🖼 Simplifying and Decluttering Photos 👨‍👩‍👧 (Family Minimalism 2019)

If you have boxes of random family photos, it can be a source of guilt! We feel bad that we're not taking better care of them, we're not honoring the people in them, and we never revisit them because it causes stress just to look at them!! Today, let's talk about how we can simplify photos so that we actually look through them and so that they are a positive thing in our life again​!

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[karlabrekke]

I went through 5 large boxes of photos with my mom. We made 9 albums (one for each of her kids) starting with early photos of mom and dad and then family photos as each child came along. We used an early school photo of the child on the front of their album. Then we sorted all the other photos by each kid and put them into individual zippered cases from the dollar store. Mom gave each of us an album and our case for Christmas that year. Not only did we get rid of the photos, but I heard wonderful memories from my mother. I then started talking with her 1 afternoon each week and by the next Christmas she was able to give each of us and all her grandkids a book of her life story that I helped her write. I got to know her as a strong women, not just as my mother.

[brendamaun]

My neighbor includes old photos in the birthday and holiday cards she sends to friends and family. I think it's a great idea I hope to try this year.

[Shiryone]

Long ago, someone might have had a picture of themselves as a toddler, maybe a wedding picture, and one in their older years. I actually hate that today we are drowning in pictures. The only time I look at my pics is when I want to declutter them. I'm probably an anomaly in this smart phone selfie world.

[livingstrategically]

Conquering a backlog of family photos can take years, but it is worth the effort! They are one of the most cherished things I have seen passed on from one generation to the next. 👴👵 More than any physical item, except the family Bible.

📸 Now that we have our family photos organized (from multiple generations...it took years!!), I've learned two tricks to never let things get out of control again. First, we purpose to take fewer photos at each event and for vacations, and focus instead on being present with family. And then on the first of every month we clear off our phones and camera, transferring all the digital photos onto the computer. Everything gets organized by month and then by event, and poor quality pics get deleted. When I create an annual scrapbook at the end of the year, it goes so much more smoothy now! 🖼️

[hardcoreadorable]

I have basically binge watched all your videos this last week. I am a SAHM. We have 7 children - his/hers/ours. Our 3 youngest have Autism. Over the last 3 years my Mother, Father and last living Grandparent all passed away. Yes, its a lot to process. But you can imagine...I inherited ALL of the furniture and photos and décor and clothing etc. etc. from my Mom and her Mom...I am the only daughter. As a result of that...along with therapy schedules and children who don't function well...I am become pretty overwhelmingly buried. My biggest obstacle was WHAT to throw out and WHAT to keep. I have the idea of "passing things down" because I am after all the last one that can. For the purpose of this video lets just cover the photos. I received thousands of family photos dating back 5 generations! Beautiful old shots of my 5th Great Grandmother in the late 1800's. I am a book lover and a lover of history. I didn't want to toss any of the photos...but I had to start somewhere. One thing I did was sort by decade. In my grandmothers generation, they always wrote on the photos, so many have dates. Next I separated the people I knew and didn't know. Then I had to look through albums to find duplicates. This process took months. I spread out on a large table and then had a cousin come over to take some and to verify certain people. Long story short, I decided to make an album/scrapbook of all the Grandmothers...including their stories (found on various other documents and journals). That way my daughters can learn where we came from through the eyes of each grandmother. The rest of the "random" photos I have sorted by shape and size...and color vs. black and white. I have tossed all blurry photos...or unattractive shots...OMG and scenary pictures! How many mountain and ocean pictures did my mother need! lol. Thank you for your cheerful spirit and your time in making such detailed organization tips. I am making my husband watch these next :)

[ornatal]

Thank you so much! I didn't know how and where to start. Your idea of not putting the photos in chronological order was so good for me. It gave me a big push to start. I loved your video, thanks again.❤

[PauletteWebb-qouq]

The tip on not putting your photos in chronological order is golden! When I first learned I don't have to have my photos in order, it was so freeing & so much easier to organize photos. The system I used, grouped photos into 4 categories (& I created sub-categories from there): 1. Us (our immediate family - hubby, kids & g-kids), 2. People (extended family & friends, or others), 3. Places (travel photos or where location is the main focus of the photo) & 4. Things (food, the new car, ... ). I still try to organize in order as much as possible, but no longer view it as a requirement of getting photos put into albums so we can actually enjoy looking at them & reminiscing with loved ones. Blessings!

