Home Office Makeover: How to Organize Thousands of Photos
Hi guys! This is going to be a two part post because this project was so big and I don't want to bombard you with a super long post. In March, I was able to spend a week with my family in Ohio. In addition to playing games, watching basketball, and sharing cuddles with James and my nieces, I was able to tackle a project my mom had been begging me to do for some time. Pictures. And when I say pictures, I don't mean a few stacks here and some online. I mean thousands of pictures from the upbringing of four children as well as photo albums that were inherited from both sets of grandparents dating back to the 1920s. Pictures, an office and closet full of pictures.
You'll have to excuse the quality of some of these photos. I only had my iPhone with me so the light isn't great in some of the images.
Yes, that closet is FULL of pictures, and albums, and bins of pictures and albums. There is even another bin not pictured here that was full of pictures. No wonder my mom was asking for help!
Although the task was daunting, we took a few steps that made it much easier.
Step 1: Dedicate Time
Probably not the answer you were looking for, but in all honestly, it's going to take a while. This of course depends on how many pictures you have to organize. My mom and I worked together, with some occasional help from my dad and sister and it still took us about 4 days to go through everything. Limiting "Memory Lane" time can help productivity. It can be so easy to get caught up in the memory a photo brings back, and before you know it you're talking about old high school boyfriends, athletic achievements, and trying to figure out what happened to that t-shirt you wore everyday when you were 13. Try to power through the photo sorting, when you're all finished it's so much more rewarding to flip through old photos in a more organized way.
Step 2: Sort and Section
We sectioned the photos into years dating back to the early 1980s. Any photo taken before that went into a stack dedicated to my parents before children. Each child also had their own stack, which contained pictures of birthdays, sporting events, or special trips specific for that child.
We also sorted through tons of picture frames. Believe it or not picture frames can go out of style. There were so many frames that just screamed the 90s. We went through stacks of picture frames and were able to donate a bin full of frames.
As we sorted we were throwing out stacks of photos that weren't worth keeping. This is the hardest part for some people. Some people really struggle with throwing away pictures of people. Even if it's from a party you don't remember going to for a person whose name you don't remember. But one you start, it's gets easier.
We threw away:
Printed doubles
Blurry photos
Damaged photos
Pictures of people we aren't really close with
Pictures of things we couldn't remember
Horrible, embarrassing, only could be used for black mail photos
Step 3: Organize
After we had sorted through everything and tossed about 3 contractor bags worth of photos, it was time to organize them!
Since we already had the photos separated into years, we were able to easily file them away into small photo boxes.
Biggest regret here is that I didn't take the time to create little dividers. Instead we just used the post-its from when we were sorting them out on the table. Maybe I'll go back and create some one day.
We were able to get all of the family photos into two boxes and each child had their own box as well.
Once the closet was cleared of the photos and frames, I went through and labeled each album based on date/event. Then tucked the albums into their new home {which you'll have to wait until the next post to see}.
Now the closet is cleared and can actually be used for clothing! We stored the extra picture frames my mom wanted to keep on the bottom right and few office supplies on the shelves. Overall, a vast improvement!
Do you have lifetimes of photos overwhelming your space? How do you keep your family memories organized?
Thanks for visiting!
