If you search photo organizing, you will see articles about the ABC’S of photo organizing. This is my take on it. We all love to look at our photos, but it brings up so many memories. Memories of joyous fun times, memories of sad times, memories of loss, memories of illness and anger. It is all mixed up in your photos because your photos are the concrete not in our head vision of things that have transpired in each of our lives. Organizing this all is fraught with welllll the emotion of life. Getting through it quickly means we can enjoy the photos again. In a box, in a mess does not do our memories or our life justice. If you are doing it for a family member, it does not do them justice.
To get through this process a bit faster and easier photo organizers have come up with a system. It is easy to remember and pretty easy to do. It is the ABC’S. We label each group/type of photo according to the the emotional investment you have toward it.
The A B C’ S
A= the Album photos. The best ones, the highlights of a year. Those that you would get printed into prints for your wall or put into photo albums. The best of the best.
B= The Box photos. These are the photos that have meaning for you, maybe historically significant to your family, the embarrassing picture of your child you wish to share when they have children, etc. You want to keep them but maybe not in an album or on a table.
C=These go in the Can. This includes those that are duds, repeats, copies, people you don’t even remember. These you have our permission to throw away. They quite literally clutter up the space you should be using to enjoy your A and B photos.
S=Story photos. There are those photos we have that are maybe not great shots, those that visually looking at them are of little value, but when you see them, they tell a story in your head. Save them and write the story down. That is their value. Save them in the box with the story or make an album that has more text areas so you can tell the stories. Future generations want to see faces AND know the stories!