[crystalbrown]

I made photo cubes from our loose favorite photos. I sand and stain wood cubes, mod podge photos onto the cubes and display them in crystal bowls, vases, etc. Each cube holds 6 pictures. Seeing them on the coffee table makes me smile. 😊

[nicholetteburris]

"Children want to be noticed and know where they fit in." This is going up in my craft room. I've been struggling with how to scrapbook my step children (we are at a hard place right now.) This gave me a lot of clarity on why/how to scrapbook our family!

[bambilover]

Yes! Thank you thank you thank you for not just saying we should scan them! I also LOVE being able to physically flip through an album, and I find I do it more than looking through pictures on my computer. In terms of how to sort them, my dad ALWAYS said that nobody will care about landscape pictures, only about the people in pictures. I didn't understand that when I was younger, but now I do. It also helps keep me in check with how many pictures I actually even take to begin with. If someone isn't in the shot, I try not to take it. I think being conscious of how many pictures we're taking AS we take them is incredibly important in managing the inventory later. It's the same concept of only bringing really quality items into your house, but we don't apply it to taking pictures for some reason.

We got a really big album of every single wedding picture made because I didn't pay all that money to have the pictures sit on a computer! I have looked at it with friends and family members so many times, and it was 100% worth the time and cost. I'm super curious to hear your take on digital pictures because that's where I'm overwhelmed. I would love to make them into albums, but I struggle with actually doing that.

[kaliehall-toim]

Good idea looking back good memories with family yes is it's true

[TanjaHermann]

I find that photo books are really the solution for our family to enjoy the digital mountain of photos. Each year, I pick the highlight pictures for our family and create one album as soon as there's a great coupon available. For the paper photos, I radically eliminated photos that show buildings, landscapes etc. and only kept photos that captured the spirit of the event or vacation and that had loved ones in it. If I ever feel the need to look at pictures of the Eiffel Tour or a certain beach, there are thousands available online in better quality.

[lilongge]

The whole point of simplifying our house, is so we can highlight the things we enjoy and we like and we appreciate.
I had to type this to remind me of the purpose. Well it is one of many reasons, but this one motivates me the most.

[janarg]

I hate throwing out pics but love taking a bunch of my family. So I started making collage books of them. I take all the pics from the year and print them out in different sizes, and make pages for the album that are completely covered in pictures. It's a mix of scrapbooking, crafting, puzzles and photos which makes it fun for me to assemble. My family loves looking thru them and it seems like you find a new picture everytime you go thru them.

[pattyatrumdycreations]

My mom past away 5 yearss ago and I'm still putting off going through her photos. My parents traveled and after my dad passed she continued to travel with groups. The pictures are numerous. Not to mention family pics. My criteria for what I keep in this if the picture makes me smile, I keep it. I've started going through one album a week because trying to do it all at once was to emotional. I hope to be through them all by the fall. 😘

[tete]

I did the exact opposite. I took all the photo albums and took the photos out and put them in photo boxes that take up less space, protect the photos better and I have them in order. We always got doubles, so I gave the boys their childhood photos and we still have a set here.

[mindfulmaximalist]

It's helpful to keep in mind that up until the last century, people just had to remember their memories without ANY photos.

[keylalipo]

Scanning is overwhelming to me also. Chronological order was important to me so I took 3 months to go through every photo and discard and organize. It was a bit painful but oh so very rewarding and worth every minute of it! We do enjoy going through them as a family 😊

[terrianton]

I sorted pics into events and holidays and then went through each pile. Example: Christmases. I did each year looking for duplicates and I got rid of dups and then bad or very similar pics. I did this for all holidays and then events like birthdays, camping and the like. It worked great cuz I first separated and then put each event in a big envelope and labeled it. Then I was able to sort them one event at a time without any mess. So much easier.

[TexSquirrel]

Thank you! I’ve been so overwhelmed with all the photos. I’m an only child and I’ve inherited both sides of my grandparents photos, my parents and my husbands family photos. I’m pretty sure my kids don’t want to be left with thousands of photos in boxes. I also stress out thinking about trying to get them in chronological order, so I like the idea of not worrying about that because it seems like an impossible task.