What Do You Do with Old Photo Albums?

One year, I performed a labor of love and took all of my old photographs and put them into albums for my kids. It was a little time consuming picking the pix that would mean the most to them, but it was totally worth it. It cleared out clutter and made my grown kids cry! The holidays are coming, dear!

What I would do is just keep them in the bins and store them away somewhere, like the garage, and look at them once in a while. That's just me though. I would get totally overwhelmed about putting all those on CD's, not to mention the cost. Who has time for that? It's fun once in a while to get out pics and look through them. I've found that once they are digitized, you may not look at them anymore!

Can you get new albums and put the photos in there? You can go to Michael's craft store and get nice albums or scrapbooks. They also have the 40% off coupon so just buy one album at a time for the discount so that the cost doesn't get out of control. You can store them on nice bookshelves. I have photo albums that look like antique books and they are mixed in with our regular books. It's a shame to have memories just shoved into the garage or thrown out. Look for ways to incorporate these into your home decor. You don't have to have a million frames all over the house. Keep everything neat and organized and you can still have your zen-like home.

I found a great way to get rid of all the photos yet still keep them. It's with iphoto (i think thats what it's called, with the mac computer). Scan the photos in, then make a photo album. You can keep it on the computer or order it. It comes in a couple weeks, and looks like a hardcover book, no bulky photo albums. I've done one album and now want to make albums with my 3 bins of photos. I also want to convert my bulky albums. Go to your local Apple store--they may have sample albums you can look at. it's pretty cool.
My name is M. too....
Good luck

There is a great place in irvine that can scan them all in, so you can keep them all digitally and either scrapbook with or give the originals to family. We had about 5000 photos scanned in for about $250 dollars and it was worth every penny (it would have taken a year to scan them in at home)-- they have a conveyor belt scanner and it was done it like 2 hours. I think it is called scanmyphotos.com.

I love to scrapbook so thats what i would do with the originals-- but keep it simple with large quantity of photos.

Hi Mary Beth,

I feel your pain of a huge project, but photos are so precious! And although it will be a big project, maybe you can enlist someone in your family's help and have a big empty table, and go through them, putting them in chronological date by year, just make a small box for each year (I would use half-boxes, like the half-boxes you'd get at Costco or Sams, that they load your groceries in), and just start sorting. If you can leave it out for awhile, find a spare few minutes or an hour each day and just sort. Then get a bunch of photo albums, (Costco has a double pack of nice ones for around 20.00 I bought there yesterday). Then just start putting them in; you can write the year on as you go.(use an archival-safe pencil if you write on the back of them, it can be found at Michaels or any photo or craft store). They are a priceless history and nothing is more fun for kids than looking at old pictures. It will help you remember your history as you tell them stories of your life. You'll be so proud when you finish this project. If putting them in albums is just too daunting or expensive right now, then at least sort them into nice photo boxes by year, labeling each box (photo boxes can be purchased cheaply at any craft store), and neatly stacked in a closet shelf. Then they'll at least be organized and saved well. Try to avoid storing photographs in a garage, as the temperature is so changeable and the chances of getting ruined are greater (floods, termites, heat, etc.) Good luck! Marti O.
PS--I think photos are beautiful in a home--it's what makes your home, YOUR home, I would try to help my husband get over his aversion to them. They can be classically displayed, and look very serene and beautiful. It does not have to be cluttered-looking. My sister has ONE big beautiful family picture in her home that is so beautiful, it has all their family in color, then behind, she has painted the "ancestors" of both she and her husband in black and white, standing behind them. It is so lovely.

a couple things come to mind. do all these suggestions after you've moved, and know that it will be a process, but a worthwhile one!
I would seperate them into catagories, as previously suggested. A great photo safe box to store them in with great compartments is the Power Sort by by Creative Memories. It holds 2,400 photos and is suitable for long-term storage.
You can also take out the photos that interest you, and that you want to keep and pass all the rest to others in the family. Surely someone will want them.

You can also take your favorite pics, and scan them- and then put them into a digital scrapbook. Creative Memories has an amazing digital program that is free to use and you only pay for the book you make. My website lists all these products and they are truly as time saver, and memory preserver!
www.mycmsite.com/debbymunar

Just some ideas to consider, good luck!!

Hi Mary Beth!
Photos...I hear you! As the youngest child of 4 whose mother is the oldest daughter of 8, some how I have recieved the "archives" of the family. So I will tell you what I did...and still am doing...but I am almost done.

First I went to Walmart and asked for empty shoe boxes. I got about 15 of them. I labled the boxes with families. I then sat down with the pics (my daughters helped) and we sorted the pics into families. The girls would show me a pic and I would say who it was and they would put into that family box. We also had a MISC box - that was the largest!
That took a couple of hours.

