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The Horror!! A true tale...

lmccandless

lmccandless

The Force is strong with this one.
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Mar 9, 2009
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This is a horrible true story about a closet filled with boxes and boxes of photos. Not in albums, not organized, not dated, not even roughly boxed by decade...just a gigantic mess of photos. This is... *GASP* ... a closet in my parents' house.

It probably doesn't take even an amateur psychologist to figure out why scrapbooking and memory keeping so important to me considering the state of my own childhood photos. LOL

So, here I am for an extended visit with my parents. The closet is mocking me. Really, it is. Today, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 20 archival photo containers. It was my opening shot in The War Against The Closet. I always swore I would organize The Closet if I came for a long enough vacation. No time like the present!

Now, the question becomes...how do I tackle this behemoth task? There are likely tens of thousands of photos spanning mostly from the 1970's to present. Completely mixed together. (Can I say again how much that bothers me? I feel itchy just thinking about it.) I need commiseration and ideas! Any thoughts on how to get started? Has anyone faced their very own Closet of Horrors? Help me, girls!!
 
With limited time, I'd first just transfer them all to the boxes and out of their current unsafe boxes. Then, maybe separate the color from the black and white photographs, or 4x6 from square format or Polaroid images. I'd think that's a good start.
 
I would box them up by year (or like 2-5 years per box) ... I'd start by just throwing them in to their year box, and when that is done, go back through and organize them further (date, person, subject, whatever). And maybe have a box for unknown that you'll need to ask your mom or other family members about to figure out when the picture was taken (or who is in it). Good luck!! LOL
 
What Karah said - I would probably just group by decade (as close as you can guess) first, then split further up later if you have time.
 
12. i was 12 when i did this - an entire (ITCHY) closet in my grandma's house. i spent an entire week's vacation doing it, too. started organizing by decade, then broke it out from there. got photo boxes and rolled with that. they are still organized, years later, as i did it back then.

itchy, though, definitely itchy making me think about the first time i opened those doors! lol.
 
this closet exists at my in-laws.... except it's not just a closet... it's a box on a dresser, a drawer in the spare room, and a pile in a closet here and there. FREAKS me out! And the trouble is no one in that family even cares! I may have to tackle it someday, in the meantime I try not to think about it.

I think Karah's suggestion is a good place to start. Good luck!
 
I have hives just reading this. And admire you for tackling it because, you know me, if I couldn't devote the time to get it *just so* I would totally avoid it. And then it would haunt me. So. I say YAY for battling The Closet!! And also...you can doooooooo it!!

I totally agree about doing it in phases..as in..general timeframe first and then getting more detailed. Could you enlist any help with sorting?

Good luck!!!!
 
My sister and I did this with my parent's photos about 4 years ago. We ended up scanning them because as we sorted them we realized so many were fading and falling apart. A lot of them were also falling out of those old magnetic albums. And Polaroids just don't seem to do well in those! I feel like we saved them as well as we possibly could by digitizing them. Plus now all 6 of my siblings have copies of them, which is nice too.

I say go with Karah's suggestion and start sorting by date. Even if you have to guess, it's better than a pile of pics.

Good luck!!
 
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I agree with Karah and all the other people agreeing with her, lol!

There's a cupboard like this at my parents too, ugh, can't even think about it. My photos are sorted back to 1994 when I left but before that, nothing. They only really took pictures on vacations anyway, so I'm not sure how many hidden gems are in there.

Good luck!
 
You can do it Laura! Also, some older photos sometimes have the dates printed on them.... good luck and let us know how you make out!
 
my parents have boxes and boxes in their basement just like this - it's horrible! i agree w/ the suggestions above - good luck!! you can do it!!
 
well my parents have I think only 2 boxes at the attic...they got all my photos till my 2nd year in an album and my lil bro got none. I wish I would've gotten the time to sort them all...

That's a huge job Laura and I truly love Karah's idea on this...sort them by a few years and maybe take one box home to put in albums?!
 
I inherited the boxes of photos, so now that closet is in MY house lol. I just lined up the photo boxes by year and started sorting. I cut a bunch of cardstock (not like scrapbooking thickness, just regular 8.5x11 cardstock in a ream at WM) to use as dividers, and as I come across a new month, I write it on there. It was going along fairly well until I rage quit a couple years ago. I really need to get back on it. lol
 
Some of them may also have dates or names written on the back of them so be sure to look at both sides. May I also suggest having a few post it notes on hand to remind yourself to ask questions about certain ones. I put my Grandmother's photos in a couple of 4 up albums and have shown to my dad a time or two and I'll make notes and put the post it on the outside of the plastic so I'll know what to put in the description when I scan them.

I actually did this when I was at my ex husband's grandmothers house about 15 years ago for a week. I think she enjoyed the finished project (as NOT PERFECT as it was) just because it was better than piles in drawers. Any organization is better. I also tried to group by date as close as could guess by age of known people or seasons portrayed in photos.

Good luck Laura! I'm sure it will be MUCH better when you are finished.
 
You can do it Laura, tackle a little bit at a time, and eventually you'll see progress... that just sounds so overwhelming... I think I would freak... but I'd have to just remind myself to make little goals so that you feel like you're accomplishing something...

so the first goal would be pulling them all out of the closet

then the next goal might be to make 10 piles

then the next goal will be to label boxes by years or a few years

then the next goal will be to start with one pile and work through getting them in the boxes

then after you've worked through sorting them into the boxes by years... then you can work on getting them in order within each box

then your final goal could be to put them in albums or whatever you decide to do with them :)

and lastly... make sure you come here for lots of cheering, because I know you'll need it along the way!!!
 
go Laura!!! my mom's photo closet isn't much better, UGH, in fact there are a LOT of photos still in the acidic acetate albums, I need to rescue those!! I like Karah's suggestion of making boxes by year, and then tackling those one at a time. breaking it into smaller chunks will help tremendously, and if you don't get done this time around, at least the boxes are smaller tasks to tackle next time! good luck!
 
Tons of great advice! The decade thing makes sense as a starting point to me, especially since it sounds like you're dealing with a huge volume.

When my FIL and step-MIL tackled their photos, they separated them by who was in them, rather than by date, which I thought was interesting. (I think they just kind of evenly split the ones that had multiple people.) So now there's a big box for each of the kids. I think the idea is that when they are ready to part with them, they will just give each kid their box. So they're not in order time-wise, but I guess that wasn't the most relevant factor for them.


I have to admit that while my digital photos are pretty well organized, my own prints are a bit of a mess. And I have some of my parents' prints that I had as a kid organized into those lovely magnetic albums for them. {sigh} I've pulled them back out of those albums, but I haven't done anything else with them yet. They are just in piles. And I actually still have a few magnetic albums of my own photos from college that I haven't even disassembled yet either. :stars
 
I think I'd label your boxes that you've bought by year, then just pull out a small chunk of pictures and start plopping them into the boxes. But seriously, I think if I was allowed to, I'd load it up and take it all home with me. I think you'll probably need a lot of time....

I can definitely see why scrapping is so important to you! My in-laws are similar in that they don't have anything in albums or anything, just in big boxes of pic envelopes.
 
Good luck with all those photos! There is some great advice in this thread. It is a nice problem to have in a way. My family doesn't have a lot of photos from my childhood and I think that is one of the reasons I'm so crazy about photography and scrapping. I'm sure it is overwhelming but you can do it!
 
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