants to ensure that only approved, “good shots” are used. I slapped her the highest five!

Let’s Get Digital

Another option for storing your newly organized photographs is to go digital. Digital organizing expert, Kate Nikalaidis, specializes in photography legacy projects. Her business, Great Space by Kate, focuses on helping clients make the jump from analog (or film) photography storage to digital. She has noticed a clear shift. Many Baby Boomers and children of Baby Boomers (Generation X) are transitioning to a fully electronic photography experience.

But what do you do with those inherited or old family photographs? Sepia-toned strangers whose names have been lost to time. Kate says, “Photos are memory triggers.” She suggests if there is no one left to ask for information that, “The opportunity for knowledge has been lost. That memory no longer exists.” While we may feel an obligation to keep these snaps, they are devalued. What’s the point in keeping them when you’ll be passing down nothing? If you find this unsettling, another option is to pass these photographs on to an interested library, historical society or local archive.

Digitizing Your Photos

Online companies typically provide scanning and digitizing services on a per print cost. The cost for photo, negative or slide conversion ranges between $0.45-$0.99 per picture. Others, like Kate, charge by the hour or based on the project scope. With a high resolution scanner, computer and backup method-you can do-it-yourself! I asked Kate to share her best DIY photo digitizing insights.

Do-It-Yourself Digitizing Recommendations

1. Preservation-Digitizing your photographs is worth doing especially once you’ve gone through the effort to put your memories in order. Treat pictures with respect when removing from albums. If you plan to keep the originals, store in an acid-free box, labelled and ready to be archived electronically.

2. Editing-Go through your photos. Kate suggests creating an “A Pile” consisting of your best pictures. The rock star shots that capture the substance of your story. Your “B Pile” includes background photos, pictures that fill in the blanks. The “C Pile” contains pictures of little value; out of focus, blurry and easy to discard. Treat photos on your phone the same way.

3. Content-Gather as much content for your photos as possible. Document that information on your pictures or, in the metadata you use when creating an electronic filing system for your scanned photographs. Pictures tell a story. If you have a chance ask friends, family or elders to fill in any missing gaps then take it!

4. Back It Up!-Scanning and digitizing pictures is a great start. Backing them up to secure cloud storage is the next step. Even that may not be enough, you need to back up your back up! You’ve gone through too much effort to lose your memories to a data breach. Save your project on a secondary source like a thumb drive or an external hard drive. Kate keeps her backups in a fireproof box for safe keeping.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Well, if that’s the case, I hope my “Foggy Years” era pictures are never viewed publicly. The good news is, now that I have organized my photographs, I can easily file them out of existence. Or, digitize them. Toss the print copies and rename the file something like, “Tax Presentation 2015”.

If you are looking for help organizing your photographs into manageable memories, A Sorted Affair is here for you! Don’t hesitate to reach out, (902) 209-3939. Let’s sort it out, together!

Yours in All Things Sorted,

Kelly

Guest Spotlight

Curious about Great Space by Kate? She works remotely so she can collaborate with clients across the planet! Kate is an active member of the Photo Managers Association and Professional Organizers in Canada.

Check out her services: https;//www.greatspacebykate.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greatspacebykate

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@greatspacekate

“You created the memories, now leave it to us to manage them for you.”-Kate Nikalaidis