THEN I borrowed 2 digital cameras and my daughters and I started taking pictures of the pictures...already sorted in the categories. We then uploaded the pics to the computer, put them on a disc and GAVE THEM AS CHRISTMAS PRESENTS to the entire family. WE told them that it was "first come first served on the pictures" if anyone saw a picture they wanted for their own albums, they would have to COME AND GET IT.
I will tell you, my one aunty was SOOOOOOOO happy, you see one year when her basement flooded, she lost about 40% of her family pictures. So she took a bunch of the ones I had. I still have some of the MISC pics, but by this christmas I will have them all either given away or thrown away.

BTW - it took a few hours to do this...but it was worth it. When the family got those disks, there were many tears shed with the memories...many of my cousins, are thinking of taking pics of their orn pics and going fully digital.

Have fun!

B.
Family Wellness Coach

Hi Mary Beth,
My mother went through all the old photos... kept a few for herself and then made small albums for each of the grandchildren with their pictures of her and grandpa.

Maybe your daughters can sit with you to go through the photos (I always loved looking at old family photos) and you can show them everyone and they can help you sort them to decide which to keep. If you don't want to make albums for people, you can just send them some of the good pictures of themselves or their family. If you have older nieces and nephews, you could send them old pictures of their parents and pictures from when they were younger.

Hope this helps!

Be honest and keep the photos you love. And if you really love them, honor them by putting them in an album/scrapbook. A real simple one is better than nothing.

The rest- pass out to people in the picture with you with a lovely note about the wonderful times you had, how much you cherish them, etc.

The ones you have left after that- look at them ONCE and TOSS THEM! Memories are nice, clutter is not.

I went to college with a guy who would get letters from his mom in Pakistan. He would read the letters and then throw them away. I saw him do this once and asked why- actually how could he throw away something his mom sent him. He simply replied "I already read the letter. The intention got through." I have to admire that and I bet he does not have clutter.

Have fun and good luck!

There is a service where you can have them all digitally scanned for a reasonable cost. I would need to contact a friend of mine who is associated with the company if you are interested. Go ahead and e-mail me if you would like more info. I can also help with any restoration needs you may have. I am a photographer and digital artist.

If you live near a college, you could place an advertisement to hire a student at minimum wage to scan and save all the photos. Work out a written agreement so that they're not milking your hourly rate, or set a flat rate and have someone do it. Or, even a local teenager who knows technology and could stand to earn a few bucks. :-)

Dear Mary Beth, I am 50 years old and didn't know what to do with tons of old photo's. I have kept the ones that i know i can't live without and i have given the photo's to the person or person's that are in them. My one cousin doesn't have any photo's from when he was little, his new wife was thrilled when i gave her some baby pictures of him. If they are pictures of some one who has passed away give them to a son, daughter, or other family member. One of my cousins was going thru his dad's pictures and found one of me, my sister, and two other cousins, i had never seen this picture befor. I was so happy to get it. Anyway i tried it and it worked out great J.

ROFL...I'm with you on the *sheer amount of work involved fear* with digitalizing everything. I do amateur photography and I have 4 years worth (about 20,000 pics) that i need to go through. Ahem. I've needed to go through it for about 9 months now. I'll get to it. Eventually. Really. I promise. Oy.

In my experience you've got a couple options:

- Organize it (That's that months long project)

- Box it safely so water or sun damage won't ruin them (ahhh...why procrastinate today...when you can procrastinate tomorrow)

- Give them away (Warning: This COULD involve organizing it first, unless you want no control over what gets tossed)

- Dump them (doooooon't doooooo thaaaaaaaaaaaat!....these are the anguished screams from your children, grandchildren, and yourself 20/30/159 years down the road...and of the parents of any children you have photos of)

- Hire a HS or college student to organize it for you. (7-12 dollars an hour, just give them catagories...like trips, weddings, one with just you and your husband, people they don't recognize, kids, school photos, etc.)...Then come back through and go through the sections later, as you feel like.

- Hire a HS or college student to scan them all for you...and then you can go through them on your computer at your leisure (Warning: Remember those 20,000 pics I've been putting off dealing with? Yup. They're all digital. And it's been 9 months of "I really need to take care of those". I promise. I'll get to it.)

Personally...having moved 8 times in 8 years...I would box it safely in plastic and deal with it either after buying, or while you're waiting. Adding in one more project right before moving seems like a recipe for going crosseyed.

What about a digital picture frame? It will keep your house clutter free and you get to enjoy the photos at the same time=)

Of course you do have to scan them in first but there are a lot of great suggestions above. Good luck and enjoy!

Any photos you do not want give to the people in the photos, have them deal w/ it. i have a similar issue, I threw a bunch away and passed on a bunch. scanned ones I loved. and still have a box left-but, one box is better than 5!

since your move is temporarialy dont get rid of the pictures you can never replace them. Store them if can they can never be replaced we have about 20 volums we love looking at them from time to time. Of course we have been married 60 years 4 children 7 grand children A. n0 hills

Hi Mary Beth!

Great memories!! I know you can have them scanned and put on cd's. I would call a local photo mat and ask their advice....I would not get rid of them.

Good luck

Hi Mary Beth, I would keep them, there memories, i took alot of our loose photos and got inexpensiven large frames and made collages out of them, and everyone who comes to our home spends time in front of these collages. J. L.