Although I’m mostly caught up with my photos (and the organization of them), I still have plenty of photos that remain on my phone and/or computer that could definitely use more organization. Does everyone else struggle with trying to keep pace with rapid photo snapping?
However, where I don’t have as much of a struggle, is with how I’ve organized where we store all of our photo and memory related items.
My original set of photo albums (all six of them) are on our landing, resting on our one dedicated bookshelf (pictured above).
They work well here mainly due to the size and number of them. (I needed some taller items for this unique styled bookshelf. These were albums that I assembled back when you still developed rolls of film. In many ways this process seemed manageable and I kind of miss it!
However, at that time and before camera phones, I realized that while the system worked, it would need to evolve. One, because I was going to end up with possibly hundreds of photo albums (if I kept up that pace and system) and two, because technology was moving away from printed photos to digital photos.
So, the remainder of our photo albums (my updated system), scrapbooks, and home movies are all organized and stored in our TV console in our Great Room.
This is helpful because I know where everything is and it also puts a limit on how many albums or DVDs I can acquire. Of course I could always spread into other areas of my home, but I wouldn’t do that! I believe in boundaries. Boundaries help control the clutter.
The left side of the console holds our professionally made wedding album, our wedding scrapbook, and our Christmas yearly scrapbook. The Christmas scrapbook is the only one that I continue to add to, the rest are complete. Above those are some photo albums that we’ve received as memories/gifts. All very special.
In the right side, the red scrapbooks are my kids’ baby books and the three black and white bins hold our family movies (DVDS) and our digital photos backed up on CDS. I upload everything to Shutterfly but I also do a secondary back up too. (I’ve learned some lessons the hard way about backing up photos!)
In one of the drawers I have our annual photo books that I now make every year. This is my revised system which I moved to in an effort to streamline things. It is working very well and takes up considerably less space. Win-win!
The other drawer holds my morning reading things, and while this works well for now, if and when I need to add more photo albums (for example our yearly ones that I make) I can do so and easily relocate these things. It’s always helpful to leave some growing room!
Lastly, the middle drawer holds our music CDS (yes, we still have CDS) but they are organized in a notebook and once again this is the only spot where we keep them. And a logical place because the stereo is directly below.
Zoning like items together is a foundational way to stay organized. By creating a design for a piece of furniture or space in your home, you are being intentional with how you will use things. You are creating direction and function for your spaces and your stuff.
Wishing you many joyful memories and the memory to upload your digital photos too.
Happy Organizing!
