This is the first in what I hope to have as a weekly series. I am asking my readers to email me questions that they want to ask about things to do with our lives, homes, beauty, fashion, children etc. I will then do this weekly post. You will remain anonymous, only your question will be posted.
The answers will come from YOU, my readers, by writing a comment. I of course will also contribute to the answers if I have an answer to the question.
Shall we begin?
Our very first question is:
My answer:
I have a friend that seems to have a really good handle on her photographs. Every year in January she takes her photos, and puts the best ones of every one in a photo album. The pictures that are good but not necessarily album worthy she goes through those and sorts out the best and puts them in a box with the year marked on it. The others are discarded. This seems to have worked quite well for her over the years.
Notice I did not say what I do with mine, because it is also a problem for me.
Now it is up to you, dear readers, to give your answers in the comments.
Thank you ahead of time for participating!! This is fun!!!
“Enjoy the Process” Of:
Helping out fellow bloggers by giving them your input!!
Kathysue
Remember to send me your questions to:
Subject: Friday’s Question of The Day!
23 comments:
The most honest answer I can give is I cannot bring myself to throw away a picture IF it has any of my family members in it (strange I know) so I keep EVERY SINGLE ONE and put the non album worthy pics away in a huge box, now mind you I have dozens of these huge boxes and I have no idea why i keep them, i will likely never ever go through them, and we are talking pictures where our heads are cut off (probably my then 8 year taking the picture) or pictures where one of us wasn't camera ready and looks rather strange ( my vanity kicking in here) you get the picture! So I cannot offer a practical solution and only until I can bring myself to throw away undesireable pictures will I have all these huge boxes of pictures...maybe I should wait until I am really mad at one of them and then in that state of mind proceed to throw them away...lol!
I am the queen of scrape booking! But if they don't make the cut, they get tossed !
Oh gosh...organizing pictures....not my strong point. I am afraid they are all just thrown in boxes here and there.....but I seriously wish mine looked as organized as some of these pictures.
Oh oh...I am with you, Kathysue...no good answer here! Not only do I have MY photos all in several HUGE storage boxes, I also have my mom's! Like mother, like daughter, I guess! My sister and I have told ourselves that we will go through hers together and make decisions when we are ladies of leisure. I guess we aren't ladies of leisure yet! lol Loving this series and looking forward to some help her!...hugs...Debbie
Hi Kathysue,
Well since this was my question, I have to comment! haha! I too was the scrapbook queen--for a while.
I managed to create 7 years of albums, but then I stopped! So, for the last 30 years, photos are in drawers, boxes, envelopes, etc. with the exception of a random 7 year period where I scrapbooked. It is a daunting task to think about the photos left over and the ones that didn't make the cut for the scrapbooks.
To make matters worse, I have boxes in the garage of photos from my husband's mother and grandmother. What to do with them? Egads, this is my future! Someday, a woman who I don't know (a future granddaughter-in-law) is going to be dealing with all my photos! xo Delores
That was my frustration, bordering on major mother guilt, for years!!! I had boxes of pictures plus one family album (spanning several albums) for all three grown children. Dilemma: each of our children needed an album of their very own. For some very strange reason, I did not think ahead at the time and make three separate albums, as they grew up together. I was SO busy, I quite frankly thought they'd never leave home!
Now they have families of their own. I took all those pictures and spread them out in piles, categorizing as I went; I had piles covering all the kitchen counters, dining room table, coffee table and floors! I gave myself 3 days and it took 4 ten-hour days for that stage. Then, I sorted more and finally ended up with 900 pictures for each child (3 albums of 300 pictures each). The whole process took 2 weeks, 8-10 hour days. BUT it's done. Not so good pics went to the trash. And I saved any keepers that didn't make the cut for the albums for each child in one of those special boxes for pictures and put it in each grown child's memory box. I debated scanning and making a 'real' book via BookSmart online. I bought a decent scanner but that takes EONS of time. No thank you. and I debated sending a huge box of pictures away to be scanned (too much risk of loss). The three-set album for each child is different from his or her siblings with several common pictures (which I did have scanned). Twas a lot of work and a lot of joy too.
My best advice: give yourself deadlines and stick to them! Listen to music as you are sorting and don't 'dwell' on pictures and memories, until later, when you are all done.
Oh, I am definitely not the best on photos. I have done much better now that we have moved into the digital era and most of them reside on my desktop!!!
Of course, my computer would probably run a little faster if I'd do some photo clean up! :)
xoxo Elizabeth
I am not an organized person at all so I am afraid mine are everywhere in drawers and in boxes in cabinets and in albums. I really need to go through them.
