Saturday, April 17, 2010

Organizational Blog Hop

Hi everyone!

No matter where you have your scrapbooking space, part of organization is giving everything its own place and making sure it returns to its home once it has been used. Picture this...you are busy working on a layout, it's coming together perfectly and all you need is one final touch. That light bulb goes off and you rush to get that perfect finishing piece. Fifteen minutes later, you are still searching, not knowing where to look or where you put that perfect piece. That's where getting everything organized will help save you time.


So, welcome to our Organizational Blog Hop. A few friends and myself thought we would share with you our ways of organizing our various scrapbooking supplies. Click on the link above and come join us in the fun.

If you get lost along the way with our Organizational Blog Hop…or want to come back and see something again, here’s the complete list of the gals who are participating in our Organizational Blog Hop.

Photograph Storage - Leanne You are Here!

Embellishment Storage - Jo
Ribbon & Fiber Storage - Shellie
Stamp Storage - Wendy K.
Ink Pad Storage - Ramona
Pen & Pencil Storage - Jeanne M.
Sticker, Die Cuts and Rub-On Storage -Amanda
Tools Storage and Paper Storage - Mary

Organizing your photographs

I am here today, to help you organize your photos. It's only been recently, the digital camera has become so popular. So what about all the photos you have that were taken with a Kodak "Brownie"? (remember that camera?) or with a 35mm camera? That is what I am here to talk about today.

Are your photographs all stored in one gigantic Rubbermaid container? Does it take forever to sift through them to find the perfect photo for that layout? Do you scrapbook in chronological order and find that you keep missing pictures? Does your assortment of pictures look like this:


Thanks to my good friend, Shellie, for sharing her stack of messy photos. She was smart enough to take before and after pictures. This is something I have yet to master! Maybe because I don't want to remember the way it was! As the Robinsons always say, "Keeping Moving Forward!" LOL

Here is how I've organized my photos: You may find a better way, or you may like what I've done, but want to tweak it a bit. By all means, find what works for you.

Step 1) Gather up all of your photos into one area. I used my dining room table for this task, but you can use whatever works for you. A banquet table, the picnic table, the kitchen counter, even the floor, provided you don't have furry roommates that enjoy running across your workarea, or lie down in the middle of all your photos and take a nap.

Since I have photos that date back as far as 1860, organizing them was a challenge in its own. So, I broke it up into 3 categories.
a.) 1860 -1900
b.) 1901 - 1950
c.) 1951 - 2000
From 2001 to the present, I have been using a digital camera and all my photos are stored on my external harddrive, with a cd copy as a back up and another one for save keeping. When working with digital images, make two copies of each disc, one to work with and another to store in a separate location. My cds are organized the same way as my photo boxes.



Step 2) I broke each group down to decades. Then I broke it down to years. After that I broke it down to events for each year. I used these tabbed index cards for each year.






I did that for all three groups. Then, I wrote down what each event was for that year. For instance, in 1993, I have pictures for Kelli's field trip to York, and Kevin's field trip to London, Michael's trip for some ROTC function. I also have pictures listed separately for their birthdays, and first day of school, etc. This can be a time consuming project but well worth it once complete. Click on the image to enlarge it, then right click it to save it.


Step 3) Then I purchased acid free storage boxes.
There are several on the market from inexpensive photo boxes to more sturdier plastic boxes. Michaels regularly has their photo boxes on sale for 40-50% off if you are looking for a bargain.




Step 4) Starting with the earliest pictures (for me it was 1860) and working my way up to the present, I started loading my boxes. Now, I might have lots of photos for one year but not so much the next. So, I just started filling the boxes, chronologically, till that box was full. Then I labeled it from the beginning year to the ending year for that box. Then I moved on to another box and did the same thing.Now, all my photos are organized and I know exactly where to find them. It makes it so much easier to scrapbook when I know where to find those photos. Once I finished filling up all the photo boxes, I store them on top on my computer desk in the Rubber Room for easy access.



Thanks for stopping by, now hop on over to Jo's blog and she'll tell about how she's organized her embellishments.





Thanks for stopping by, I hope this has been helpful...
Until next time,
Happy Sorting!

Leanne







25 comments:

Scrap Jaci said...

Thanks for the wonderful tip. Maybe one day I will finish organizing my pics.

