What to do with your non-digital photos

We've talked about how to organize your digital photos on your computer.  But what about all your non-digital photos that are in albums or boxes? 

 We all have them.  Printed photographs from before everything went digital.  Whether they are being kept in old, sticky photo albums, boxes or envelopes, or even nice & well kept albums, there are measures you need to take to guarantee they survive long enough to show your grandchildren.

ESPECIALLY the photos kept in those old, sticky photo albums.  You know what I'm talking about? The pictures stick into place and then there is a plastic covering to help protect the photos.  GET THEM OUT!  Look how yellow this album has become.  That stickiness is toxic enough to start eating through your precious photographs.  If they've been in there a long time, you can have a horrible time getting them out.  I've heard dental floss helps....possibly even heating the page a little with a hair blow dryer and using the dental floss.

 Even if you have a high quality album to hold your photos, you will want to at least get them scanned so that if something happens to the album, they won't be lost forever.  Plus, it's fun to be able to share them digitally, like putting one of my wedding and baby photos in this blog post!  haha

  

 

 

Here are 5 steps to help preserve your non-digital photos and get them ORGANIZED:

1.  SORT the photos and decide if any can be thrown away.  I would suggest either sorting them by person or by year.  However you think you would like them organized.

2. SCAN THEM.  Why? First, it will give you extra copies of your photos, just in case something were to happen to them.  Second, it allows you to share them digitally, whether through social media or by making a slideshow or online photo album.  I have had friends email me old photos from college and it's so fun!! A great way to share! I understand many of you will have your photos in SCRAPBOOKS.  Yes, these still need to be scanned, but instead of tearing your scrapbook apart, you can just scan the entire page. I will do another post on this later.

If you have a scanner at home, scanning your own photos can be easy....it just takes some time.  If you don't, you can invest in one or pay someone to scan them for you. 

3.  DECIDE if you want to keep the originals or throw them away. After all, if you have them on your computer you can always print them again if you ever want to. 

4.  LABEL them.  Do a quick label on the back...at least the name and year.  I don't know how many photos I've found in my grandma's house that I have no idea who is in them!  Very frustrating! If you are throwing away the originals, then you still need to keep them organized on your computer.

 

5.  DON'T LEAVE THEM IN A BOX.  It doesn't matter what you do with them, and it doesn't have to be fancy, but make sure they don't stay forgotten in boxes.  For ideas, check out my last post, "DO something with your photos".

 

DO something with your photos

 Ok, you've taken your photos.  Where are they?  Maybe on your computer, on your phone, or even in boxes.  What was the point in taking them if they are being hidden away?  Here are some ideas to help get your photos out of a box!

 

 

 SCRAPBOOKING

  Whether you still love crafting your own scrapbook or if you've learned to do it digitally, scrapbooking can be one of the most enjoyable ways to look at your photographs....IF you have the time for it.  I LOVE my scrapbooks, but the truth is, I've been years behind on them ever since I started!  If you love scrapbooking and don't want to let it go, I would at least recommend learning to digital scrapbook.  It gives you almost the same result, minus the paper collecting, cutting and pasting.  If don't have the energy to learn this new skill, try out the next best option below.

 

ONLINE PHOTO BOOKS 

Create your own photo book online!  There are so many sites out there that make it easy to create a fun book that has all the cuteness of a scrapbook, but is a lot less time consuming. I've tried several and think they are all pretty good.  If you see groupons or other deals for these photo albums, grab them! I have used Shutterfly, Snapfish and Picaboo.  But I wouldn't recommend them if you are doing many pages more than 20.  It gets pricey.  If you are doing more than 20, I would highly recommend going through Costco!  A BIG advantage to doing an online photo book is that it is WAY less bulkier than a scrapbook!

ALBUMS 

 

If you just want to get your photos in an album without all the hassle and fluff, then these are for you!!  And there really are some cute ones out there!  They can be found anywhere from Target, Walmart, Kohls, or even online through places like Amazon.  All you need to do is place your photos in the sleeves.  Some even have a space to write a quick description if you want.  So simple, but still so fun to flip through and see all your photos!

 

FRAME SOME OF THEM 

There are so many collage frames and if you have some extra wall space, whether in an office, guest room or basement, it can be fun to display them in a collage frame on the wall. I think I got this one for $5 from Michael's.  So easy.  I am excited to fill up some of my basement wall space with these. 

 

My grandma actually inspired this option.  She has so many photos, she started sorting through them and deciding which ones to put on the walls of her office.  It's always so fun to go over and look at them! Great job, Grandma!!

 

These are only the most basic options for what to do with your photos.  There are so many clever and crafty things out there that the list could go on.  Maybe for another post. :)  I hope I have inspired some of you to get your photos out of a box, or off your computer, and DO something with them!! I would love to hear what you've done! Comment or email! 

The 2 best ways to keep your digital photos under control

Hopefully you've all gotten started with Tasks 1 and Task 2 for this month!! Task #2 was "Organize photos & videos on your computer", and I wanted to give you a few more tips to help you with this seemingly daunting task. 

