Deperately wanting photo organizing advice!!!

[JessetheCowgirl]

I have 3 kids and about a million pics. My DS#1 has a baby scrapbook filled out until about his 9th month.

DS #2 and DD (4 mos) have the same scrapbook, but they are empty.

How do I even start going through pics and organizing them???? And should I just do baby books through, say, the 1st year? Then switch to a family type album/book??

I am so overwhelmed I don't know where to start. But I really want to get these pics organized and in albums/scrapbooks so they can be enjoyed!!!!!

HELP!!!!

 

[liznboys]

All of our photos are digital now, so they're all nice and organized on the computer! LOL I print them out as needed for the baby books, frames and mailing out to family and friends.

But I do have some from our pre-digital days that are simply put in photo albums. I don't scrapbook (because I know I won't keep it up! LOL) but if I were you, I'd finish up your oldest ones scrapbook and make them for your other two kids first years as well so it's fair. Then, I'd put the rest in regular albums.

 

[4greatboys]

I think thats a good idea, babybook through 1 yr then just a family album. When my 2 oldest were little I made an album for each one but now we have 4 kids and its just close to impossible to make an album for each one. You can do a scrapbook for each kid if you like just putting in school pics, team pics, birthdays but to do complete albums for each kid would be very time consuming.
I like the new albums they have out that have spaces on the side for journaling so you can write important dates, names or whatever. And on some of my ablums like that I add in some stickers or other empellishments to spruce it up.

As for organizing just go through and try to group your pictures by date or occasion and put it in something you can label. Then once all sorted however you want them sorted just start popping them in a book.

 

[disneygals]

This is my advice....

baby books up to 1 year

if your photos are not dated, organize as best you can per year and then buy albums that hold at least 300 ( I buy mine at BJ's) I used to obsess if my albums were not in exact chronological order, but realized as time passed, it didn't matter. I label the album with the dates.

In 2000, I thought I'd be scrapping everything!! and stopped putting my pics in an album. HUGE mistake! Now I've gone back to albums and plan to scrap a book for each kid and continue a family highlight book. I always get double pics.

Let's see, my kids are 12, 10 and 8 and I'm only up to age 4 for my youngest.... and I started with hers!

good luck!

 

[MerryPoppins]

I did an album of firsts for each child. It mostly is pictures from the first year. Then I continued to do a 2 page layout for each year since - mostly with school activities, etc. Other photos go in our family and trip albums.

As far as sorting, go get some photo boxes with dividers. Sit on the floor and start sorting photos by year into piles. Write a year on each divider and put each year's pictures behind the divider. This will take more than one sitting. LOL! It may take quite a while.

You will end up with a stack of pictures that you can't identify the date. I can usually figure these out by studying the photo. Look at the room. Sometimes you can tell by the furniture or paint on the walls, etc. Check out the yard. What car is in the driveway? How big are the trees? What shoes is the child wearing? (They outgrow them so fast so maybe you can compare with other photos) Check out hair. Is it long or short? Can you compare it to other pictures? Have you got a set of Christmas pictures that you can't date? Which year is missing Christmas photos? Things like that.

Once you are done sorting by year, pull out the first year. Sort those pictures by season (can go by clothing) and try to put them in some sort of order. Remember, if you can't remember what came first it probably isn't that important. You mainly want to get all the photos from the same occassion together. Then re-file them. When you get ready to put them in a book, they are all sorted and ready to go.

 

[TEENEE]

Start off by sorting your pictures. Shoe boxes work great for sorting. Each child or subject gets a box or boxes. After they are sorted you can start to put scrapbook or put albums together. It's overwhelming when you have piles of pictures, but once they are sorted your task will be easier to tackle. Have fun.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Okay, you all are inspiring me.

I didn't add in my original post that I have purchased 10 or so of the photo boxes. That makes sense to just divide ALL pics in order.

I was trying to keep things separate for each child and I think that is where I am frustrated---example--a pic of all 3 kids with grandma (only 1 copy of the pic); so which child would get it???

I think that's what I need to do, just sort chronologically and stick them in family albums. Maybe someday I'll do scrapbooks

The creative memories gurus have me so scared about which choice of album. Do you have any ideas? Just the slide the picture in kind? As long as they are acid free, they should be okay, right?

 

[liznboys]

I just have the regular slide-in kind of albums that you can get everywhere, Target, Walmart, Costco, etc. I don't even know if they are acid-free?! LOL (I guess I better check now!)

 

[TEENEE]

Your albums and anything that touches your pictures needs to be free of acid, lignin and pvc. Those albums with the plastic slide ins are made from pvc. If you use those over time your pictures will fade. If your not going to put them in a good album I recommend a box.