The first step I share with all my clients in organizing their photos is to gather all their boxes, drawers of negatives, CDs, and old shabby albums full of photos and memorabilia from around their home. Your attic and basement are the worst places to store photos due to heat and humidity. Photos need moderate humidity and no direct sunlight to keep them in the best possible condition. The bookshelves in your living room are a good place, where you will probably look at your albums the most.
Designate a workplace. It could be a cabinet with a TV tray and chair, the dining room table, or a corner of the family room. Simply claim a space and set aside time each week to work on getting your photos in order. Consider throwing a sheet on your dining room table or desk in the corner of your room when you’re not working on your photos. Or you may want to leave it fully open as a friendly reminder to do so.
Rescue photos from harmful albums. To remove old photos from magnetic or other albums with PVC, a chemical that destroys photos, use dental floss to slide behind the photos.
Pitch blurry and dubious photos. If it doesn’t give you back the moment, throw it away. This will drastically reduce your piles of images. I keep most of my dad’s photos because I can’t get them back, but the blurry ones that don’t represent him or the moment well, I don’t mind throwing them away.
Take pictures of large, bulky memorabilia that won’t fit in an album. Every summer, I take pictures of my kids with all their school projects and artwork that doesn’t fit in the albums. I frame some artwork and keep what will fit in the scrapbooks. The rest we put in a special box for them or we throw it away once we have a photo.
Scan or copy newspaper articles. Newsprint will break down over time due to the high lignin content found in the wood pulp from which it is made. Do not laminate newspaper articles or any other memorabilia, as this speeds up deterioration.
Finally, sort into categories that make sense to you: Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Vacations, Pets, Holidays, Sports. While sorting, don’t label with a pen which will bleed and damage your photos. Also, avoid using post-it notes because the sticky back is harmful to photos. Use a pencil to label photos.
Ok, with all those steps, you can guess why I like digital! Delete all the steps. You can download all your photos to your computer, organize, tag, crop and enhance them, then design albums and print them from your computer. You may have worked with software that was already on your computer or with what came with your camera.
You’ll be amazed at how this new technology will make you a better photographer and keep your photos more organized and accessible for you to enjoy. Because nobody takes pictures thinking that I am going to put this in a box or drawer somewhere in my house or that I will lose it among endless files on my computer. Now you can do something really cool with your photos like you always planned.