Assuming they are not all nicely hung on your wall, how do you organize your printed photos? I know with the introduction of digital, there are probably a lot less of them now, but I still have loads that I took before digital, or received from family ... and of course school photos. The small 4x6 or 3x5s, I mostly have a handle on (though I won't say I'd have an easy time finding a particular photo, but they are nicely packed in a metal case). School photos and others in various sizes are a bit more difficult. I would love to hear what your process is!
My 4x6 are in photo boxes by roll with a note card or written on envelope of what’s there but my odd sized and school photos are just stored vertically on a shelf in the packet/envelope they came in. Older photos from my childhood are a jumbled mess in a box. I really need to get a good system in place for my printed photos. Plus my hubby is on my case to get more of our photos printed in simple books so we can enjoy them. He says he hates that everything‘s hiding on my computer or in a photo box.
I have my photos in 2 big original Creative Memories photo organizer boxes. Each box has 12 smaller photo files with plastic index cards for noting dates/occasions.
I have a few albums with just photos from 'way back' that are stored with my scrapbook albums. I have a number of old framed family photos decorating my office shelves. I also have a stack of photo boxes that have old printed photos in them with labels on the envelopes like Kayla- those live in the basement in a box labeled OLD PHOTOS. The kids' school pics (individual & class) get filed with in the file cabinet with their current school year folder. I keep a hanging folder for each kid & fill it with whatever I want to save from the year, report cards, projects, etc. At the end of the school year, I pull them & put them in a hanging folder type box that we store in the basement and start the next year!
Older photos are in photo boxes with post-it notes marking dates and events. Here's a photo of just one of the boxes. A lot of the photos are duplicates as I've already paper scrapped pages for them. I really need to redo the markers and get the post-its off the photos. Anything larger that won't fit in the photo boxes goes into an accordian file or in a slim line oversize box. The only albums that contain just photos are ones from the studio photographer. We used her for a long time, but when I started taking photos, I actually liked what I took more and we just gradually stopped going to her. I'd like to go through all my printed photos and make an Excel sheet like I have for my digital photos, that shows the date, what happened on that date, and if layouts have been completed.
I spent over 2 weeks last year sorting photos and getting rid of duplicates, then organized. When I did the cleaning out of the basement I found photos in all kinds of places. I had no idea what I had which is why I took the time to do the sorting/organizing. I have them in envelopes by year/event in an old CM box. I had too many for that box so I got an under the bed clear storage container from Wal-Mart. The storage container has photos that are more of a theme than an event (house, landscapes, misc photos of people that are not from an event, etc) Also, photos that are for certain families are in that box. The smaller photo files from the CM box are in the storage container to keep those envelopes from falling over. And, it worked out that it was better not to use them in the CM box. I don't have that many of the larger size photos but the ones I do have are in plastic folders either in the under the bed storage container or in 12x12 plastic folders that are stored with the 12x12 paper I still have.
I think most of my old printed photos are in 4x6 albums... but I do have a couple ziplock baggies of my hubbies photos from before we met sitting in a drawer in our china cabinet. I keep meaning to go through all of the printed photos and scan them, so I will have them digitally too... but it seems like a lot of work, so I still haven't even started. I don't print pictures anymore, and I sure hope I don't regret that someday. I do have all of my digital layouts printed in Shutterfly books though, so I guess that's even better because I have the picture in hard copy version WITH the journaling and dates, etc.
Haha, Karen @Karen - the good ole Zip Lock bags. I have so many of those full. I also have several of those cute photo boxes from Michael's and Joann's that are also full. I still print pictures but mostly they're in 4x4 (Instagram size).
I have photo albums....gasp....remember those. LOL But once I went digital, I haven't printed any more.
They go chronologically in photo albums that hold 300 photos with a memo area. It's getting harder to find those albums, but I'm determined to still print them. The ones that aren't "album worthy" go into a photo box.
I treat my photos differently (and keep separate) from my DS layouts. Long story short: All of my pre-child photos are printed and in albums (because digital started around the time I got married, so all my digital photos got printed...I didn't just willy-nilly take photos like I do now, lol). Photos between marriage and baby are a hodge podge of print and still-digital. Post 2008-ish to 2013-ish are printed and in this type of container. I got some on sale at Container Store. Problem is, the photos are on the vertical axis, so if the little container isn't full, then they get kind of warped. (They bow, like a C.) So I need to get my photos in albums. Or I need to store these on their side, so the smaller bins are horizontal. Anyway, I store them in chronological order in those little containers. Each is a year. The year is organized by month. (ETA: I do have some older photos stored in cardboard photo boxes. They're photos from the pre-digital age that didn't make the cut into photo albums. I plan to move them to the plastic storage boxes but haven't gotten there yet lol.) I also print some photos (and small-sized LOs) and put them on our fridge in magnet frames I got from Amazon. I have printed some photos that the kids can just look through, but I love the idea of cute wooden blocks that show off the prints but let the kids take/hold as they please, which should mean fewer finger prints. (Persnickety has wooden blocks that inspired me.) Here's an example of a print that I make to go in the magnetic frames. I swap them out every once in awhile.