Tips for organizing your photo collection

I’m still in the process of organizing my own photo collection – it’s taking a while, what with me just moving and all. I have managed to sort out all the photos I don’t adore though. Pretty soon I’ll be ready to tackle the next step – what to do with the photos I’m keeping.

There are plenty of things you can do with all your photos, and it’s not all album related.

You can organize your photos online, using an online service like Smilebox. With this service you can make scrapbook pages and send them to family and friends.

You can make some easy and cool photo projects. Some are even suitable for gift giving.

Of course framing is a popular choice. I have a lot of photos I like to see daily; too many for frames. What I do is keep a frame picture box. I frame some photos, and every once in a while switch them out with the pictures in the frame box. It keeps things fresh.

Use an album alternative: Sort only the best of the absolute best pictures into photo albums. Then use an alternative storage method for those other photos you like, but not enough to place in an album. Other storage methods include:

• Storing photos on your computer. If you have a digital camera, this is a given. If you have a regular film camera, a very good scanner will download photos to your computer easily. Make back-up disks.
• Go a step further and store photos online, so your family and friends can view them.
• A photo safe storage box is another good solution. There are really nice photo storage boxes that come with tabbed dividers and photo safe sleeves. Below is the Snap ‘N Store Photo Box – 4 x 6 File Box from Organize.com.

Bonus tip: If a picture is too bad to keep, its negative isn’t worth much either. When you sort your photos also sort negatives. Put the ones worth keeping into negative sleeves and a folder, and store the folder away from sunlight and moisture.

How are your photo organizing projects going? Hopefully you’re more ahead of the game than I am.