Summarizing Photo Organization

Summarizing this system

· Trust yourself to customize the system to work for you – I sort my digital photos by month/year-i do like my 3 up albums by season/year.

· If you have years of unorganized photos, setting up storage albums will take LOTS of time, but its time well spent. Once you’ve organized them, maintaining them is quite easy.

· Trust the System- you may not scrapbook all of these photos in storage album-it’s a working filing system; after 2 years, review, if not going to scrapbook, them move LOVINGLY to cold storage and scrapbook some more recent pictures with fresher memories with your perspective now.

· You’re in charge. You get to decide how & when to carry it out.

· Yes, you are filling these albums to EVENTUALLY empty them-sort of like your pantry, you can’t cook with it, if its not in your pantry AND going to the store (or sorting through pictures) wastes your time to cook (create). SO, you should only put pictures in the album that you feel is worth your creative efforts. IF NOT, throw away or if you can’t do that, put it in cold storage.

· Don’t overplan. You and your scrapbook interests change over time. Scrapbook what you are inspired to create, NOT what comes next. Don’t pin yourself down to doing an 8x8 for each vacation & putting 1 page in things we do, etc. something else may occur to you to be more meaningful.

· Here’s the deal: You won’t scrapbook photos you don’t see. Use & add to your storage album “to be scrapbooked photos”. Print your digital pics that you may use on a page; you know WHERE they go now, so sort, print & store.

· Don’t sweat the small stuff – live, make memories and be happy now. Perfection is WAY over-rated.

· HAVE FUN!!!! Scrapbooking is FUN, it’s a hobby, not a chore. Take it all in, I love the colors, the pretty papers and embellishments to help me tell a story. Enjoy the process, don’t make it a means to an end or a to do list.

Pitfalls

· Don’t over plan the next 5 years! Life happens & plans change, don’t set yourself up for disappointment

· “Life is crazy and the craziness is the fun part; life happens, let it”. Stacy Julian

· Sifting through boxes of photos robs you of your scrapbook time-so having them organized ALLOWS you to scrapbook them.

· Photo storage allows your family to view pictures now & you can jot journaling notes as they look at them.

So do you think you're up for this project? Feel free to email me with any questions & change it to fit YOUR needs.

Sources:
Big Picture Scrapbooking by Stacy Julian,
Simple Scrapbooks, May June 2007

30% Thursday: Easter Section

Happy Scrappin'