Most budget friendly way to get years of photos into albums?

[talulabelle]

OK - here is the dilemma:

I have boxes of photos from before I had a digital camera that never made it into albums (probably about the first 7 years of my marriage). I also have many CD's full of probably thousands of digital pics that haven't even been printed. ( probably about 10 years worth). I tried several years ago to try and tackle this problem and gave up. I found it very tedious to go through the pics on the CD's to decide which to print (I'm one of those people that takes 15 pictures of the same thing trying to get the perfect picture, and I think I will delete the rest, but I never do). Also, I could never find cost effective PVC sleeves for pictures to put the printed pictures in albums... I know I can keep some pics on CD, but I want to have some albums on the shelf so that my kids can easily look at pictures. I never let them now because I 'm afraid they will hurt the CD's or get finger prints all over the ones in boxes.

So - what is the most budget friendly and time friendly way to solve this problem? I know the technology is probably way quicker and more friendly to use now - what program should I use to manage my electronic pictures? and where can I get acid -free, (Plastic) pages for my albums that are cheap?

 

[scrapquitler]

OK - here is the dilemma:

I have boxes of photos from before I had a digital camera that never made it into albums (probably about the first 7 years of my marriage). I also have many CD's full of probably thousands of digital pics that haven't even been printed. ( probably about 10 years worth). I tried several years ago to try and tackle this problem and gave up. I found it very tedious to go through the pics on the CD's to decide which to print (I'm one of those people that takes 15 pictures of the same thing trying to get the perfect picture, and I think I will delete the rest, but I never do). Also, I could never find cost effective PVC sleeves for pictures to put the printed pictures in albums... I know I can keep some pics on CD, but I want to have some albums on the shelf so that my kids can easily look at pictures. I never let them now because I 'm afraid they will hurt the CD's or get finger prints all over the ones in boxes.

So - what is the most budget friendly and time friendly way to solve this problem? I know the technology is probably way quicker and more friendly to use now - what program should I use to manage my electronic pictures? and where can I get acid -free, (Plastic) pages for my albums that are cheap?

Honestly, I wouldn't even think about getting those thousands of digital pictures printed until I dealt with the others first (why make the mountain even bigger?). Take all those digital pictures and burn them to DVDs. Then instead of having your kids look thru the photo album, stick the DVD in your DVD player and just let the slideshow run in the background while you are doing whatever in that room and the kids can see the pictures that way (We do this at home...and we always put a slideshow of pictures on when our family is over visiting instead of having the tv on). Whatever software is on your computer should be able to handle making the slideshow DVD

For the pictures you already have printed, I dunno. I haven't seen too many photo albums in stores lately. I have however seen empty photo albums for sale at GoodWill and the flea market...that might be your best bet. And it might be worth just putting the pictures in the album in whatever order you get them put in arther than stressing about making it perfect. Finished is better than perfect

 

[Cira]

...and don't I know it. The magnetic photo albums I have seen in the stores are at places like Walgreens, Target, WalMart, etc; but as they said, there aren't as many for sale as years ago. There are also the sleeve kind of photo albums. Deal with the hard copy photos you already have first, I agree with scrapquilter. I actually did this after 6 years that I had photos laying around. I decided to at least FINISH it instead of waiting because I might not be able to get it perfect. LOL I just opened a new album and started putting them in. As I would see some from a specific event, I might have moved them around to group them together, but not even that. I was finally having some "me" time and DOING it!. I wonder if there is a way of putting 10 DVD's worth of photos in ONE DVD? You wouldn't have to do the DVD shuffle. LOL I wish there was some advice I could give. I DO wish you the best of luck. You are going to have a great time! When I finished, I was so thrilled. Now, I have a batch of about 100 photos more to do. Let us know how it goes!

 

[scrapquitler]

Take all those digital pictures and burn them to DVDs. Then instead of having your kids look thru the photo album, stick the DVD in your DVD player and just let the slideshow run in the background

Yeah, I'm quoting myself, but I wanted to add something here that I thought of after. Make TWO copies of the DVDs. Then you can put one copy away in a safe place for later, and you can put one copy on the shelf that the kids can put in the DVD player to watch, and you won't have to stress out about fingerprints on the DVD or damage to it because you'll have another copy hidden away from their little fingers.

 

[a1tinkfans]

well, you can pay someone (like on craigslist) that will place them in albums for you, but the photos have to be dated or sequenced so that to me is not worth the effort if not already done. Albums are rather passe but you can get them on sale at ac moore craft stores with coupons and do it over time???
Personally, I took my photos and placed them in those photo boxes, selected only theme ones (like trip to XYZ) and placed that in an album to look at with kids etc......I try to upload them all now and we have one of those pix frames that just runs them when we want, usually near holidays, its so simple to just pop in your little card and the pix just play
its more work than actually worth if you are not going to do it right, (organize, label etc..).so to me, for now...
Id rather pick out what you think your kids want to see and place in an album and "file" the rest.....i guess its a lesson for the future.....dont forget to take care of them as you go along
good luck

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I feel your pain. That was my first big project that I tackled when I quit work 6 years ago. I first combed all the goodwill/thrift stores in my area getting empty photo albums that used the sleeves. (the magnetic ones ruin your pictures!) once a week. Then I went to Target which carried refill sleeves and slowly bought the ones that fit those photo albums.

