What to do with old photographs

[KrisM]

I'm sorting through things and have a big box of old photo albums. A lot are from my childhood are include friends that I don't even remember now. I don't want these all in albums taking up a huge amount of room.

Some I will just through away - pictures that are blurry, people I don't know at all any more, just not interesting to me to keep.

What to do with the rest? Some things are themed - a school trip to Washington DC, for example. I realize I don't know the people so much now, and don't really need the pictures, but I don't think I want to trash them all either. Maybe keep just a few?

I could scan them in, but honestly, I'm not likely to spend the time doing that . So, how else to keep them so that I can show them to my kids if I want.

I found one from 1981, when I was 10, of me and my family at the top of Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. We have matching pictures of my family now in the same place, which is fun!

[infomama]

I would keep them in archival boxes sorted by date/event. Love to pull out old photos.
http://www.familyarchives.com/catego...FQo65QodnWxO4g

[MolieMuts]

Some of the photo-processing/camera stores will scan photos to a CD. The store near us runs specials occasionally. I cannot throw out old photos so we have boxes and boxes of them. It would be nice to get them organized.

[niccig]

Originally Posted by infomama

I would keep them in archival boxes sorted by date/event. Love to pull out old photos.
http://www.familyarchives.com/catego...FQo65QodnWxO4g

This is what I'm going to do. In our front closet the entire bottom of the closet is full of boxes of photos. These are all DH's and there is no rhyme or reason to which photo goes where. He's going to hate me, but it's on my list of things to do in the evening while we watch TV. I'm going to sort through them and have DH decide which ones to keep, and then group into events like College Photos, Living in LA in my 20's photos, etc. I can do all the photos post-me, but I have no idea of HIS photos. I'll put them in a photo box in those groupings. Most boxes come with dividers so you can have several categories in one box.

Any ideas how to get DH to go through the 8 photo boxes of photos from his RTW trip in 2002. He keeps every single photo he had developed and there are THOUSANDS of photos. I want him to keep the 2 good shots of something and dump the 6 bad shots. He says he wants to put them in an album, yeah like that will happen 8 years later. Thank goodness for digital camera as now they just sit on the hard drive and I don't physically have to find a place to store them.

[brittone2]

I sorted my old photos by date/event into archival boxes when I was pg w/ DD (great nesting project).

We won't talk about the fact that a few years ago DS1 and DD dumped them all out, mixed them up...and they'll likely never end up sorted again in my lifetime!

[KrisM]

Okay, just traded a box of staples for a photo box . I'm going to get some envelopes so I can put events together. Fortunately, they're in albums, so they're already sorted, really. I think I could plow through them in one evening this week.

And, I'll be sure to keep them far away from the kids!

[KrisM]

A small update...

I just spent an hour taking photos out of 2 albums. It's really hard work! I had figured maybe 3 hours total for this project, but now I'm thinking closer to 15+. I really didn't think it would be so time consuming. And, they're organized, so I'm not sorting or anything!

But, they are going to take up so much less space, it'll be worth it. By the looks of it, I should get 6-8 albums into the photo box and I'll probably get my box of albums down to 2 photo boxes. I really like the envelopes, since I can label them and if I want to find something, it'll be easy enough.

Back in 1996, I spent 5 weeks in Alaska and I have an entire album for that trip. I will keep it in the album, since things are labeled and there are about 500 pictures . And, I have another small Alaska album from 2001, when I went for the weekend and came home engaged. I like to look at that one.

[vonfirmath]

One thing to think about: it is MUCH easier to see pictures in photo albums than photo boxes. My photos in albums get peered through a couple times a year -- holidays and such. The photos in the boxes get buried.

[KrisM]

Originally Posted by vonfirmath

One thing to think about: it is MUCH easier to see pictures in photo albums than photo boxes. My photos in albums get peered through a couple times a year -- holidays and such. The photos in the boxes get buried.

I thought about that, and that's why I got the envelopes and am labeling them. I can pull out an event and flip through them. But, I just don't see myself looking through my 1986 Marching Band trip to Myrtle Beach all that often .

And, the box of albums was burried in DD's closet for the past 5 years, so organized and accessible is an improvement.

[niccig]

This is on my list of things to do when DH is out of town for a few nights this week. I figure I can put the milk crate of photos - yes I have a milk crate full, and sit in front of the TV and sort into boxes. Most of these photos are pre-me, so DH needs to put them into categories, but if I can get them all together, it might be an easier task for him. At the very least, I want the milk crate gone from the bottom of the closet.

I'm going to keep the few albums we have intact as there's only a couple and not a lot to store.

No idea what to do about the 8 photo boxes of DH's RTW trip photos, I would like him to cull it down to 4 boxes or so - maybe I can stack those in the milk crate when it's emptied of loose photos