Remember how everyone used to get their photos developed? We made photo albums and slide shows to brag about our holidays and grandkids. Nowadays, those endless photos are almost obsolete and if you are downsizing, they could be causing a lot of stress.

Photos sure had their day. Growing up, my family had a packet of photos (with duplicates, and the negatives) to remember every important occasion, event or trip. We mailed relatives and friends photos and arranged our favourites in big heavy albums to show to guests, or for us kids to flip through on rainy days.

Not surprisingly, most people who grew up before the digital age end up with a lot of photos. When the time comes to organize your affairs, declutter your home or downsize into a smaller home, it’s a good idea to take stock of your photos and pare down to an organized, manageable photo collection.

What I’m talking about when I say “photos”

Photo albums
Loose photos
Envelopes with negatives
Extra copies/duplicates
Unwanted photos: divorce, death, unhappy memories
Unfamiliar faces/strangers: in-laws, cruises
Damaged: faded colours, water, insects, rodents, fire

Sorting 101

Organizing your lifetime collection of photos can seem overwhelming at the beginning. I’ve developed this simple strategy to break the process down into manageable steps that you can follow.

First, gather all your photos and pare down your collection to a few albums, a Photo File Box and/or digital photo files.
Next, give away, sell or donate selected photos.
Finally, shred the rest and dispose in the garbage.

Let’s get started!

1. Organize

Set up Sorting Station

Pick an area of your home that you can set up a sorting station to use for this ongoing project. You can pick a spare bedroom so your project is out of sight, or the dining room table if you find that more comfortable. Make sure you have space to spread out photos.

Prepare these receptacles:

A paper bag for recycling paper envelopes, labeled “Recycle Paper”
A paper bag for photos you want to shred, labeled “Shred”
Your photo filing system to store the “Must keep” photos.

It might take weeks or even months to complete your photo sorting project so set up your sorting station with this in mind.

Make sure your receptacles can be tucked away easily if you need the space for something else.
Keep an eye on how heavy the paper bags get and switch to a new one when you need to. Don’t forget to label each new bag.

Set up Photo File System

Next, decide how you would like to file and store your “keep” photos.

Shoebox Card Catalogue

Some people like to line up their photos in shoeboxes (either cardboard or the plastic ones you can get at the dollar store), using index cards for dividers/labels like a card catalogue. You’ll most likely end up with several shoeboxes.

Filing Box

I prefer to use a banker’s box (plastic), set up with hanging folders and files labeled with photo categories that you choose. I like these banker-box sized plastic file boxes from Staples as they will protect your photos better than cardboard in case of a flood: https://www.staples.ca/products/834361-en-staples-heavy-duty-file-box-34-l-blue

The main reason I prefer a banker’s box with hanging folders is because I find it much easier to quickly sort and file photos according to their category, versus placing it in the right spot in a card catalogue.

A banker’s box system also holds larger photos and most people can fit their pared-down photos into one banker’s box.

Labels

Whether you use shoeboxes or a banker’s box, take the time to decide on sorting categories and the labels you will put on dividers, hanging folders and files. Here are some common file categories:

Family: If you have a large extended family you might need separate folders labeled with the family name. If your family is simple you can create files within one folder named “Family”.
Work: Separate files labeled with job/company
Pets
Hobbies
Travel
Photos that you have questions about
Photos you want to give to someone
Historical scrapbooks, albums and documents intact and in original binding/frame.

Gather Your Photos

Once you have set up your sorting station and your photo filing system, it’s time to gather up your photos. There are two main ways to go about this step: grab them all in one go, or gather a small amount of photos each time you want to sort.

All Together

In this approach, you gather all your photos in one place, called the photo staging area. This can be a desk, dining table, coffee table, my mom used a card table. Gather up all the photos in your home: from your closets, drawers, under beds, in filing cabinets.

Bring albums and photo boxes to the staging area as well.

Pros:

You can sit down, grab a stack of photos from the staging area and begin sorting instantly when you’re in the mood.
Gathering everything gives you the opportunity to sort out the photos a bit right off the bat. Lining up batches of photos in a roughly chronological order as you bring them to the sorting station can be helpful.
It will make it easier for you to identify duplicates if you have all the photos together.

Cons:

The staging area takes up space for weeks or months, depending on how many photos and how much time you can devote to sorting.
It can be overwhelming to see the mountain of photos in plain sight, for some people that is demotivating.

One Bundle at a Time

Another approach is to leave everything in place and tackle one bundle at a time. Take a small amount of photos from wherever they are in your home: a handful of loose photos, or one envelope, or one album, or one shoebox, or one drawerful of photos, to your sorting station. Sit down and sort those photos until you are finished.