I wish I had a good suggestion to offer but quite truthfully...I don't! I have several albums but I also have many, many boxes that photos are in and just waiting to be organized. I keep wondering when I will ever find the time to do something with them because I just adore the pictures and they deserve to be kept in a good safe place. Wish I could offer a creative suggestion!
XO
Kathysue, ugh, this is difficult question. I have made 2 special albums - one is the "Family History Album" with family from grandparents through grown kids. A treasure. The second one is a Christmas album through 40 years (so far) with one page for each year. It is also a treasure - makes you pare down to essentials. I'm planning one album for each grown child and I have started plain old photo albums for each (of 6)grandchild trying to have 5 to 10 years in an album. The rest of the pics are in photo boxes waiting to be used or tossed. I treasure EVERY black and white old pic of family.....will NEVER get rid of those photos. You've inspired me to finish (at least to this point).
Linda
This is a problem that I have put off. I have mine in one big box. I am so organized but have never keep albums.
These comments are great.
I really like this series.
Have a great weekend, Kathysue.
Teresa
xoxo
No good suggestion other than to label, label, label or you will really have a mess when you find the time to go through them. And, like many of you, I also cannot bear to throw away a photo especially of my babies when they were little..crazy mom!
I used to do just that, But now with digital photos they seem to all live on my computer. And I fear Luke thinks I take no pictures of him because they seem to stay on my laptop.. SO my new promise to myself is to start using one of those companies where you can build great albums online and order books. And the images that are mediocre...do we really need them? Less is more in my book. Hope you're having a great summer Kathysue!!
OOOH! This is fun! But first of all, ThANK YOU for your visit and kind words this morning Kathy Sue! It means a lot to me since I am trying to work on my poetic style as I blog...NOT EASY!
WELL LET'S SEE....I am not good at this because my ancient family photos sadly are deteriorating in my dank and moldy basement (thanks to recent rains and humidity) in bags! But I think the only way to remedy this is:
find a day to be free
find good plastic organizers and label them
insert photos
organize boxes in a closet at the living level of your home (no attics no basements)
NOW IF I COULD JUST DO THAT!!!
PEACE and joy to you, Anita
I made a folder for each child and grandchild on my computer. I am in the process of scanning all of the pictures on to the computer and making DVDs for each one. With the two oldest, I sent their photos to have a hard cover book made. Eventually, I will do that for the rest. They love watching the DVD of photographs of themselves on the big TV. I confess I gave a long way to go to completion - a retirement project!
My photos are in similar boxes, works great. However, they are not organized at all or by year. They are just all tossed in there like a big mess. xo
Fun series! I can't wait to see what kind of questions you get. Wow, I wish I was that organized...thankfully for me I only use digital now, so I can file them on my computer. I have boxes and boxes of photographs that are not organized in anyway unfortunately.
Have a great weekend!
I like online scrap booking.. I spend a couple of days each year making a book. Then I order one for myself and one for my parents. So, I have all my best photos in a book and stored online. PS....love this series! I am about to email you a really hard question!
xo Stacy
I love the way your friend deals with it. After photo was digitalized, I hardly have any printed photos, it's all stored on my computer (backed up of course). But when it comes to the photos, I always pick out the best ones and delete the rest =)
xox Linda
PS: This was fun!!
I have to admit that my photos are in the most horrible mess. They are in several different places. It would take literally days to straighten them all out so of course I have done nothing. Maybe someday...one can only hope!
We have gone totally digital on this one. Each year, I make a DVD (the Mac has easy software I use to do this) of all the really good pictures we've taken throughout the year. I organize the DVD into events/seasons like "Birthdays, Summer, Spring Break." These DVDs are kept in a binder and we can pop one in and watch it anytime (it also has music so it is a montage of sorts!). The rest I copy to a flash drive and put them in the safety deposit box. If there's one that I absolutely adore, I print it out and frame it! So, now everybody knows just how Type A I really am!!
Thanks, Kathy for this post, I really enjoyed reading all the comments! M.
Like many others, mine are all in boxes in the basement. The good news is that most everything now is digital so I don't have any more paper copies to stow away. My big Christmas present for my in-laws every year was a photo album so I have many years of those at their home. Now that my mother-in-law has passed away (4 years ago now), my father in law has requested that I don't make any more as he doesn't want to have to deal with storage. So I have none for the past 4 years. As the kids are older, I don't have as many photos - I will have to start asking them to send me some to have!!
Wow this is a great post because I think most of us have had to deal with extra photographs. These are some great ideas for getting them organized!!
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