Tip of the Month

Let's talk about pictures this month. How do you organize them? What do you do with the ones you want to scrap and those you don't? Do you ever get rid of pictures? What about digital pictures? Do you have a special way to organize those digital files? Share your ideas and what has and hasn't worked for you and inspire others.

kathy m from San Jose CA writes...
Pictures...mine are such a mess, but it\'s an organized mess. Or at least I tell myself that. I want to know what you do with the pictures that you don\'t scrap. I\'ve got mine in those rubbermade keepers boxes, which I like, but they are not in any order. Plus I feel like they are over taking my house. I need to do something, but I don\'t know what. Ideas?

Peggy J from Beavercreek OH writes...
I have most of my pictures in Cropper Hopper Photo cases in chronological order by year. I\'m working on my fifth case. Some of my pictures are still in those \"nasty\" albums, but I am slowly working on getting them into storage boxes as well. When I pull pictures to scrap, they go in my CIS Photo holders, or, if there are just a few, in a page protector with the papers and embellishments I\'ve chosen. Duplicates go back in the photo cases. For now, I\'m keeping them, but I don\'t know if I will forever. I don\'t do digital yet, so I don\'t have any hints for them.

Polly from Bremerton, WA writes...
I\'ve been digital for the past 4 years or so, but prior to that all unscrapped pictures were put into photo albums. I just can\'t throw a photo out! All the negative are in archival sleeving in 3 ring binders. They are all dated and have a \"file number\" which is then written on the back of photos for quick reference should I need to reprint anything. Since going digital my system is pretty simple. I have a folder for each month on my computer. Pictures taken during a particular month go into the appropriate folder. I have a certain way I give a picture a file #. For instance, a picture taken today of my DD would start out like this.... 2005-0802Liz (Then a # like oo1.jpg after) This way all the files stay in order. Every once in awhile I burn a CD (we back up our computer regularly so I am not worried about losing my pictures before a cd is burned). This system has worked out well for me. Of course since going digital I only print the ones I need so there is no print/neg storage problems.

Trudi writes...
I use digital photos - even scanned all the old pictures. I name the file with the date and put them in a folder for a particular year. Sometimes I even break it down into month. I\'ve found that works best for me.

INJacqui from Brown County, Indiana writes...
It\'s taken a long time, but here\'s what I\'ve finally come up with. I am now completely digital. I download to my PC at least once a month. I have folders for each year, and within that folder each month. If there was a special event within a month, it gets its own folder within the month. After the pics are downloaded and I can see them up close, I delete any that are bad or pointless. Then I edit any that need to be edited with Photoshop. Finally, the pictures that I know I want printed (either for a scrapbook or because they are good/fun pictures) I copy onto my thumb drive and print them with my Epson picturemate. (This rarely all happens in one sitting :\') Then I have slim 3-up albums where I store all my printed pics chronologically. If I have a lot of pictures of the same event, I will put more than 1 picture in a slot. So far, I can fit about 2 years in each album. Then, when I want to scrap I can go through these albums to find the pictures I need. Plus, we can go through the album before any pictures are scrapped. Plus, I don\'t feel like I have to scrap every little thing because the every day/just for fun pictures are accessible. Typically when my kids want to look at the \"Big Books about Us\" (aka scrapbooks), we look through the 3-ups too. Jacqui

Mindy from Columbus, GA writes...
My photos are overwhelming as is the piles of things to go with them - diplomas, certificates, tickets, all sorts of memoberilia. I had a huge bucket full of photos I took out of old maganetic albums that my parents had, and I did not know what to do with them. I bought rubbermaid containers but they take up so much space! My new idea was cropper hopper ones - but agian they take up space. I still use one of those for my most curent pics. The best storage solution for the old photos was a Compact Photo Organizer from porta view michaels sells. It holds 144 pictures ( 4x6) but I was able to sue it for about 280 small photos since most of the old ones from my parents are polaroids or that size. I now have 3 of those full of old pics and they are slim and nice - maybe all four are the size of one rubbermaid container! I love those but wish I can find more now- I bought all 4 mikes had with 40% coupons and got them for like $4 or less each. I hope they get more in as I have a rubbermaid contianer as big as I am full of pics and memorbilia to organize.This organizing never ends!

Valerie from Buena Park, CA writes...
Pictures, pictures & MORE pictures! Since i went digital last year, i\'ve found i don\'t have as many unwanted or unused pictures floating around! What i do with my digitals now is download them to my computer, crop, edit or whatever i need to make them better, then burn to a disk. After i decide what photos i want to use for a layout, i\'ll pull the ones out of my online file, copy to a seperate disk, then take to my local processor - they come out exactly like i want them!