With digital photography comes the ability to take as many pictures as we want! This is SO helpful when we are trying to get the perfect picture.  But SO not helpful when we end up with thousands of photos for the year!  This is what I've learned:

1.  TAKE LESS PHOTOS

Think about it...how many photos do we have of our grandparents? Some more than others...but for me, I've seen maybe a few for each stage of their lives.  I don't know about you, but that's plenty for me! I don't mean that in a rude way...it's so fun to see them when they were young, but I think I would get SO bored if I were trying to look through 300 pictures for each stage of their life. 

So, as I thought about this, and as I spent SO much time going through all the photos I took, I made the decision to simply take less photos.  For me, this means I don't need 25 pictures of us picking out pumpkins, or 25 pictures of us baking sugar cookies, etc.  Don't get me wrong, it certainly FELT like I needed them at the time.  But remember this:  TAKING LESS PHOTOS OF YOUR KIDS DOES NOT MEAN YOU LOVE YOUR FAMILY LESS!!  You are actually doing a most wonderful thing!  Not only are you spending less time with a camera in your hand, but you are spending less time organizing your photos and stressing about what to do with them too!  This will give you MORE  time to spend with your family!

I want to quote from an article I found called "Too Many Photos, Too Few Memories" : "In 2014 it is estimated that 1.5 billion smartphone cameras will take nearly one trillion photos – that’s hundreds of thousands of photos every minute (three thousand in the time it took to read this sentence)...Every two minutes mankind collectively takes as many photos as the whole of humanity took in the 1800’s."

 Say Whaaaaat?!  Seriously people, is this necessary? The article questions if we are taking photos at the expense of creating genuine memories.  Go read the article...it's pretty interesting!

2.  DELETE

On the occasion that your finger gets "trigger happy" (so to speak) on your camera and you take WAY too many photos, that's ok!  Have no fear! There is an awesome feature called DELETE where you can select anything you want and delete it from your camera or your computer. :)  I think we get afraid to delete anything because it will be gone for good! And the pictures are SO cute...we just feel that we can't bear to delete them!  I understand your pain, I seriously do.  But you've got to get over it.  It's going to be ok. 

 

Really though, why is it so hard for some of us to delete our photos? There needs to be something called "Digital Hoarders Anonymous"!  I found an article on this and love their motto : "KEEP THE BEST, DELETE THE REST" (From Digital Photos : How to decide what to keep...great article...go read it!)

I sometimes like to delete photos straight from my camera.  Just take the 2 seconds it takes to delete the ones you know are blurry or duplicates, etc.  And then when you upload them to your computer and put them in a file under the correct month and year, just take a quick minute to go through them and delete any more that seem like duplicates.  I swear, I usually narrow my files down by HALF when I do this.  HALF of those photos I didn't need and now I don't have to deal with them cluttering up my computer and life and I STILL got some great shots to help me remember whatever it is I was taking pictures of!

With whatever pictures you end up with, be sure that you keep them organized on your computer!

Keeping Videos & Photos Organized

Whether you are taking videos with your camcorder, your phone, or even your point and shoot camera...you most likely would like to put these on a dvd someday.  When it comes time for you to burn your dvd, it will make your life SO much easier if you have them organized on your computer! Same thing with photos.  I'm sure you don't mean for them to just sit on your computer.  You are going to want to DO something with them eventually.  Usually when you upload your video or photo files to your computer, it will look something like this:

These files can quickly add up and be all over your computer.  Don't let them pile up.  Keep them organized so you can find what you need easiest.  Here's what you need to do: ( I apologize for those using a Mac...I use a PC, so I'm not sure if the same filing system can work on a Mac)

Step #1 : Start by making sure the videos that you are putting on your computer, go into a file labeled for that YEAR.  Here you see that on my hard drive, I have labeled them Family Movies 2013, etc  I would suggest keeping photos and videos SEPARATE.  So you can make a separate file for Photos 2013, etc.

Step #2 : Create New Folders to hold your files in sections.  The number of folders you create will depend on how much video and photos you take, but I like to start labeling my folders by EVENT.  Like "Landon's Birthday", "4th of July", etc.  To create a new folder, you simply right click in an open space, and choose NEW and then FOLDER and then you can give that folder a name.

 Then you can highlight the group of videos/photos that belong in that folder and drag them in.

Step #3 : Now create more folders by MONTH.  They stay in order better if you label them 01, 02, 03, etc...instead of by month name.  And then drag which folders belong in their certain month.  For example, I dragged "Landon's Birthday" into 05-2013 because that is when it occurred. 

 Now they are organized and ready for you to burn to a dvd, or print a book, make a slideshow, etc. which I will talk about more in another post. 

 

FOR THOSE OF YOU FEELING OVERWHELMED:

 

I suggest starting with the most RECENT and work your way backwards.

START by creating folders for "Family Movies 2014" and "Family Photos 2014".  As it is the first week of January, you will probably not have any videos to put in there yet, but if you get your folders created, then you won't have to do it later.  Then inside "Family Movies 2014" create 12 folders for each month.  THEN throughout this year, when you go to put your videos on your computer...put them in the month they belong in. 

NEXT, work backwards by starting with "Family Movies 2013" and try to get them organized as I've shown you above.  Once you've finished 2013, continue working backwards by year. 

Depending how much you have to organize, it can take some time.  Don't get overwhelmed.  Just take ONE STEP AT A TIME and don't stress if your whole computer isn't organized by the end of the week.  Good luck to you!

Hopefully this gets you ready for the next step of actually DOING something with your photos!