While this was going on, I began sorting the hard pictures into years. Plenty got tossed then because I had either taken too many of the same shot or shots were blurry or they were just plain awful.

After getting everything sorted (I had a spare room that I kept the door closed on and things were sorted on the desk, the bed, and the floor), I sorted the first year into months as best I could and put those into the photo albums one month at a time.

Between finding the photo albums cheaply and squeaking in the time to do it, the project took a year. Then the next year I slowly went through my CD's, only printing the best of the best pictures and putting those into photo albums.

It took 2 years total to do both the already printed and the CD pictures. Now I keep up with them because I never want to do it again.

Except now I'm thinking I need to scan the best of the best and back them up to a seperate hard drive and maybe onto DVD's as well in case something happens to the photo albums. I haven't started doing it yet because the thought of it just makes me cringe.

Don't even get my started on thinking about what will happen when I'm gone. Will all these pictures just get trashed? I know alot of my grandparents pictures were. I asked about them after my grandparents passed away and was told most of them were thrown away.

 

[Pooh2]

I use Print File pages available on Amazon for 4x6 photos, I believe they also make pages for 3.5x5 photos. Ritz prints 3.5x5 prints for 6 cents on Tues and Wed so the printing itselt would be cheaper.
I put the pages in a heavy duty 2 1/2 inch binder from Staples. I can fit about 1000 photos per album.

http://www.amazon.com/Printfile-466...IOTQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318528568&sr=8-2

 

[poohfriend77]

Yeah, I'm quoting myself, but I wanted to add something here that I thought of after. Make TWO copies of the DVDs. Then you can put one copy away in a safe place for later, and you can put one copy on the shelf that the kids can put in the DVD player to watch, and you won't have to stress out about fingerprints on the DVD or damage to it because you'll have another copy hidden away from their little fingers.

I'm waaaay behind on this right now, but I used to make an extra copy of the photo DVD and give it to my mom. That way, I knew if anything ever happened to our house/computer/original DVD, I would still have access to all those pics. You could put a spare copy in a safe deposit box, fire safe, etc, too.

You all are motivating me to tackle my giant photo pile! Youngest DD keeps asking me why her big sister has a huge scrapbook, and she only has a couple finished pages and a box of unorganized photos (and she's 6 now ). Poor girl!

 

[trinchick]

Like you, I was remiss in printing all my digital photos and have gotten terribly behind. Last year when I was looking for photos for my Christmas cards and annual calendar that I print on Shutterfly I decided to just do something about THAT YEAR. Instead of making the problem worse because I was too overwhelmed to tackle the whole project, I ordered two copies of prints for all decent photos for 2010. I bought a couple of albums at Michaels (with coupons of course!) and just put the photos in there in general order. I put one on the shelf for me and put the other aside to give to DD when she is older.


It felt great. I didn't solve the problem, but I didn't make it worse. PLUS, since they were recent photos, it was easy for me to remember what order to put them in, and it was easier to cull the bad pictures without worrying about being sentimental.

Since then, I have managed to stay current with printing my 2011 photos once each month. Again, I'm focusing on just not making the problem worse. I have also printed and put the 2009 photos in an album. Next year, I will try to stay current and tackle 2008's photos. And so on...

I decided that the easiest way to get this done/organized is to just dedicate one album per year. Get the photos in so that people can enjoy them, and call it a day.

I work full time and have two kids. DH works two jobs all summer so I'm on my own for most of the summer. I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to this project. It's a slow solution, but it's working for me. Again, DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT!

 

[Janepod]

If you did a Venn diagram to show "budget friendly" and "time friendly" it would look like two zeros.

I would start chronologically with the earliest year and just do one album for each calendar year. Don't start with the recent digital pics 'til you tackle the older ones. Good luck! I started about 3 years ago and I'm just now finishing 2009 FINALLY.

 

[C.Ann]

I use Print File pages available on Amazon for 4x6 photos, I believe they also make pages for 3.5x5 photos. Ritz prints 3.5x5 prints for 6 cents on Tues and Wed so the printing itselt would be cheaper.
I put the pages in a heavy duty 2 1/2 inch binder from Staples. I can fit about 1000 photos per album.

http://www.amazon.com/Printfile-466...IOTQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318528568&sr=8-2

This is a good way to deal with photos that are printed out and just need to be put into albums.. Or - if you have an Ocean State Job Lot near you, off and on they sell the same type of binder system (with the pages included) for around $3 a piece.. It's hit or miss though - so if you see them, grab a bunch all at once.. (They will also hold 1000 photos in each album..)

 

[poober25]

I'm planning on taking the next month and scanning all my non-digital pics into my computer. Then I'm uploading ALL my pics to both Snapfish and Shutterfly, making albums and ordering as there are sales. I had intended to do this over the last year, but because of family health, was not able to do so. Now, it is even more important to me to get it it done! That way I don't have to worry about pictures falling out of albums, etc. I will do this for Christmas for family this year, too. There were some really good sales on Snapfish last year, and I got several small albums for VERY little money. I want to buy nicer albums for this project, but I will wait for good sales.

 

[eduk8r26]

Ross, Big Lots, Marshall's all carry albums at good prices. Kohl's often has their albums 50% off. I've gotten some of mine there for not more than $10-=$12 each.
'