Memories are meant to be cherished. And we have so many ways to keep our memories alive! it’s so easy to create memories, whether it’s collecting trinkets from vacations, the countless art projects that your children bring home from school, or taking photos with your phone.
But these things can add-up to a lot of clutter! With the advent of the camera phone the number of photos we take (and keep in our phones) can number in the thousands 🙂 Not to worry – I’ve got you! Read on for my tried-true-strategies for organizing your cherished memories.
Keeping Your Memories Safe
Let’s start with photos. These days, photos live out most of their lives in digital form; whether that may be on your phone, computer, or somewhere in “the cloud.” But what about all of those stacks of photo albums you have somewhere in your home collecting dust? Pages and pages of printed memories that you, understandably, do not want to get rid of, because, after all, they are all moments that are dear to you and you don’t want to forget.
Don’t worry. I am not going to tell you to get rid of them. I just want to walk you through taking the hundreds of hard copies of photos you have and making them into digital memories. This will not only increase your accessibility to all of your photos, it will be a great way to protect all those moments from ever being lost or destroyed by fire, water, or passing time. Digitizing all of these photos will be a way to share the great times and continue to pass them down for generations to come.
GATHER AND GO THROUGH
Start by gathering all of your photo albums and going through them. Decide what photos you want to keep and what photos you are comfortable parting with. Some pictures that you thought would be awesome for years to come, may not be worth keeping now (such as landscapes, people, or even duplicates that may have snuck in there).
Sort them all into groups, depending on how you want them to be organized: chronological, events, vacations, holidays, people, or even a combination of themes. Once you have this completed, you can either begin scanning the photos into your computer yourself, or, if you have a large amount, you can also have a company do it professionally for you. I strongly recommend making sure that you are able to scan the photos at at least 300 dpi’s.
Once all of the pictures have been scanned, you can store them with all of your other digital photos. I also recommend uploading all of your photos to Amazon Photos/Amazon Drive or even an external hard drive to ensure that your memories are safe.
RELATED: The Surprising Benefits of Digital Photo Organizing
DIGITIZE; DISPLAY; CONTAIN
Once you have your photos digitized it’s time to decide what to do with all of the other memorabilia. You want to cherish the memories, but sometimes there may be items that you don’t necessarily use or need access to everyday. Below are a few ideas of ways to keep your memories alive so you can enjoy them for years and years to come.
Digitize
An easy way to save space while still keeping your memories alive is to scan just like you did with your hard-copy photos. You can also take digital photos of your memorabilia. For any of the paper items, scanning would be best. A photo works best for the non-paper items (i.e. a t-shirt or ceramic coffee mug hand painted by your child). Once the items have been digitized, we encourage you to only keep the most important or favorite hard copy/physical version of the memorabilia and get rid of the rest to save space. Since you’ll have it scanned/photographed, you will still be able to view and enjoy it without losing the memories.
Display
When you take the time to make the memories and collect memorabilia, you should be able to enjoy them! This can easily be done by putting it on display. Whether it’s in a certain area in your home, or on a portion of your wall, it’s a great idea to have a space in mind to display your artwork, memories, and/or pictures (especially if you have children). You can even use a magnetic or cork board that will make it easy to transition the items as they come in.
Contain What You Keep
For any of the physical items that you don’t digitize, or simply aren’t ready to part with, you’ll want to make sure to keep them protected when they are not on display. It is a great idea to use plastic weather/airtight bins to help to keep out moisture and pests while preserving your memorabilia. By designating a bin for each child’s memorabilia you can easily pass memories on to them once they have grown up and moved out of the house.
So, while it may seem a bit scary to think about anything happening to, or getting rid of, your old albums, digitizing all of those memories and memorabilia is a great way to keep them safe… and organized! And then you can display a choice few while avoiding the clutter!
Digitize, display or store. With just a few easy steps you can preserve and enjoy your memories and memorabilia!
Alex Brzozowski is a professional organizer and productivity specialist. She started Be because she believes there’s a better way to organizing people’s lives—focusing not only on the home, but specializing in digital and business organizing and productivity, including digital documents, CRM programs, photos, music, email contacts, calendar and more! Her goal is to help her clients free up time to do what they love by bringing order and efficiency to their business, digital life and home.
Alex’s Midwest upbringing and values as well as her schooling at Butler University around “The Butler Way” are the pillars that have built her successful career in San Diego.
As a Paralegal for 5 years, she spent much of her time at a leading San Diego “paperless law firm”. As the “go to” person when it came to keeping case files and documents in order, she created a deep understanding of building systems, tracking and storing highly sensitive and private documents online and off.
Alex founded Be Organizing in November 2012. Shortly thereafter she became a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). She is active in the San Diego Chapter of NAPO and currently serving as the Chapter President. She also is Co-Author of “It’s Not About the Food: Personal Stories and Inspiration from Health Coaches and Wellness Experts to Transform Your Weight Loss Mindset and Lose Weight Without a Diet” where she writes about organizing and it’s relation to weight loss. It’s not just about the food, it’s about so much more!
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