Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

• Don’t put off organizing your photos. Nothing is as overwhelming to a scrapbooker than seeing stacks of photos (looks like a mountain with a few foothills) or boxes of photos that have no rhyme or reason or organization in our work area. We tend to avoid the stacks in fear of being hit in the head by flying photos. Let’s face it; you can’t scrapbook with a concussion.

• Schedule time to organize your photos. No going to promise that some day you are going to step back from your work area and realize that every single photo you have is not only organized, but safely at home in a finished scrapbook, but you can get control of the situation by spending time organizing your existing photos. This helps make it so much easier to keep up with your new photos.

• One way to organize your photos is to file photos by date or timeline. Start with your most current photos and work back in time. You can place the photos in envelopes, file folders, or other photo oriented organizers and storage systems. Acid free envelopes and file folders are available in most photo shops and craft stores.

• Why is date or organizing by using a timeline so important? Because that’s the way we tend to look at things. We love to compare our fashion sense from our childhood or our teens to our more current savvy sense of style. We love to visually see how our children went from taking their first steps to how they looked while marching off to college or living on their own. It seemed to happen overnight, but our photos tell us it really did take 18 or 22 years.

• Another way to organize is by event or subject. Place all your Christmas, family reunion, vacation, etc. photos together in separate file folders. You can organize your photos by individual person- child, grandfather or even family pet. Even if you organize in this fashion you should still be aware and document dates!

• Don’t forget your digital photos! Download and create a well titled file for the images every time you use your digital camera. Place a word document into each file with a brief review of who, what, where, when, why, and how to refresh your memory.

• Come up with your own system, one that works just for you. You might combine timeline with subject or event.   You may want to color code, alphabetize, or separate by family branch.  The key is to be able to find the photos you are looking for quickly so you can get on to scrapbooking. Whatever you choose to do, taking the time to organize your photos will save you time, and, most importantly, prevent you from losing or misplacing valuable photos.

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