Almost 6 years ago, I moved 3000 miles across the country.
It was a big move.
One of the things that I wanted to make sure made the move safely were my precious picture negatives of my babies growing up.
I made the decision to hand carry my negatives myself in my carry-on baggage.
This way I knew that they would make the journey safely…with no danger of being lost or damaged by the moving company.
So I organized my negatives into a binder using protective negative sleeves.
I moved all my negatives into the negative sleeves, and arranged them chronologically.
I attached the contact sheet for each film on the appropriate protective sheet so I could quickly identify the negatives in the sleeves.
And I numbered each contact sheet/sleeve so that I would know the order of the sheets and where each belonged.
I used scrapbook adhesive to attach the contact sheets {the miniature sheet that shows whats on a roll of film}to the protective sleeves.
This binder held 70 sheets, or negatives for 70 rolls of film.
This method worked great for negative storage….and all my negatives arrived safely with me to our new home.
I started scrapbooking in 1999…… and organized photo storage is so important for pursuing that hobby because you can’t scrapbook if you cannot find the photos you are looking for!
This is the way I have been storing my photos for years now.
Lots of people use this method…. basic storage boxes.
The photos are stored by year and arranged in chronological order.
I keep all the photos in their developing envelopes.
However, I make sure to label all the envelopes with the date and what’s inside.
I use simple white labels adhered to the envelopes and a pen.
This makes it easy to look for photos when scrapbooking too.
Easy Peasy.
For years and years people kept unorganized photos in old shoe boxes.
One of the big pushes behind the scrapbooking movement was encouraging people to get those photos organized and stored properly.
But then….enter the digital age.
Many, many households have switched to digital photography, but I think that many of us have exchanged those old shoe boxes for j.peg files that are not stored or backed up properly.
I know I am one of those!
I came across this article in the February 2010 issue of Real Simple Magazine and I saved it because it was so inspirational. It shows how one mom, Michele Bender, has all of her digital photos organized and labelled on discs.
This picture is just perfection…don’t you agree?
So now….one of my goals for 2011 is to get my digital pictures off my computer and organized into a storage system like this!
I have pictures from 2006 onward to tackle.
I know that it will take some time and effort.
And I also want to get into the habit of printing pictures monthly.
I am determined.
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HOLY COW!!!! THAT IS AWESOME and IMPRESSIVE….
SOOOOO LOVELY!!!!
Can I hire you????
Amy (Mom to the Four Sisters)
Gaaahhh!!!!
This post is giving me some real angst.
I've tried not to think about the intimidating load of pictures that needs to be organized, AND saved on to a disk.
I wish you were my neighbor and I could hire you too, like Amy above.
Annelie
SUCH a big job, thanks for reminding me that I need to do it! Good luck on your attempt.
XO
Lenore
Angie… I'm in the process of doing the same thing. I recently sent over $60.00 of photo's to be developed that works out to be over 300 photos and that is just the "special occasion" pictures over the last 4 years. I went to Michaels and they had the little photo boxes in a bin outside for $2.99. They are pretty with differnt prints. The boxes will look so nice on the shelf when we complete our office reno.
♥Sheri
This has been on my to-do list for-evah! This post was a good reminder…and inspiring. I just have a feeling that you will get this done. I'll look forward to the pics when you do. 🙂
I'm right there with you Angie! I've got to get my digital photos organized! I started scrapbooking in the early 90's and my photos are pretty organized….but those darn digitals! Ugh! Have a great day!
great ideas! i too need to organize my digital pics & i too have that same image saved on my computer – with the fabulous drawers of CDs! can't wait to see your completed project – it's one of my 2011 goals, too!
Oh my gosh Angie! You are so organized!
Do you have two boys named Tyler and Hunter???? If so, you have terrific taste in names, if I do say so myself! I about died when I saw that on your picture labels.
Great minds think alike!
Or two kids, I meant.
I saw those purty CD cases in Real Simple too, and drooled at how cute they were.
however, you could save yourself a lot of money, and back up your digital photos to two places: one is free: an online photo printing service (I use Winkflash.com).
The other costs money, but you can back up your WHOLE computer (not just pictures) on a satellite server, for something like $50ish a year, I think? I was starting to do the discs, but it was SO daunting! The satellite thing (we use Carbonite) is SO much easier!
We've had huge computer crashes before; its only a matter of time until the next one happens. This way, I won't lose my documents or contacts like I did before. Plus, its another backup for photos. And you don't have to make room to store a ton of discs.
Plus, if you had a fire, what would happen to those discs? (Thankfully, all my photos were also saved to Winkflash when we had our computer crashes, so I didn't lose any!)
Don't mind me, I'm a scrapbooker and I think about this stuff a lot, lol!
Wow! I wish I was that organized! I am a new follower!
You always amaze me with your talent to organize things. Great job.
Such inspiration!! Great job!
Wow, you're so organized. Thanks for linking to We're Organized this week.
Oh man you are so organized. I have 30 years worth of unorganized photos to tackle. I think when the kids leave home and I have more room in the house I'm going to tackle the project head on.
I needed this inspiration. It's one of my goals for the new year. I am bookmarking your site so I can come back and be inspired.
great job.
Lori
Great job. I have my digital photos backed up on CD until about last year… then just used my ext. hard drive. But I do like having them on CD's… I should work on that again.
Thanks!
Good job on the film negatives! Where did you buy the binder? And what is it called! I can't find one anywhere 🙁
That is supper organized. Very nice job with the negatives. I need to back up my digital photos too.
I have been thinking about tackling something like this for a while. Great Post. Thanks
Thanks for your insipation and for the comments that lend ideas of how to back up and geet my negatives and photos together. I too wish I could hire yu. With everone saying that you could start a business!
Thanks again
That same picture from Real Simple is what prompted me to set up a similar drawer in my office. Thanks for the reminder to update it! Impressed with your negative binder!!
I just found you this morning and could spend hours here ! I realize I am late to the party but I have a question.
When organizing your digi photos on the CD's or DVD's where o' where do you put the index prints?
I have hundreds & hundreds of photo CD's & DVD's (you can fit more and they end up costing less) and they are somewhat organized BUT those index prints? They dont fit in or ON the CD cases. Nor do they fit in the envelope the CD's come in from the developer.I must keep them with the CD especially when that CD might have a hundred photos on it.
Any suggestions?
I am in the middle of organizing my digital photos and was wondering how you have been doing with this project since you wrote this post?
I would suggest that if you decide to burn photos to CDs, you also use a hard drive for backup. CDs have a "shelf life" – they will go bad over time and you won't be able to access the documents on them anymore.
The CD storage system is very impressive I must admit, but I have to agree with Amber is saying that CD's don't last so long, not to mention physically heavy to lug around.
I highly suggest keeping photos on hard drives. Photos could still be organised by date and you could quickly scan through all your different photos in different folders, as opposed to loading in a different disc each time.
If you're worried about the hard drive frying, I would suggest using something like Drobo (http://www.drobo.com/how-it-works/index.php). A lot of professional photographers swear by it.
And no, I'm not affiliated with Drobo.