While we were all sheltering in place during covid, I remember promising myself to get a few dreaded jobs done around the house. I recall that even thinking about it caused me stress, but I was determined to do it…what was this task you ask?? Organizing and decluttering my photographs!
The first fantastic task when it comes to photographs is actually finding all of them. This can be somewhat of a scavenger hunt because photos tend to be everywhere! Those little envelopes that hold our pictures, half filled photo albums that are lying somewhere in our basements - the hunt for the photos is on! So step 1 is to go on the hunt for all of the photos in your house - whether they are lying around, grouped in envelopes, in albums - find them all! Make sure you have a place to work because in the beginning you are likely going to have a big pile of stuff in front of you.
Albums or Boxes?
This next step is a bit more of a personal choice - do you prefer to house the photos in photo boxes or albums? You can also do both, but for me personally I like everything to be consistent. If you are going to opt for photo boxes, these probably need to be bought as you will need a bunch. The number of boxes you will need depends not only on the amount of photos you are dealing with, but also on how you want to sort them. For instance, if you want to put baby and kid photos all together, you will likely need one large size box for that, but if you want to use different boxes for kids (assuming you have more than one here) then you will likely need 2 boxes to do this (for 2 kids), or 3 boxes (for 3 kids) etc.
Maybe you want to organize photos by trips - trips from 2010-2012 can be grouped together, and then 2012-2014 for example and so on. This activity is very personal as we all have photos of different things, and those things will determine how and what we will sort.
So, after you have gone on the hunt for photographs, now choose a system for organizing them whether this be by years, family members, trips, etc. However you decide to do this, make sure you LABEL THE OUTSIDE OF THE BOX OR ALBUM. This is very important (ALL CAPS important) because if you want to be able to access certain photographs without having to dump out or wade through all of the boxes, you need an outside reminder of what is actually in each box.
Finding the pictures and choosing your sorting method are the hard parts, I promise you the rest comes easy (sure you say LOL). Make sure you have a place to work and then start sorting the photos. Grouping the photos that you want to put together - you may also have a pile of “I don’t remember anything about this picture” pile. Remember, that’s ok, you may eventually remember or not and its ok to have a pile of ?? photos.
Once you have made all of your piles, now you have the job of putting them away - maybe you are using boxes and and so the task will be filling and sorting the photographs into the boxes according to your system. However, if you are using albums, the same approach applies but you will put the photographs into albums instead. I promise you there is a very satisfying feeling to finding, organizing, and also seeing these photographs. Warm memories arise and it becomes a very enjoyable task.
After you have filled all of the albums or boxes or ‘other’, choose an appropriate location to house these treasures in your home - try to find an area that does not add clutter - a book case or shelving unit can work well or a closet or cabinet. You will now know exactly where ALL of your photographs are and will never have to hunt for them again. Happy sorting!
