Photographs and stuff; well, lots of stuff.....

Don't worry nanaej - I just thought you meant me to open two bottles of something so I shall be well on my way tonight

Double click?

Gremlin! Why did my post go up twice!

When I have had to tackle very large cleaning out/sorting jobs I break it into reasonable bites. Sometimes I work for a fixed time, say two hours, then leave it until the next day. Otherwise, I choose one bunch of photos, etc. and work until they are sorted into piles which I then put into plastic bags.
I have often found, though, that once I get started I don't want to stop.
I listen to the radio or tapes whilst I am working, or have the TV on.

yoga get yourself a bottle of what you fancy / favourite chocs or whatever and a good pal to help and set aside a day to tackle this. That is what I did & it helped. All the boxes on the table the bin bag on the chair and my not emotionally involved pal to be kindly firm!

yoga get yourself a bottle of what you fancy / favourite chocs or whatever and a good pal to help and set aside a day to tackle this. That is what I did & it helped. All the boxes on the table the bin bag on the chair and my not emotionally involved pal to be kindly firm!

I scanned the old black and white photos I inherited from my parents (not a vast number so it was not a long task) When we then had to tackle a much larger number from DH's parents, who had more relatives and more money for cameras, I applied the lessons I had learnt the first time round. We
were researching our Family Histories so these pictures were invaluable.

First do as much sorting as you can on the dining room table, into clear poly bags with the year marked on them, or the nearest approximation you can. (Resist the temptation to reminisce at this point, if you can) As you work you will notice ones which were clearly taken at the same time as others you have already seen, which helps with the sorting. You will recognise the same faces reappearing too, don't bin them too soon, they may acquire names later. Some faces are obviously related to one another, and some which we initially discounted turned out to be great-grandparents.

For the oldest ones, guides to dating them by fashion and photographic styles can be found online, and there are archive lists of photographic studios with the addresses of their premises and the dates when they were operating.

When you start to scan, work through them chronologically, and have a titling plan from the start, so that you will be able to find any photo without a lot of effort. I labelled them chronologically so that they would be sorted that way by the filing system - year, month, day, then occasion, place, people. If the date was unknown I guessed and put "1920 approx" so that it was at least in more or less the right year. They can go into separate folders to suit the grouping you want, by people, occasions and so on.

Finally (or more likely at frequent intervals as you scan - it is a lot of work to lose) save them to a memory stick or CD, and/or put them into one of the online storage systems. However you store the scans, make sure you have at least two copies, preferably on different storage types. We had a panic when I mislaid the memory stick. Luckily it turned up.

And me have put to one side but did sort through and threw a lot out a few years back,but that was a moving forward phase for me,at that time all the 'thumb print' off centre but with a lovely face,I cut round with patterned scissors,and made a huge collage which I have hanging on the wall in a frame,everyone who visits is fascinated by it,friends and family look to find themselves in it,it spans all decades and generations and sides of family,I made it originally for E to get a sense of family where she fitted in and was part of so I put her photo in the centre and all others radiating out from it....am going to do another when I get timexxxxxxxx

I have started scanning all my old photos and putting them on cds or dvds, it i quite time consuming but have learnt how to put 4 on at the same time and keep them individual, I have stopped for the time being as I see it as one of my winter projects,, trouble is I have to be firm with myself and not!! start looking at them and reminising!

I'm another one with boxes and books of photographs. Some in logical order and neatly labelled but lots just loose. It was one of my "New Years Resolutions" to sort out these photos, bin the ones of the unknown views, groups of people with misremembered names and the really awful photos, but - here we are - halfway through the year and they still sit untouched in a muddle. The task seems so huge that, because I don't know where to start, I just don't start at all.
BTW - my two other resolutions came to nothing too

After my parents & in-laws died we ended up with loads of extra photos to add to our own mass, some in albums most loose! I made up albums for DDs 18th birthdays and that got a few photos passed on! I then spent time looking at all of them and if they had no names of people or places and I did not know them I binned them . All others I dated and labeled and put into attractive boxes (IKEA!) according to the decade they were taken! My long term plan is to scan a selection of each decade and have them made into photobooks allowing me to dispose of the rest! It is hard to throw photos out which is probably why I have not started part 2 of my project!
Good luck to all GNs trying to reduce and reorganise.