Teresa from Columbus, Ohio writes...
I have this same issue as well...only now I am making progress with organizing them. First, I have made it a habit that when I get my photos developed (I do not have digital) I go through and put a brief description and date on the back of each one. I also put a brief rundown on the outside of the paper envelope as to what pictures are enclosed (ie: christmas 2003, etc.). Next I go through the pictures and throw out those pictures that did not turn out or that I know I don\'t want. Believe me, there are plenty of ones that I don\'t care for since I\'m not digital. I then pull out the pictures that are good enough to scrap. I place these pictures in ziplock sandwich baggies seperated by themes. Each bag represents one page of scrapping. Finally, the pictures that are left over, I put (standing on side) in chronological order in shoeboxes so that I can easily see the dates & descriptions that I have written on the outside envelope. These shoeboxes are then stored in a plastic storage tote. My next step, since all of my leftover pics are already in date order and sorted through is placing them in regular photo albums. The scrap albums that I mainly work on are for my children, so I figure that one day they will take the albums that I have created especially for them. When they do, I will have photo albums for myself! LOL

Barb from PA writes...
I organize mine by child. If they did a trip of school then that child gets theirs in their own album. Then I organize by year, etc. I usually scrap all of mine unless alot alike. I am making a section in each of my boys albums for their siblings and relatives.

Pam from Pam writes...
Have you guys ever used any Creative Memories products they have been the answer to all of my organinzing disasters. They have a Large photo file box that hold way over 2000 photos and it has little dividers and compartments that pull out and its not overbearing in size they also have a smaller one that is the same design that holds maybe a 1/3 of what the big one does. Then if you buy products they are not available to buy but there are little photo file mate thing that will hold up to like 125+ photos that they will give you as a gift at least that is how I have recieved mine and everything that Creative Memories makes is photo safe and guaranteed. They are great products if you have never seen them you should.

Pam from FL writes...
I forgot to tell you guys that the photo mate thing holds not only 4X6 but up to 5x7\'s. I have a few of them I organize my extra Sizzix cuts in one pics I am taking to crops and also my stickers they are awesome products.

Diane from NYC writes...
I just bought the Creative Memories Power Sort box to hold my pictures and what a great thing. I was using Photo boxes but I like this better. I can organize by month and get alot more accomplished.

Danielle Bogdanovich from Las Vegas writes...
wow awesome storage tips so far. my tip is a little different but still offers some organization. when i have photos left over after scrapping an event i like to place the extra photos into those page protectors that offer 4x6 pockets in them. i know when scrap in a snap was in biz they use to offer them and i am sure you could find them easily on line or locally. i then stick this page protector in my album with my scrapped event (or you could just label the page and stick it in a different binder). the end result is that you have all your pictures whether scrapped or not in the same place for viewing and they are organized.

Rinda from El granada writes...
As soon as I get my pix back from the developer, I take out the ones I want to scrap and store (by l/o) in a picture keeper box. I label the envelope with its contents and toss it into a storage container (which are separated by year). Then, when I get a chance, I either scrap a group of pix or make a page kit bag with the pix, paper and embellishments. I hope that helps. Rinda

Jill in ohio, now TX from DFW area writes...
I use the CM humongous box. I have the dividers taken out though, because I use panaramic pics a lot. I sort them chronoligically. Very easy to use, no big deal at all. Before I used this, I just stacked them, and all the pics kept getting knocked around and then would be out of order all the time. If it\'s for a particular event that has its own book, like Christmas or one of my kids, I have pocket sleeves in there and just put the pics in a separate sleeve till it\'s time to work on them. Jill

Stephanie in VA writes...
I have been using the rubbermaid boxes, but recently got the CM Power Sort and I really like it. I have been sorting pictures that are already in pretty good order but have given myself permission to throw out blurry pics, pics with no heads, or ones with only strangers in them (not heritage tho). It\'s very freeing. I\'m also labeling each individual pic instead of only the packet they are in. Great question and the answers have some really good ideas.

Tracy *SBA* from Wisconsin writes...
When I get my pictures back from the store, I put my doubles in a regular photo album with names and dates written on the back then they are in order and I will always have them safe. I take the other set and figure out who may want a copy of a picture then I take that out so I can give it to them. Then I decide what picture are just not something I\'m going to scrap and take them out and put them in a great big plastic zip lock bag I have with what I call rejects... LOL Then I take what\'s left and put it in my scrapbook stuff so when I\'m ready to scrap them they are there. I just scrap for fun so I have no order or to my books I just do pages I feel like because I know I have all my picture in order in my photo albums which I have been doing for 15 yrs. Then every once and a while I clean out those picture in my scrapbook stuff that I haven\'t used yet into the reject bag. I only throw away picture that are fuzzy and really bad I never use to but I\'m getting better at it. But my biggest tip would be when you pick up those pictures write names and dates right away on the back!!!

