So.. I have all these photos saved and printed. How do I keep track of what I have and have not printed. How do I know if I have scrapbooked something???

I should start by telling you that my scrapbook albums go by birth year. This means each album starts on the birthday of each child and ends on the day before the next birthday. For example, child A’s birthday is on September 2nd, so their album starts with their birthday on Sep 2nd and goes to Sep 1st of the following year. Thus, each child will have 19 albums by the time they graduate high school.

As I organized all my photos by year, month and day, I also created a google doc for each “year.” I listed everything in order with a little information to go with so I could remember years later. I noted an “*” by some of the dates, this means that I will need to make more than one of the same layout because they will go in separate albums for separate children. As I scrapbook, I highlight what I have finished. It feels amazing to see the pages fill up with color!

With this approach to organizing my scrapbooks, I have to chosen to also not put my photos into albums right away. Since I am not going in order, I do not know where to put the pages specifically in the albums. I have learned over the years, the more you take your pages in and out of sleeves to reorganize… the pages begin to fall apart. I am storing the completed pages in containers by album year. I started with these plastic containers from Michael’s craft store, but they are pricy and rarely go on sale. I have tons of boxes my products are shipped in from Close to My Heart. These work great! Amazon also sells them for about $0.50 each. The cardboard box route is way more economical and they hold up when stacked.

Once all my pages are done, then I will add them to albums. I still have a few years for that but it will be here faster then I want it to.