Elaine said...

Great Ideas!! I will pass on to some friends that don't know where to start! Thanks!! Lainey

Cindy said...

WOW, great ideas. Now to go and get organized. Thanks for the ideas!!
Cindy

Kathy said...

Leanne, once again you have read my mind! LOL. How do you do it? Yes I do need to organize my photos! And label them as well. With the passing of my Dad, I am realizing I should have done this much sooner! I have no idea who a lot of the people are in the pictures!

Okay goal set. Got to label and store pictures so this will not happen to my family when I leave this earth!
Thank you so much for this organizational blog hop!

Jo said...

how wonderful- glad I'm part of this "hop" I loved the idea of how you sort them & broke them down.

Karen said...

This is fun! Wow, hardest thing to organize but you have done a beautiful job!

Betty Anne said...

Love the Organizational blog hop. I'm learning lots of new things. Thanks for the information on storing/sorting my photo's it seems to be a great way to do it.

Miss Jeanne said...

I have done my photos the exact same way! As I go through and work on them though, I realize that sometimes what I am missing is the story or journaling behind the photo. I wish that I would have taken better notes!

sylvia said...

Such an overwhelming task. Thanks for breaking it down...great ideas! Thank you.

Gayle said...

I'm so jealous to see your photos organized so nicely. I have been working on doing this for ages! One suggestion I have that I did as I've been working on my photos is to make a time line for your family. I did one for my family. As an example, I'll tell you about my son's timeline. I put down the approx date of his conception and then on to the date he was born, when he walked, when he graduated from HS, etc. all through his life to his 38th year. I have it stored in a 3 ring notebook with other time lines of our family. It really helps me as I organize photos. Thanks for your great ideas.

Gayle Taylor
gaylememories@sbcglobal.net

Bobbi Nessly said...

Love your idea for breaking down the photos by decades then years. Where did you find the tab index cards?

Kelly Main said...

Thanks for the great tips, you make it look so easy. Kelly

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great tips, you make it look so easy.

InkScrapper said...

Thanks for the great tips. Someday I will get to mine.

Karen C said...

Great ideas. Maybe this will propel me. I had my photos mostly organized a few years back and then stopped so now they are everywhere.

Karen C said...

Great ideas. Maybe this will propel me. I had my photos mostly organized a few years back and then stopped so now they are everywhere.

Stef H said...

omg! 1860!!! are you that old?????? i want your secret!!! just kidding! super idea and it looks nice too.

Haley D. said...

Great tops! Thanks for the step-by-step photos too.

Unknown said...

Thanks Leanne. I enjoyed your presentation of photo organization. You have a lot to scrap!

cinmfoster said...

Thanks for great tips. I;m working on old photo's and really like the index card you used and will have to incorporate that into mine.

Bridgett Owens said...

I have my photo organization process started and I have made significant progress but I am going to take your tips and apply them. I think it will be so wonderful to have this one task completed. Thank you for sharing!
Angel Hugs,
Bridgett

Anonymous said...

I have so many pictures and have organized them in chronological order from 1956 to the present. I was able to get some inexpensive lateral file drawer cabinets at a local auction. I have organized the photos as you suggest, however, they are in the drawers of the lateral cabinets. Good way to keep from moving boxes around. Also, I would need so many of the pretty boxes, it would be a big expense. How many pictures does one picture box hold? They are prettier than the lateral files :)

Gamma said...

Pam....I am uncertain to how many pictures will go into each box. Quite a few though will go in there. All the boxes you see sitting on my shelf I have oversize pictures in one, and negatives in another. I have pictures dating back to the mid 1860s. So you know these boxes will hold alot when I can put 150 years worth into all of them.

Tigerberry said...

I started organizing my ancesters photos by family groups. Because I have some really old photos that are large, some 8.5 x 11 and larger, I have used a plastic file container with drop in file folders to seperate them into family groups. I am scrapping them by family groups, so this is helpful for me until I get to my current family. That will have to be like you have done yours, by years.

Tigerberry said...

I started organizing my ancesters photos by family groups. Because I have some really old photos that are large, some 8.5 x 11 and larger, I have used a plastic file container with drop in file folders to seperate them into family groups. I am scrapping them by family groups, so this is helpful for me until I get to my current family. That will have to be like you have done yours, by years.