Neece writes...
I\'m behind in organizing my unscrapped photos and need to catch up. I figured that I would never be \"caught up\" in scrapping, so I wanted the photos to be able to be enjoyed by the family. So I decided to put all my unscrapped photos in photo-safe albums, w/ double prints slipped into the same sleeve. I write in the margin w/ pencil how many prints are in each sleeve with the date and a brief description. This works out great when I go to scrap them because I know instantly whether or not I will have to make copies (I always leave one print in the album). The unscrapped pics I don\'t have in albums yet are stored in Rubbermaid plastic storage boxes by year.

lana from ohio writes...
When I get my pics, I try to organize them into layouts - these then go into a box I made that sits on the top of my desk - and I just start scrapping. Older pics are divided by event and I get to them when I feel like going into the past. As far as digitals go - I have a folder I place them in after I have printed them, and when that folder is full enough I put them on a cd. Some special events get their own cd -like our cruise.

Jill in Chicago writes...
All of the photos I do not scrap are stored, by categories, in a shoebox. I made stand up dividers out of cardboard. One divider says Mom, another Dad, another Mom and Dad, another The Whole Family, Grandparents.... It is very easy to file the leftover photos after I complete a layout. Then when I need a photo for a school project or to make into a card I can quickly pull a photo right out. For my current photos I divide them immediately into those 12 x 12 clear plastic envelopes, one for each page/layout. (I have lots of envelopes!) For big projects, such as when I saved all my photos from those press and stick albums, I used the dining room table and make big piles, either by year, or event... Then I put those piles in separate white envelopes, which were filed, in date order, into a plain ol\' shoebox. Those huge sneaker shoeboxes work the best.

Wendie Lowe from Magna, UT writes...
I give my extras to the grandmas and other interested people. And my negs are in a 3 ring binder. I saw the post about Joanns. But there\'s another place that has really good deals. And that would be Big Lots.

Barb from PA writes...
I also want to add that as for your photo CD\'s, I bought one of those Creative Memory small photo holders and I put my CD\'s in there. That way I know where they are. I use markers to put on it the date on the CD.

Theresa in NC from Apex, NC writes...
When I get pictures developed I put ones for DS#1\'s album in his section of my CM power sort box, DS#2\'s in his section, and ones for the family album in that section. Unfortunately, the rest go in photo storage boxes under my bed. I don\'t get rid of the extras (unless they are bad photos)from our life now because I\'ve found that I often need them for school projects. However, over the years I\'ve gone back and done high school, college, first years of marriage, etc. albums and I can and I DO get rid of the pics I don\'t use in those albums.

Cynthia from Indiana writes...
I have the cardboard craft/photo boxes to divide my pictures up. I have 4 right now: one for each of my sons, one for house/family photos, one for heritage/early years photos. I divide them up in each box into sections by year and how I would like to scrapbook them. For instance, I put all the sleeping baby pictures together by year.

Norma from Guntersville, Alabama writes...
I have been digital for about 3 yrs now and only print the ones I want to scrapbook. I keep a copy of all others labeled on disk and keep these in a CM small power sort box. All pics to be scrapbooked are in the large CM powersort box, I purchased extra dividers and have about 3 in each segment. My friend gets double pics of everything, scraps one files the other in chronilogical order in a CM large powersort box and all negatives are kept in a bank vault, she takes them every month to the bank... I wish I was so organised as I have many pictures lost due to not looking after my negatives. Happy Organising! Be Blessed. Norma

50off_scrapper writes...
I like the CM photo boxes. They make it easy to search through for the right pics. For digital pictures I have several folders. I call them Download 1, 2, 3...etc. I download into that folder and I have a folder created by date. I can then easily search the date that I am lookin for.

Carla from NC writes...
When getting pics back from printing I try to immediately sort them into large baggies (big enough for 12x12 paper) and will accumulate the paper, stickers/embellishments that I will use on that layout, right into the bag with the pics. That way, when I\'m ready to scrap, I can pick up a bag and have some of the layout already planned. The way I organize digital photos on my hard-drive (and when copying to disk) is first by year, then by month, then by event. So my birthday pics for this year would be filed as: 2005 - August - Carla\'s birthday

Kari from Tacoma writes...
First off, I only keep the best of the best; if it is not worth placing neatly in a scrapbook, it is not worth holding onto. Next, I sort them straight into my CM Power Sort box, and scrapbook with a compartment at a time. I look forward to using the same system on my digital photos with the CM Memory Manager software that comes out next month.

Chrisslee from Sacramento, California writes...
I just finished sorting all my pictures (3 months). I use the CM Power Sort boxes (both sizes) and the Michaels shoebox containers. I have seperated by years, than went back and filed by months. I am in the process of making a \"My Favorite Pictures\" album for my 4 children. I can take each year and pull my favorite pictures out, make copies, and replace to complete MY albums. Sorting can be a huge job, but so rewarding when your done, making it easier to scrap many albums at a time.