Pros:

Saves space: you don’t need a staging area for the photos taking up desk or table space if you leave photos where they are until you sort them.
As you sit down to a sorting session, it’s motivating that you only have to finish the small stack in front of you.

Cons:

It will take longer. Gathering up photos each time takes longer so less sorting gets done.
Your photo sorting project can be forgotten about or put off until later because your photo “problem” is out of sight.

Sort Your Photos

Whether you gather all your photos together or just a small bundle to work on today, you are ready to get sorting!

Sit down at your sorting station with your receptacles within arms reach: on the floor, on a chair beside you or on a table. Reminder: your receptacles are “Recycle Paper”, “Shred”, and your Photo File box.

Grab a stack of photos. Pick up the first photo, evaluate it, then put it in the proper receptacle.

Repeat until the pile is gone, then take a break!

Elimination

Decide whether to keep the photo in your hand. Some decisions will be hard to make, so let’s start with the easy ones. I recommend you get rid of:

Duplicates/copies
Photos with people you don’t recognize: either shred/garbage them or give them to a family member who wants them
Damaged photos
Photo envelopes: can be put in paper recycling
Negatives: cannot be recycled in Victoria, check your municipal guidelines.

Put each “discard” item into your “Recycle Paper” or “Shred” receptacles.

Keep

There’s only one place for “keep” photos in your new system: your Photo File Box. Once you decide that you will keep a photo, figure out what category it belongs to, and file it accordingly.

Photo File Box

Have your photo file box within arm’s reach so you can easily file each “keep” photo in the proper spot.
Use the files to subdivide each category. Don’t worry about sorting the photos within subcategories at this point.
If one category or subcategory is overflowing with photos, consider breaking the category down further, or review the photos for duplicates or unnecessary photos.
Use manilla envelopes to contain large bundles of photos.

Digitize Your Photos

Turn hundreds of physical photos into digital files that you can fit on a thumbdrive or store in the Cloud.

Digital Scanning Services

London Drugs https://photolab.londondrugs.com/shop?category=scanning-box-services

Did you know London Drugs offers a scanning service for photos? Pick up a FREE box in-store and fill it with up to 800 photos and other precious documents. Return the box to your local London Drugs Photolab and they will digitize your photos and documents. Your treasured photos will be returned to you along with all digital files on a USB drive.

Staples https://www.staplescopyandprint.ca/photoscanningservices.aspx

Staples offers scanning services at most of their locations across Canada. Their photo scanning service comes with automatic photo enhancement features like red-eye removal, colour correction and front and back automatic scanning, onto a USB drive.

Canada Home Movies https://www.canadahomemovies.com/photo-scanning.php

This is an example of a digitizing service for more complicated or special photos. You can find services like this in your area by searching for “scan photo to digital (your area)”.

Albums

I recommend you keep your favorite photo albums. But think ahead…albums take up a lot of shelf space. You might not have space for more than a few albums in a smaller home. For the rest of your albums, remove your favourite photos to keep in your photo filing box, shred the rest and recycle the album if you can.

Get Rid of Photos

Give to Family

Let any interested family members know that you are paring down your photos
Ask if they want any, don’t just send them
Make into cards, make a scrapbook, use them for crafts

Donate to Historical Archives

Local historians
Area museum or library
Government: city hall, local MLA or MP
Church
Cultural society
Sports clubs
Service clubs
Schools or universities

Sell

Antique photographs and postcards can be valuable and can be sold at auctions or to your local antique and estate buyers. Find out more about antique photographs: https://www.heirloomsathome.com/5-rare-types-of-antique-photos-you-should-collect/

You can sell anything online, including photos of famous people, places, events, periods in history, even ordinary vintage photo albums. This podcast explains how professional pickers sell photographs on EBay: https://powersellingmom.com/selling-photographs-on-ebay/

You can also sell vintage photos on Etsy, Marketplace, Used(city), Craigslist and other online buy/sell sites.

Shred

Once you’ve decided to get rid of your old photographs, be sure to shred them for privacy before throwing them away.

Commercial shredder

Find a commercial shredder in your area and schedule a dropoff
Costs usually around $15 per banker’s box
You can schedule on-site shredding to come to your home if you have lots of shredding

Shredding by Donation

Local Rotary or Lions clubs often have drop-off shredding events at high schools or libraries in your community
Suggested donation is usually $10 per banker’s box

Blender

You can shred most photos with an old thrift store blender

Don’t:

X Burn photos indoors as they release chemicals that are toxic

X Put photos into the paper recycling

Selecting the “keepers” and getting rid of the rest of your photos can seem like an overwhelming task. Follow this simple strategy to break the process down into manageable steps that you can follow.

Need some help? Book a Consultation with Anney today and fast-track your downsizing process!