Enjoy your film crimson

Sewsilver; that's exactly the sort of stuff that I'm finding. After a good sleep it did occur to me that I was looking for a photo of a pub that we'd gone to in Devon that a friend of mine had mentioned going to the other week, and I wanted to check if it was the same pub [it was!]. The link being that a friend of mine has upped and moved to Devon after years of working in London; her mother always planned to do so but never made it so she's living the dream for both herself and her mother's memory. And I can visit whenever I want to [if I could just retire ]. So life isn't just stopping and stagnating but morphing into something different. And on that note I've made a last minute decision to go to the cinema ...thanks ladies [yet again] ....

crimson I do think the best advice is to put all your stuff into large crates and deal with them when you feel more able to cope with it,we must all have the same things going through our minds at the moment as I am doing similar to-day and going through my bedroom and moving unused stuff to the loft space the DCs can deal with it as and when they want to go through it.I would treat yourself to a new colour scheme as well and maybe brighten up the room with some nice soft furnishings to your taste.

I once spent two days making separate albums for all 10 gc with their individual photographs in them, and made big albums for my daughters with the group photos. I just haven't room to keep thousands of photos and I realised that I rarely looked at them- most of the gc were very pleased with their albums.
I am not very sentimental, but I have kept the girls' poems and their Mother's Day cards to me. I passed on to them their baby weight cards - we didn't have scans in the 1960's.
Thank goodness for digital photography - I have thousands of photos on my computer and if it crashed hopelessly they are also on Picasa.

Some sensible advice there Jingle. Crimson you sound so fed up, so now is probably not the time to deal with the photos and memorabilia, and a big suitcase will do the trick whilst you enjoy giving your room a makeover, then you can pick out those special things you want to be on display. Take care

Jingle thanks for tip about Dulux site. Am stuck in bed today with arthritis but can move mouse finger so will have a happy day replanting rooms.

jings, love your down to earth approach

Crimson it sounds good after the hard times youve had that you are thinking of making rooms for you and having them how you want. I've been clearing stuff this year and am horrified/ ashamed/ appalled at how much there is too. I have been photographing things with sentimental value like the marks on your door, my sons first tooth, daughters first shoes, jumper my mother knitted. I'm making them into a tiny photograph book ( yes more photos) which will take up little room and I can enjoy looking at. I can then let the original items go. When I've done this I'm hoping to scan in some of the hundreds of family photos and make one book of those. Then as Green says you can put the rest away for someone else to do. I'm keen to do it but not yet got far but have felt good about getting some space back. Good luck with it.

Reclaim your house Crimson. It does your soul good to redecorate and re-arrange, just for your own benefit. Have fun choosing your colour schemes - I find the Dulux website really helpful, comes up with ideas I would never have thought of! Looks really modern! Make it nice for YOU.

Don't worry about chucking stuff out. You soon forget about it once it's gone. Greenmoss's idea of a big suitcase for the photos is a good one. Then shove it under a bed, and let the buggers sort it out after you've gone.

Looking at photos of the kids when they were little doesn't make me sad, they were good times, but it makes me bloo dy ming exhausted when I've got to pick them all up and put them away again. So, I avoid doing it!

crimson - this is so odd! Yesterday I decided that the very large suitcase at the top of the cupboard in the spare room, really should be emptied and disposed of. It's FULL of old photos that I brought back here after my Dad died and all the photos (even with thumbs in them, covering parts of the picture!) that were taken when the children were small, and when everything seemed to be so 'happy'! There are albums here and there around the house, but it's the photos that didn't get put into albums that have multiplied over the years, and I just cannot bring myself to throw even one of them away. Each wee smiley face - even with the 'thumb' showing itself somewhere, pulls at my heartstrings. Photos of my Mum and Dad, and later, just Dad...I'll have to keep them all.
Things have been horrid for you, this last wee while, crimson, and you're feeling so hurt. Can you just manage to hang on, just now, to the things that are pulling at your own heartstrings - those things like the pencilled marks on the door, etc? Our 'children' can hurt us without understanding just how deeply the hurt goes. Or even, perhaps, hoping that the hurt has gone deep, to make their (often selfish) point - but that we'll soon get over it, because we're 'Mum' and will forgive and forget - till the next time. We don't get over it, and we don't forget, but we make 'allowances' in the end, don't we?
I'm going to go and get dressed now - and clamber up onto a stool and haul down that suitcase from the top of the cupboard.....maybe I'll put it under the bed......

I feel like that too crimson. I have albums and boxes of photos from my parents and my first marriage (all my childrens pictures), and I don't want to look at them as it makes me sad, but I don't want to just throw them out.
After clearing my dad's bungalow, I really want to chuck out my stuff before it becomes too much to face.

I understand exactly, Crimson - photos of my daughter in happier times make me sad. Could I suggest that for a start you just put all your photos in plastic crates in the garage/attic/cellar until you feel ready to deal with them.