Take My Photograph Organizing Challenge . . . Get Started With 35 Tips From a Professional Organizer

Organize your prints by getting started with a manageable batch

February 16, 2011

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Recently I contacted personal organizer Stepahie Schur to ask what to do about my "Photo-Phobia." She had some great ideas to movitate me to create order out of my Kodak chaos. My recent 3-part series of articles inviting readers to join me in my Organizing Challenge was so successful that I decided to launch my Photograph Organizing Challenge.

Below I outline my plan, based on what I learned from Stephanie.

Questions to Ask Myself

What is the goal?
Do I just want to put my pictures in large groupings and then in boxes?
Do I want to pull out favorite prints and put them in albums?
Do I want to make books of photos using Websites like Apple or Shutterfly?
Do I want to take favorite digital photos to CVS or the like and make prints and/or CD's?
How much money am I willing to spend on making prints, books, etc.? (I'm not good at letting go, so this could cost a lot and take up a lot of space.)
Do I want to make books or albums for anyone else, such as my daughters?
Do I want to use only archival materials which will help the photos to last much longer? They can be quite a bit more expensive, so it may depend on the cost.
Where will I dislay my new albums of favorites? Or will I?
Where will I store second-tier photos that I don't want to discard?
What categories do I want to use for sorting? (For example, do I want a broad family category or do I want a category for each of my three daughters?)
What if I end up with 40 albums?
Regardless of my answers, after I get going I may find I need to take a different path. It's hard to anticipate exactly what I'll uncover among my thousands of images.

Sample Plan to Begin Organizing Photo Prints

Many old prints are in little albums, one to a page, others are in larger albums; many are in the Kodak envelopes, some are in boxes and some are loose.
I plan to break this down into smaller segments. I'll start with a manageable batch to go through while watching TV.
It's all about getting started, then I know it will flow and be fun!
I'll separate out favorites for an album, ones to throw away and then there will be a lot left over that I'll want to store.

Supplies

Rubber bands. Rubber bands will help keep categories together while you're working.
Albums. I won't know exactly what albums I'll need; perhaps I'll want one for each daughter, a family travel album, an album for my solo trips. It gives a semblance of order to think about this in advance, but to remain flexible. I'll also consider making an album of all large photos, one to a page.
Paper and pen for keeping track of categories and making other notes.
White envelopes and a markers so I can note clearly which photos are in the envelope.
Photograph storage boxes.

If You Have Thought About Your Plan, It's Time to Get Started

Don't put pictures into chronological order until you first sort them into major categories.
After a while you may want to combine categories or divide divide them into narrower groupings. For example, you might decide to divide pictures of a child into earlier years and later years.
Be strict about throwing out.
Commit to spending time but break it up into small, manageable segments.
Rubber bands are handy for while you're working, so the stacks of photos don't slide around.
For photos not going into albums, put them into white envelopes, and mark clearly what is inside. These photos will then go into photo boxes.
You may want to separate out uber-favorites for archival albums.
Attach a decorative label on the spine of each album describing what is inside.
Make a CD of favorite pictures, but be realistic. Will you ever look at it? On the other hand, if you know you have a CD, it may help you discard.
Before putting photos in albums, you may want to do a second run through to eliminate more OR save time by paring down further as you put the pictures into albums.
We all have shots of the same thing from this angle and that; choose the best one and get rid of the others.
Think about which pictures will make you happy to see all the time. Frame these and display them on a shelf
Select favorites for a wall of pictues.

I hope you'll take the Photograph Organizing Challenge with me.

For framing and hanging, check out my articles:

I'd love to hear from you in the comments below . . . what additional tips do you have for organizing photographs?

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