Decluttering Your Photo Stash
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Photographs. They are something that so many of us are guilty of having way too many of. I always swore that I would never be the mom who takes so many pictures of her first kid and so few pictures of her last kid, but alas, I am that mom.
Even so, I still have a ton of pictures to deal with, which means that I’ve had to come up with a clever way to deal with them. And believe me, with seven kids I do have a lot of pictures to deal with even taking into account that I don’t have nearly the amount of pictures for my younger kids that I have of my older kids.
As I mentioned yesterday in dealing with digital data, dealing with pictures starts before you even do anything with your pictures. I will explain just what I mean.
With that, here are my tips for decluttering your photos.
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Delete
Before dealing with uploading your pictures anywhere, delete the ones that you will never do anything with right from your device. There isn’t really a reason to upload them only to delete them later on.
Don’t let your pictures collect on devices for too long
Like in many other decluttering tips, I would say to frequently deal with your photographs to prevent them from collecting too much, making the job feel overwhelming.
Use folders
Use folders to sort pictures that are stored on your computer. You could do this by year, by event, by person, or something else. The idea is to store them in a way that makes sense to you.
When dealing with physical photos, store them in an organized fashion
I really find photo boxes to be ideal. They don’t have to be fancy and they don’t have to be expensive, but they just have to get the job done.
Sort your physical pictures in an organized way
I have a separate photo box for each person in my family since at this point I have a photo album for each member of our family. If you do something with your pictures as a family unit, maybe sorting them by year would make more sense.
Take advantage of photo sites for shared family photos
Sites like Shutterfly and Snapfish are a great way to share family photos, especially when you live far apart. I don’t have any siblings who live nearby, but when they come for a visit they always take pictures that get uploaded to a family album on Shutterfly. It is a great way for us all to see them and then order what we want directly from the site.
Regularly purge your photos
It is amazing how we tend to collect pictures that we never do anything with. While they are an awesome keepsake, be discerning in going through them and deciding what to keep, especially if you take a ton of pictures.
Photos are such an awesome way to savor our memories, but they can quickly get out of control if we are not careful. These are some great things to keep in mind when trying to conquer your family keepsakes.
This post is based on a chapter in Ruth Soukup’s book, 31 Days to a Clutter Free Life. Grab a copy and join in as we work through it together, or, grab a copy and work through it at your own pace in your own time.
Either way, you will have a clutter free life by the time you work through all 31 days!
