Scrapbooking - I Really Hate It! What Do I Do with All Our Stuff?? Need Ideas!

It's not "necessary" to have a scrapbook with fancy pages, but it is important for your kids to remember a little bit about each photo later on when none of you can remember where the photo was taken or when!

I say do what my mom did...write a little bit on the back of the photos (so your great grandchildren can read about it), slide them in an album in order and that's it! You can go as simple as who, when and where!

My grandma has an old album of photos and now that she's no longer with us we have no idea who these people are in the photos, when they were taken and where. That's all I really would like to know!

As for art projects, I got a big scrapbook and just put the art projects in the scrapbook (no fancy pages needed!) It literally took me less than 30 minutes to slap them in!

If you can get a friend to help, it might be fun having conversations over your project. She can help you get motivated and everything in quickly.

Perhaps if you take the focus off of the "perfect" scrapbook and more into the "let's just get it done fast" it'll fly by quicker than you think! Divide it into tasks. Maybe start by sorting the pictures into boxes and art into another box. Another day put the pictures in order (you can do this in front of the TV). Another day write on the backs of the photos. And finally put them in the album...they should all be in order by then and be written on so that part should be quick!

Just make sure you buy an acid-free photo album.

Then you can spend your time MAKING memories instead of preserving them!

Slap that stuff into a photo album and call it a day!!! Seriously, your life is busy, it's enough that you saved it and it doesn't have to be in a perfect presentation. They will be happy to see it. I happen to believe kids would rather have memories of you living life with them rather than preserving what already happened.

Our downtime is too precious to spend doing something you don't enjoy. And for your supplies, post it on craigslist or donate it to the convalescent center for the old ladies to play.

Life is short, use it well.
D.

I'm kind of a slow motion scrapbooker. I like doing it, but there are so many other things going on, so I don't work on them often. I do keep my photos in a box separated by date, so when I do want to work on them, they are ready to go.

I save stuff, but not necessarily for the scrapbook. I have a big rubbermaid bin for each child that I call their memory box and I put stuff from school in there, so all I have to scrapbook is photos.

Also, you don't have to do a "deluxe" job. Just putting the photos in the book and writing the stories that go with them is enough. Yes, some people have the themes and the matching stickers and it looks so professional. Great for them. I'm doing good to get the pictures in the book with the stories and that's what is truly enjoyed. If you can make it fancy that's great too.

Put it off for now if you really hate it. Just keep track of the stuff and when your kids are older it will be more enjoyable to look back.

Maybe find a couple other mom's to get together with every couple weeks to work on it. Or go to Archiver's scrap mania on Friday or Sat night. It's a great Mom's night out, but I love to scrapbook.

If you really don't like it, then don't do it. Just keep all your pictures in the computer and have memory boxes to hold all the other mementos.

You might want to check out www.scrapblog.com. I've never done an entire scrapbook on this site, but have used it for other things. Great templates & all you need to do is upload your photos. Much easier and quicker than doing all of that with scissors and glue! I decided to go a different route since I'm not a big fan of scrapbooking either. I created a family blog on blogger. It's basically a diary/journal of what's going on in our family and I have tons of pics of my kids there. Our relatives all live elsewhere, so they enjoy seeing all of the updates. The best part is that it's really quick to post an update. (PM me if you want me to send you the link so you can see it.) I'm now in the process of downloading my blog to www.blurb.com where I'm creating a hardcover book of the posts. That's what I'll have as my "scrapbook" every year. Just a few different ideas for you!