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Thursday, February 25, 2021

A Huge Photo Organizing Project, Part Two






 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!
 
 I want to mention that since Blogger changed to a new format for posting, if you can click on each picture if you care to enlarge it...... 
 
 
 Today, I will be sharing Part Two of my Photo Organizing Project......
 
In my last post, I shared a few craft projects that I did......
 
 
 
 And just how much snow we have here in NEPA!!!

 
Click HERE if you missed that post..... 

Because of all that snow and loving how the house looks decorated with so much red, I have been in no particular hurry to take down my Winter and Valentine's decorations.....

Truth be told, I have been loving this Winter....

I adore the coziness of the house when the sun sets and I can light all my Trees and ambient lighting....

I am a night person and even worked night shift for over 37 years.....

In a previous post, I shared that I had started on a HUGE project that I wanted to work on for several decades now...

Transferring and organizing all my family photos into acid free cases.....

This involved taking the ones that actually had made it into albums, out of those magnetic page albums, identifying photos by year and event that were left in envelopes and stored in every nook and cranny of the house and organizing them in chronological order so that my sons, when the time comes , will not have to sift through a photo junk yard so to speak......

 
 
 
 
 
 Click HERE if you missed that post.....
 
 In that post, I shared that I had set up a table 2 years ago in my craft room to work on this project and after purchasing the acid free cases and sorting through and organizing all the photos by year, this is what it looked like minus 15 years of photo albums which I had stored in our coat closet in the down stairs hall way......


I am thrilled to say that it now looks like this!!!!!!



YES!!!!

Except for a small box of Christmas Photo Cards of family and that white tub of misc. photos, I am done!!!!!

I have to admit that for the 3 weeks that I worked on this project, I did become totally consumed by it and did little of anything else....
 
BUT...
 
I am thrilled to say that I have FINISHED it!!!! 

OMG!!!!

What a relief and sense of accomplishment if I do say so myself!!!!

I last left off with having more photos than acid free cases and after going through them once again, I decided that I really did not need one of the large cases that held 1600 photos.....

So I looked online to see if Michael's had any smaller cases and I found this one!!!

 
And they had it in stock at our local Michael's so I sent Joe down ( it is located in the shopping center right next to our townhouse development) to buy one which was on sale for $9.99 with the amount that I had left on a gift card from over a year ago.....

That took it down to $4.00!!

I put the rest of the family photos in that case......

 
Which held 6 smaller cases that could hold 100 photos in each......

I had enough room for the rest of the family photos and a few other photos like those from one of the Elton John concerts we went to and photos of places and gatherings with friends....

 
Now that I was done with that part of the project, I then was able to store all 8500 family photos contained in 5 large and 1 small acid free cases on the top shelf of our coat closet in the downstairs hallway!!!!

 
I was even able to store our wedding albums, a scrapbook from our trip to Disney World and our High School year books on this shelf......



Can you believe that there are 8500 photos stored on one shelf in a closet now???????

I can't because I had previously stored them in multiple nooks and crannies all over the house!!!

I then went on to the next phase of this project.....

I had photos up until 2011..

I started my Blogs in 2010 and not long after that, I stopped getting film developed, went totally digital and started downloading photos from my camera to my computer and posted them on my Blogs......

BUT....

Before that , I did have a lot of photos that I took of the house decorated for various Holidays and Seasons and also from numerous events that I organized and chaired and attended at our church and as a member of the Victorian Friendship Society that I belonged to for a number of years......

Now these were pictures of just me , me and my friends or Joe and I attending these events....

My sons would really have no interest in them so I wanted to make it easier for them to dispose of these photos when I was gone.....

This is a great article written by Heather, over at Glitter on a Dime, about organizing photos....
 
She stored hers in a plastic case but used cards to separate events and labeled the cards as to what the events were.....


Since I had a bunch of photo storage boxes left empty after I went through all the photos......


I did think about storing those other photos this way but I changed my mind.....

I also had a ton of photo albums that were not those magnetic page ones but had clear sleeves in which to place photos inside of.....
 
 
 
Honestly, I have no idea if they are acid free or not but truth be told, with these photos, I really was not that concerned about it.....
 
I had compiled a bunch of photos of our 2 precious Fur Babies and decided that I would make up an album of their photos so we could look at them often and remember those good times......

 
Cassie has her section......

 
And Savanna has hers......


This album can then be kept by the boys if they want it...

I then used other similar albums for the rest of my personal photos.....
 
Labeling the covers and inside of them as to what photos they held.....





I then used some smaller albums for photos of friend's houses, the local Stegmaier Victorian Mansion that I had visited numerous times and of our garden and house decorated for different Holidays




These are albums that I wanted to keep to look back on.....

I stored them in the middle pull down shelf of my faux fire place in my upstairs Sitting Room......



By doing this, I made it easy for my sons so that when I am gone since these photos will be of no importance to them, they can simply just dispose of these albums out without having to look through them to see if there are any family photos inside of them......

So after having photos stored in closets and in boxes under beds and in cabinets, I now have them stored only in the faux fireplace in the above photo and in the downstairs coat closet on one shelf!!!!!


I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this journey down Memory Lane...seeing what our house looked like when we first bought it and how it transitioned over the years, the trips we went on, taking my Mother with us all the time after my Dad passed away, my hair in every color and length constantly changing and how the boys grew up.......

