What do you do with your old photos

[Mimi]

Hope this isn't treading on the toes of the 'Your pictures ' thread , but what do you do with all your old photos?
I have literally hundreds of them in several boxes in the cupboard, dating way back to when I was a child. .I would like to create something that would be of interest to the family, a photo book came to mind but then that no doubt would end up in a box, in a cupboard. Plus photobooks don't come cheap . I would need at least , to start with about a dozen . Also I know before I start this is going to be very time consuming. The idea is if I make a start now I would be able to make a few Christmas presents and also some thing for us.
I have seen a blanket/ throw that can be made up of photos, that's a little unusual.

[Oma]

I have the same problem hundreds of photos under bed . I did take the time to make albums one for each of my children and one each for the grandchildren plus a general one with odd pictures in , I also have a one with my genealogy pics in of Grand parents GG parents and so on but still have hundreds I haven't a clue what to do with , at least if I die the kids can have their own albums

[Gemini]

Same problem here mimi, I am interested in any solutions!!

[Plantaholic]

I did have a sort through mine and disposed of the pictures of flowers and houses etc we visited but I have forgotten where it was, duplicates etc. Perhaps in the winter I should get them out and reduce them further, then decide what to do with them

[Mimi]

Last winter when it was too cold to do anyymuch OH and myself got the photos out with the plan to put them in some sort of order, several "Ah, do you remember when this was taken "and " Doesn't he/she look sweet" and "Oh my word, don't we look young, and what on earth were we thinking when we wore that " hours later, so nothing was achieved and they all went back in the box and the box put back in the cupboard.

[Bizzy Lizzy]

Yes I've got all of ours and now a huge box that I belongs to my parents which I inherited when my Dad died a few years ago. Some of the people in the old black and white ones I don't event know. Probably never knew. Cannot bring myself to throw them away though. They would fill literally dozen of scrap books. DS2 did scan some of the special ones and I now have digital versions of those too. I wonder what the kids will do with them when they are passed to them. In this digital age will they keep them?

[Enfys]

I think we all have the same...lots of boxes of old photos some inherited and some our own. I had a good sort through all the old black and white ones and so many were of people,and places we didn't know so,they went! I am gradually working through the ones that are left and am making scrapbooks of the special ones, the ones with a story to them. I have a special book for each branch of the family where I put the photos and write about them. The other will be put in family, date order and passed on the our children. They are always interested in old photos and I know will like them. All the newer ones, ie of us and our,DC and DGC are on the computer but DH has out them in various USB keys and we alternate them on our digital photo frame. We have also given some to the children for their frames. I am more ruthless with photos now and don't keep every single one.

We we had also inherited loads of slides from both sets of parents and a few years ago DH out them all on CDs so now we can look at them whenever we want. It's so lovely to see our parents as young men and women with us as children. The GC love looking at them too, in fact DGD says she feels she knows her gr.grandparents now. It's lovely to know she feels that way.

[Nanto2girls]

Another household here with loads of old photo's. Ours are in old biscuit tins in a cupboard. Keep saying I will sort them all out,but I can't bring myself to get rid of any.
I suppose they will still be there when we have gone, kids will probably just turf them out then.

[Mimi]

Enfys that's a good idea. When OH is in town next he is going to pick up some scrap books to put the old black and white photos in . We have on album that has very old photos in but the photos keep felling out as they are held in by what can only be described as little black hinges, 4 to each corner of the photo . They are as much use as a chocolate tea pot.

[Shemadee]

I got rid of a lot of photos when we moved 10 years ago. Mainly views from holidays etc. Now got three boxes and a couple of albums gathering dust. Occasionally think it would be good to make some kind of montage.

[Enfys]

My DD did that Shem. She bought a huge clip,frame and filled it with all sorts of photos...holidays, when the children were little, birthdays etc. It looks great and is fun to look at and try and spot yourself.

[Daisy]

Same problem here mimi, I am interested in any solutions!!

Thinking about printed photos to start with - gather them all together and go through them very quickly (no reminiscing or trying to work out whether that was Scarborough or Majorca!) and throw out the blurred ones, those of uninteresting unidentified views, and if possible try to keep the rest in some rough chronological order. Go through again and throw out any duplicates or near duplicates. Get a nice sharp pencil and write the names of people of the backs with dates/places if you can remember. Have a rest, pour a glass of wine and congratulate yourself.

Sometime later go through them again and pick the best 10%. This is the hardest bit and you have to be strict with yourself. Put the 90% in a box with a label. Put the 10% in good quality albums with archival quality pages and if possible information about who is on each photo and other information. This is the kind of thing future generations will be looking for. Pour another glass (or two) of wine and congratulate yourself again.

Cheap photo albums and scrapbooks will change the colours of your photos and allow them to fade. If you're going to all the trouble of selecting the most important pictures I think they deserve the best treatment.

btw - if you have got negatives, store these in neg sleeves. You can get them from Amazon in A4 size sheets which will fit a ring binder.

Slides - again it's worth sorting through them and keeping the best. Colour negs will often be under-exposed, so unless they're extra special relegate them to the 90%. It's worth scanning the best ones - you can do it yourself or have it done professionally - and then you can store them electronically.

Digital photos. I bet most of us have got hundreds/thousands on our phones! I've just downloaded 1000 + off my phone and put them on my computer, and also on a pen drive. However you store photos digitally the media you use will almost certainly become obsolete eventually, so what I'm trying to do is keep a favourites folder and then it's easy to transfer them to another storage device before the current one becomes unusable. You can also back them up on the Cloud - lots of options for this. I've filled my free ration of iCloud storage and don't want to go on to a subscription account, so I'm looking at alternatives.

Just in case you think I'm a paragon of virtue with photo storage - I've just got to the stage of throwing out the real rubbish and starting to label the rest.

[Enfys]

I like the glass (or two) of wine idea. Daisy 🍷

[Daisy]

Enfys - you were supposed to like the photo sorting stuff, hun. But I agree - I'll just go and pour another glass!!!!

[Enfys]

Oh I did Daisy, lots of good tips ...... But the wine got to me hic!