Organizing photos part 2

I have all my printed photos organized into categories. Each category then has sub categories. I will attach a picture below to reference. I felt more organized when I separated them out even further. I went this route because I wanted to scrapbook specific things all at one time. I have tired many approaches over the years, like by year or just picking things here and there. I felt too overwhelmed. Doing it this way I have found that I am able to fully focus on the theme. For example, Birthdays. I pulled out all of my birthday stuff; papers, embellishments, stickers, ribbons, anything specific. Then I go to my cabinet and pull out the box labeled “birthday,” and there are all the printed photos I have.

When I print my photos, I file them away when I get them. I pull out my category cards and lay them out on the table. As I go through the pile(s) of pictures, I put them into a category.

Then I separate into sub-categories to file. For example, Sports. I have sports broken down into fourteen sub-categories. In my last batch of printed photos, I had several track meets. When you look at one, they all begin to look the same. This is why it is so important for me to organize them right away and not let the piles just sit there. I use a combination of photo storage containers and/or zip bags along with index cards. On the index card I add age (because my albums are by age not year), date and something simple to tell me what it is. The pictures are then stacked in the same order as they are written. And DONE! Now when I am ready to scrapbook track meets, all I have to do it pull out the “track” box and get to work!

Here’s another look at some sub categories. “Water,” it means many things; rain, sprinklers, pools, lakes, rivers, ocean, snow, bath time. I broke it down like this so I could grab what I wanted easily. If I want to do snow layouts, here they are. Found some great paper for the kids at the pool, here you go. So easy!