I posted a lot of these photos on my Face book page so I invite you to send me a Friend Request if you would like to see them since my FB page is private.......

I still have all these photo storage boxes that are now empty......

 
Along with all these tubs from photos and also from purging craft supplies when I went through my entire Craft Room and organized it......




I will be using some of these tubs for storing decorations that I still had stored in boxes and I am sure I will find other uses for the rest of them.....
 
These binders and albums are going to Salvation Army..... 
 
 


And now my Craft Room went from looking like this......
 
 

 To looking like this!!!

 
Just a box full of Christmas Photo Cards from Family and the white container is full of misc. photos that I still need to look through and they will most likely end up in a photo box....

 
Just a few more things I need to look through on the table and then I can finally, after 2 years, take it down and store it in the closet in the Craft Room......

 
HOWEVER........

This was just ONE photo project that I needed to do.....

I still have a small tub full of my Mother's photos, some from when she was a child and a young girl, to go through along with a bunch of cabinet photos of many family weddings.....

I hope to put these into acid free scrap book albums using photo sleeves....

I also have papers and memorabilia from each of my son's school years stored in a tub for each son....

BUT for now, these projects will be put on hold as I really need to start to take down Winter and Valentine's decorations and decorate for Saint Patrick's Day in the Den and Easter in the rest of the down stairs.....
 
Even though outside, it still looks very much like Winter......
 

 
So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......


I am linking up to these parties:
 
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14 comments:

  1. At Rivercrest CottageFebruary 25, 2021 at 11:03 AM

    I'm amazed at your perseverance to get this all done! Great job. It's inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Miss MerryFebruary 25, 2021 at 2:05 PM

    I am so amazed with all your hard work! I got to the point of buying all the cardboard boxes and beginning to sort by years and events. And then life happened and they all went back to the hiding places. I am looking at those plastic cases and looking at getting back to the project. It must be such a relief to have it finished.

    My problem is compounded by inheriting all the rubbermaid tubs of my mother's photos too. We used to have a habit where we both took pictures at family events, then had "doubles" printed (remember those days) and exchanged with each other. So often I have four copies of every minute of a children's party. In four different places. I really think that if I could just sort out those copies, I could get a real start on the project LOL.

    You are an inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Abby @ That’s Life For YaFebruary 25, 2021 at 9:50 PM

    Great work!! Organizing photos doesn’t seem like a hard task until you are in the thick of it. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ella WilliamsFebruary 26, 2021 at 5:36 AM

    Wow!! That was quite the undertaking!! Great job for getting it all done!! And wow!! That is so much snow!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. JeanieFebruary 26, 2021 at 12:06 PM

    Well done, Debbie! A huge job. Will you start scanning or photographing them now so there is a digital record? It's worth it but takes time and you've already put so much into it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unique creations by AnitaFebruary 26, 2021 at 7:27 PM

    That is awesome and a very clever way to organise them and still be able to find what you want.

    ReplyDelete
  7. NinaFebruary 26, 2021 at 11:30 PM

    Wow! What a project...I bet it feels good to have it finally done!

    So far we have had some igniting so of our kitty-boy...so please keep your prayers going.

    Oooo...I would LOVE to see your old photos!..I will be sending you aFB request...but it does not have the name you know me by!

    xoxo,
    Nina

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debbie-Dabble Blog and A Debbie-Dabble ChristmasFebruary 27, 2021 at 7:16 AM

      Nina,
      I decided to do a post featuring some of the photos that i posted on Face Book. I just posted it..will still keep prayers for your kitty...Thanks so much for stopping by!!
      Hugs,
      Debbie

      Delete
  8. Lisa notes...March 1, 2021 at 8:27 AM

    I am still working on getting a handle on my own photos. Sigh. It's taking me SO long. And now that I have grandkids, I keep taking tons of digital pictures and not making time to get them printed so they are backing up too. I'm doing better than I once was, but I still have a long way to go. Your success inspires me to keep going!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Marie-Interior FrugalistaMarch 2, 2021 at 9:40 AM

    You must be so happy to have this laborious project behind you. I have a cupboard stuffed with photo albums and then layers and layers of loose photos shoved over top. I love the idea of organizing them into these handy storage boxes and I think I'll also make dividers like Heather did. Thanks for inspiring me, Debbie!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joanne March 2, 2021 at 7:05 PM

    That must feel so great to have that project done and checked off the list!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Donna @ Modern on MonticelloMarch 3, 2021 at 8:37 PM

    You have been very busy. Congratulations on finishing such a big project! #HomeMattersParty

    ReplyDelete
  12. NaushMarch 8, 2021 at 4:02 PM

    Wow !! Very well done Debbie.
    Happy Women's day.
    Thank you for sharing with us at Meraki Link Party.
    Have a wonderful week.
    Much love
    Naush

    ReplyDelete
  13. French EtherealMarch 10, 2021 at 10:16 PM

    Oh my goodness, Debbie!!! What a monster project!!! I have similar photo boxes with photos separated by cards in years then what event... I literally have 40,000 photos, either in print or now on computer harddrives... It is a monster project and I might take up your idea and put them in these boxes. :) Happy to feature your post at this week's Share Your Style #295. <3 Such a great project and mostly DONE!!! BRAVO!

    Springtime hugs to you and I hope that snow is going away,
    Barb :)

    ReplyDelete

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