Photographs of your grandparents, parents, children, holidays, vacations, parties, and everyday life may be mixed up and stored in containers waiting for you to organize them…one day.
As a professional organizer, I get asked “What’s the quickest and easiest way to organize my pictures?”
It will definitely take time to organize years worth of photographs. We can not change that. However, I will share the easiest and quickest way to get your photographs organized and into albums.
Many people keep them together and packed up because they fear a disaster and want to make sure their pictures are easy to grab in an emergency situation. It seems that photographs are the number one item that women fear they can not replace. That’s true for older pictures.
Thanks to technology it is easier to keep up with your current pictures using less space. They simply get downloaded to your computer. You can also back up your pictures on CDs or pin drives for safety from a computer crash. There is still a need to organize them within the computer, but that’s another story.
It is so much fun to flip through albums and look at pictures. I recommend storing your photographs in albums and displaying them in a guest room or in an area where your family likes to hang out. Having your photographs easily accessible encourages friends and family to reminisce and learn more about you.
The steps on the best way to organize your actual snapshot sized printed pictures in the least amount of time is below.
How to Organize Your Photographs:
- Purchase plenty of albums of the same size and style. Usually 12 to 17 will get you off to a great start. For the quickest route, use the albums with pre-designated slide in slots. Hobby Lobby usually has a nice bulk collection of photo albums.
- Gather your pictures in one area.
- Sort pictures into chronological order first.
- Use heavy stock paper or cardboard labeled with the year to separate the pictures by years as you sort. Sort photos by season within each year.
- Toss duplicates (or near duplicates), blurry pictures, or pictures of people you do not even recognize.
- Spend an hour or two at a time to sort your pictures. Be patient. This will probably take two to three months, assuming you really chip away at it.
- After sorting, then start slipping the pictures into the albums.
You can also set aside some pictures that you would like to give to others. Start making piles for the people you would like to mail or deliver pictures to. They will probably appreciate the gesture!
Once you have loaded all your pictures into albums, then label the outside of the albums by year, using nice number stickers found in the scrapbooking section of the store.
Have fun pulling out your pictures and sharing the story of your life!
Stay tuned…I’ll be sharing great ideas for organizing your other picture collections: the larger family pictures, earlier generation family pictures, your children’s school/class/team pictures.
I’d love to hear your ideas and picture organizing stories. Please share them in the comment section below.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Melody…
My mom (67) and my dad (77) have only put over the years photos into about 5 albums. There are 5 of us kids. SO, there is a big Rubbermaid container…the kind that will slide under the bed…full of unsorted photos. When it comes to a lifetime of photos…how would you start sorting them? And of course, there aren’t dates on most of them, but the clothes and styles give a few things away. haha
I’m thinking that at some point in the future it might be fun to plan a family outing to a beach house and over several days all of us, here and there, can help to sort the photos and walk down memory lane at the same time. With this plan there would be around 9 or 10 people sorting.
Love your site, your blog, and the services you provide to help people create sanity!
Kelly
Kelly´s last [type] ..Kettle Cuisine Winners!
Hi Kelly, Yes! Great idea!!!
Start sorting by separating the different generations of your family. Then go back in and sort into more detail by year. You’ll be able to see differences by using little clues of clothing styles, hair styles, furniture, etc., like you mentioned.
Having everyone in the family involved in the process sounds like so much fun. Each person will have their unique memories and associations to help decipher events/dates/years. Sounds like the perfect get-a-way with family. Pictures are awesome conversation starters, too.
And…Sanity is what I aim for! lol
Thanks for stopping by and good luck,
Melody
Sorry, read that and wanted to clarify…do you recommend the same technique as above or a different one since there are SO many and it may be harder to figure out the timelines…but I guess we could do it loosely.
And I’m not sure how to use the stock paper/cardboard with the year labelled. Flat on the floor, but cut larger than the pile of photos? [duh]
Kelly´s last [type] ..Kettle Cuisine Winners!
Hey Kelly, I added a picture to help you better understand how to sort the pictures using the year labeled on cardboard. I simply cut strips for the smaller pictures and stand them up in the box as dividers, so sorting is quicker and easier!