Photo management

Do you have boxes of photos that either you took over your life time or that you inherited from a parent or grandparent? Or maybe the photos are in an album, but one of those old magnetic page albums that is now browning. Either way, there are two issues – space and preservation.

I am a firm believer in photo history, but it is only useful if those looking at the photos actually know who they are looking at. With photo scanning so incredibly inexpensive these days, there is no reason not to do it. Companies like www.scanmyphotos.com professionally scan your photos for 4 cents a shot. Once you have them on disk, you have the option of organizing them into folders by person or event or, if you love scrapbooking, you can put them into a digital scrapbook. Either way, you can easily label the photos so future generations will know who is in the photo.

Getting your photos scanned will protect them for generations to come as well as save significant space in your home or garage. And for the future, try using digital photo preservation rather than getting photos developed. If you really want an album to hold, check out the photo books at www.Snapfish.com. These books are personally made with your photos, but are much smaller than a photo album. Either way, you have saved you and your children or grandchildren space, time and memories.


Meagan Farrell, professional organizer, is the owner of Clear the Clutter organizing services. She can be reached at (360) 631-7268 or at clear_theclutter@yahoo.com. Check out her blog at http://cleartheclutterprofessionalorganizing.blogspot.com/