Sorting and Organizing Photos

 

I have spent the last few days trying to organize my photos. Over a decade ago my husband started buying me some lovely photo albums, one or two every few years, from a camera and photo supply store in Garland, Texas. About 2 years ago, as I walked thru the local Kohl’s here in Warsaw, I discovered this type of album is still manufactured. You can see it on Amazon. Kohl’s had it on sale for half-price so I bought one. I really like these albums because not only do they look classy, but they come in so many colors that I have few duplicate colors. This made it easier for me to grab an album off of the shelf because I remembered sometimes which color held the London trip, for example. That won’t be true anymore though.

Though there is a memo line next to the pockets, I never filled that in as I couldn’t quite decide how I wanted to arrange the photos. My photos are all marked on the back so I have the pertinent information, but of course you couldn’t see that unless you removed the photo. I had started placing the photos of foreign trips in different albums than US trips, and had toyed with the idea of doing separate albums for family reunions and the updated photos sent by relatives of their growing children. I ended up taking the easy way out; they are now chronological. This did require pulling all of the photos from the albums because I had filled in blank pockets with miscellaneous photos around home and church events when a trip did not completely fill the album. These fillers were not chronological. I still have the problem of not wanting to break up trip photos and put in different albums so not quite filling up the album. Not sure yet what I will put in the empty pockets. Maybe, my husband’s woodworking projects. Those wouldn’t need to be chronological.

 

 One good thing about sorting thru the piles again was that I found dozens to cull. It was easier to eye them critically when the emotional attachments to the trip or event had faded away. Now as I get ready to interfile those I decided not to include in the album but store in my photo box, I will try to discard some of those in the box as well.

I really want to get prints of the trips from the past two years. I like looking at them on my computer, but I still have one foot in the old ways of albums. I had kept this organizing and sorting project for winter months; now the albums are ready for recording the memos. I finally made my decision re how to arrange them. I am not into scrapbooking much so old-fashioned albums will allow me to peruse my photos and enjoy the memories.

 

How do you store and organize your photos? Chronologically or topically? On-line only or in the cloud on something like Picasa? Sure saves space to do it that way. In scrapbooks or albums? I certainly hope they aren’t chaotic piles thrown into a shoebox; but if so, there is nothing like a cold wintery day to get started in sorting them into piles, etc. I’m glad I finally did.