How to Organize Photos

I scrapbook also but it's so hard to find the time. :(
I use the Creative Memories photo keeper boxes. (not sure of the exact name) They are a large square black box with dividers. I have one for each kid and place the photos in as soon as I get them back from developing. I just wrote the dates (or age) on the tabs.
My friend sells CM if you want more info. She's wonderful and wont try to get you to host a show. She just likes the product and helping others. :)

Are you planing more children? I have 4 and I can't even imagine having an album for each child and each year, I'd need a bookcase just for albums! But, if she is going to be your only it may be fun to have one for each year.

Hey C. - Ugh!! I struggle with this too. (I have 4 kids - was great at keeping up with the 1st 2 - twins - ok with the third and haven't put any in an album for #4, now 1) Here's what I've ended up doing...I'm sure it's not a perfect plan, but it seems to work ok for me. I do month by month albums for the first 2 years of life; have a family album for events after that; but do keep a separate album for each of them after the 2 year mark with things like school pictures, sports pictures, santa, etc. the bigger/simpler stuff. When I get my pictures back (when I actually print them out) I sort through the ones I think I might use in the scrapbook and put them in a page protector in the order the events happen. That way, when I do have time to deal with them, the pictures are in order and I don't have to think to myself, "was that September or November, or 2004 summer vacation or 2005?". When I save digital pictures on my computer I am very specific about how I label them so they are easy to recognize and organize properly later. I also have multiple folders for each kid that I save duplicates in (say for the holidays) so that when I'm working on one child's album, I can just look for pictures in their folder as opposed to searching through all the family events. Does that make sense? Another idea to consider is to wait...and put albums together according to the theme: all Christmas pictures in order by year; all Birthdaya in order by year; all Halloween, etc. Hope this helps...(wow am I behind :( )

I, too, used to scrapbook and my son's "first year" scrapbook is so wonderful. But then my daughter came along and I just couldn't keep up with scrapbooking. So I started doing photobooks and I'm really happy with the results. My daughter's first year album turned out nicely (not as great as a hand-scrapbooked album) and I did it on MyPublisher. Shutterfly has a pretty good one, too, and they have expanded to have some that look more like scrapbooks. I also decided that after the kids turn 1, all their photos go into the "family" book. Otherwise I'm doing too many. Of course, the family book is mostly the kids, but that way I'm not always leaving out pics of the rest of our life. And you can do a little memory book or something if you have a trip or special event that you've taken a lot of photos of and want to have on print.
Hope that helps!

I scrapbook (when time allows) and the way I organize my photos is by years. I do a separate album though for Christmas. That is a fun one for the girls to go through and see how they have grown over the years.

If we have a big special vacation (like when we went to Alaska or Hawaii) I do a separate one for that trip.

Otherwise everything goes in the album for that year.

The extra photos I don't use go into one of those photo boxes. Then when the girls need a picture for their own projects they can find one.

I don't use film anymore, so I have lots of digital pics on my computer. I use Picassa (it's a free download from google I think) to organize all my photos. It will even find pictures on your computer that you didn't know you had. It's awesome. One warning...be sure to download your pictures to back them up. there are some good online places that will do it or download them by year onto cd's or a flash drive. Picassa allows you to group them into folders so it's really easy!

Hope this helps!

I've been struggling with this too. I'm learning to become choosy and take pictures more selectively, like one picture of an event - so I don't end up with half a dozen of a parade. I've heard the tip to throw out any pictures that aren't great - hard to do at first, but why keep them in your life if they aren't great, when you do have lots of great ones. I recently bought some inexpensive photo albums that have several lines next to each picture so that you can write a smidge about the picture, like the date and stuff. I've heard to save just the very best pictures for scrapbooking, and to put the rest of the pictures in an album. If you only had a dozen or so pictures a year to scrapbook, that might be more doable, then put the rest in an album, while still being selective about what you take pictures of and what you keep of those.

My mom did that for all three of her children. We each had a photo album for each year of our life. It also has a large manilla envelope in the back where she put special things we had made or awards we had received. When we grew up and moved away from home we got to take our albums with us. I think it was the neatest gift. We have always enjoyed looking through the albums throughout our lives. So many people are going to digital and storing their photos on-line or on their computer, but there is something about having those hard copies in your home that makes you look at them so much more. And if you are just putting them in an album and not scrapbooking then it really doesn't take that much time. Happy memory making!
M.

Hi C., I am also a photo crazed mom! Check out the website www.keepingtheheritage.com - it is an online digital publishing company and is really great! I am a consultant for Heritage Makers and I truly LOVE it! There is no cost for a basic account (just printing costs when you print your book, card, poster, etc.). If you are a 'scrapbook' person, we also have a Premier account which runs like a magazine subscription for $19.99/month and offers about $2000 worth of paper, stickers, art, etc. But, unlike a magazine subscription, you can turn it on and off as much as you like! This way of keeping your memories is WAY cheaper and no mess - you can sit down for 10 minutes at the computer and work on your album and then walk away when you need to... I promise that you'll LOVE it too! Good luck and remember that these times are the special ones with your little one. Enjoy every minute!
-S.

I, too , am a scrapbooker (when I have time about once a YEAR!) I started an album for each kid in the 8 x 10 size and each year I scrapbook their 5 x 7 photo in it (with year, size, weight, grade, etc.)It's fast & easy with a large photo and a small album. The front page is dedicated to how we chose their name. The oldest book is up to 15 now, and the album isn't full yet. Should I quit at 21? Hmmmm... haven't thought that through. They get to keep the album after they get married. :>)

I have 2 kids and have been with Creative Memories for years now. There are some great solutions to organizing your photos and storing them for later or until you get time to put them in albums. They have great photo books you can put together, storage, organizational products and simple quick albums and album kits to make putting your families albums together. I have lots of things for you to see and would love to also scrapbook or organize things if you are interested. To see some of the things they have to offer you can go to www.creativememories.com If you are interested in talking and finding out more just give me a call ###-###-####.

If all your photos are digital, there are many great websites where you can put together your photos digitally and then have a book printed and sent to you instead of doing prints and putting them in an album. These are nice because they are thinner and easier to store, you can put fun backgrounds on them, and they are fairly inexpensive. Photoworks.com is one I've used and been pleased with. Good luck!

I put some in the family album, some in the child's album and the rest in an index card box. It's the perfect size. You can get the 3 x 5 or the 4 x 6 size. I'm not familiar with picture boxes, maybe they're the same idea. Anyway, some of the boxes even have the dividers you can label. Then there's the CD's for the digital photos or there are negative holders you can fill up and put into a 3-ring binder if you still have 35mm kind like I do. I personally wouldn't and couldn't toss any. Even bad ones capture something unique. Anyway, sometimes if the picture is similar, I store the 2nd rate one behind the other. I hope this gives you some ideas.