Photo and Memorabilia Organization

The next project I have on my list is the organization of photos.  Around this time of year I organize photos and videos from the past year.  I realized last 2 years have been really busy years so I have actually neglected the last 3 years or so. 

 I started with making sure each of the folders were organized by year then event.  I also went through each folder and got rid of blurry photos, duplicates, etc.  I back up photos a lot of places.  First I upload to Shutterfly (which I typically do after the actual event and not annually), I burn to a CD, back up on a memory stick (to place in a fireproof box) and finally upload to an external hard drive. 

 After I burned all of the CDs, I created a much needed index that included year, month (if possible), event and location where the CD is (ie. Box 1 or Box 2).  I placed the index in each box.  I also have some copyright releases from professional photos that have been taken.  They are starting to get a little tattered, so I put them all in a CD sleeve as well.

The next thing to dive into was the misc printed photos I have thrown into memory boxes but are not organized at all and have been mixed in with memorabilia, cards, photos, etc.

This process actually took a while and I started to get a system.  I would wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, turn on my Netflix and start sorting.  I kept my gear out (labeler, sharpie, post it, dividers, plastic scrapbook sleeves and post it labels). 

I started with the loose photos and sorted them by year and event on the floor and placed post its on the top of the pile.  I then created a divider for the pile and then placed them in these boxes from the container store that I had purchased a few years ago. 

 





I had some pictures in old albums, I went through a few of those too to see if I could throw anything away.  They were pretty good so I left a lot of them in there and I added labels and placed them in a plastic container so they would stay nice.

 

The rest of the old photos I had, I placed into photo sleeves and purchased and 8 1/2 x 11 scrapbook.  I also placed some of our duplicate cards from Christmas and other events in the book as well.  Chad's mom gave me an envelope about a year ago with baby photos in those too so I placed those in the back of the book.  I may eventually create a whole new book for these photos.

 The next thing I did was sort cards.  Over the past few years we have started to get a lot of Christmas cards, invitations and thank you cards that have photos on them.  I put those to the side so I could place them in a binder or with craft rings.  I ended up with the binder, but I am not completely in love with the way it looks.

I sorted the rest of our cards, I did throw some out (which was really hard for me!) and I am sure there are others I can throw out but they are in there for now.  I made a pile for each family member then created an event and holiday tab for cards that we received as a family like a "congratulations on the new house" card.



We also had some memorabilia mixed in with our cards so I separated the memorabilia out and started placing each event in a sleeve then into a 3 ring binder.  Again, I ended up getting rid of a few things.  There were movie tickets and airline tickets I had no idea what the meaning behind them was, so I decided to pitch them.

There were a few things that I wasn't really sure of what to do with and they sat to the side for a while until I eventually realized I had space in this photo container I had purchased a few years ago.  I had some duplicate wallets from Cayden and Danica's photos, photo booth pictures, remembrance booklets and postcards I placed in here.  

Finally the last thing I did was find a 12 x 12 document holder for all of our old calendar.  I make a calendar every year for family members and also one for us.  It is typically a collage of photos from the prior year so I like to keep these (don't mind the baby foot in the photo). 

The process definitely took some time.  I probably worked on this project for the last month or so.  I would like to start making yearly photo books. That may be the next project for me.