Have you got a daunting mountain of old family photos? Its hard to know where to start, but here is an idea which works

Don't remind me ----thousands ! Inside and outside albums. It all sounds like a good idea though to have them all in some semblance of order.
A job for the winter months sounds the best.

Applegran fabulous! thank you so much for sharing your system with us. It's something I keep promising myself to do on those dark days of Winter...

I started sorting yesterday and gave up! I will try your method, thanks Applegran.

Thank you very much Applegran, I have about eight huge boxes of loose photos and feel encouraged to make a start. My aunt has sent me many photos of people I don't remember meeting - and now she can't remember who they are! So important to label.

I have dozens of albums, a blanket box full of photos, not to mention thousands on my phone.
Your method sounds really good, but time consuming!
One of my daughters makes a photo book for each child on their birthday, selecting the nicest ones, and the best memories from the past year, I think that’s a nice idea.

When we downsized 11y ago I spent a couple of weeks emptying old ‘flip’ photo albums. Culled many. Put others in 2 big boxes to continue sorting once we had moved. Several months later I found one of the boxes I had brought contained photos I had meant to chuck out. You can guess where the ones I wanted to save had gone. I was so upset. I came to terms with it over time but every now and again one of our girls will mention a photo (thinking I still have it in a box somewhere).

I keep quiet and change the subject. All those memories. Baby photos, school sports days, family celebrations. I have to stop thinking about it or I’ll get upset all over again.

So, fingers in ears and ‘la-la’.
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What gets even worse is after 2000 the photos become digital, and there are trillions of them! Especially now everyone is snapping away with their phones. My daughters have taken so many of their children, I'm not sure they realise that no-one will ever be able to look through them...too many! They need to delete hundreds but once taken it's hard to delete a good photo!

I too have hundreds of photos,but just can`t bring myself to get rid,thankfully my dil said she would have them when i`m gone.
But i find it really sad when i see old photos on a car boot,especialy when it`s a house clearance spot,i can`t help but pick them up and daftly ,under my breath say hello,and bless you.
Off to the funny farm eh.

We have thousands, some in albums, some just loose in a box all jumbled up.
It was to be my task on retirement. Twelve years on it's still not done. My granddaughter helped me make a start a while ago and we bought folders and sorted a fair few out. There are hundreds left to be done. I did start last week throwing random beach scenes etc away. I must get on with it. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks for this Applegran. I will be adopting some of your ideas.

sort of did that with mine last year during the first lockdown, took everything out of albums- taking up way too much space- removed any that were of places that only i knew what they were and definitely of no use to anyone else. put them in shoeboxes with dividers year by year and wrote on the back with details. Only have 25 years worth as lost most when divorced.

What a fabulous scheme-thank you!
A few years ago we made online albums (a bit of a faff first time!) for DGD’s 18th then 21st.
So we sorted through a lot of albums-throwing away views (some beautiful but even we didn’t remember where most were!). DH found that hard ?
Then-ta dah-we added the photos we have of our parents and grandparents at the front-a sort of photographic family tree with DOB and marriage too.
It was a start!
When our 2 DD were 40 they wanted the same so we split the photos into each of theirs too-(feeling somewhat smug!)
Now I haven’t done much with photos on mobile except I try to delete duplicates sharpish!

I did the same thing. Sent all my daughter’s baby and pre school photos to the charity shop and saved an empty album. It was because I was rushed. I had taken over the dining room with the project and had to tidy up earlier than expected. Allow lots and lots of time, or prepare in an unused room. If, like me, you are nostalgic, it will take way longer than you think.

Thankyou for these very helpful tips. Like many others have boxes of unsorted photos, and many negatives. Some of these had reprinted, expensive as 125 so not in use today, but gave me back many memories.

I too have thousands plus my parent’s my in laws’, my 2 Aunt’s. I started in the winter chucking out scenes and people I had no idea of but when it came to my own family and late DH I found it all too emotional. Also sorting the ancient sepia photos of ancestors is difficult. I think. Know who they are but ....
One of my DDs will, eventually, go through them and become the family photo ‘historian’ ?

Oh Urmstonegran sympathies for having lost family photos, and well done you for coping strategies. I can only add that we grew up with few family images, didn’t we?

yes, I too have loads. in boxes and albums, unlabelled, I make a start then end up putting them back on the shelf, it's so daunting. Sadly some of the photos in albums have faded badly, not sure if it's the glue on the pages or the film that goes over them, but my baby photos of my daughter have gone nearly black and white

Good useful advice Applegran
I did my sorting out during lockdown and rainy weather, had been meaning to do it for years.Mind you, I only have a fraction of the old photo’s that you have.
I started by throwing any picturesque scenes away ... Llandudno circa 1926 and so on? and then sorted and wrote on the back of photo’s of past ( and passed) relatives, name, location and date where possible.I can’t tell you how thrilled our AC will be by looking at a photo of ‘Uncle Stan on the Prom at Blackpool 1957’....but that’s another story?
All done, I divided them into three packs of photos ready to give ( or for them to find) in the future, with their names on.
They can either keep or throw as they like.
It gave a sense of relief to have done it.

Cs783

Oh Urmstonegran sympathies for having lost family photos, and well done you for coping strategies. I can only add that we grew up with few family images, didn’t we?

Of course you are quite right. And thank you for your kindness. It upsets me less as the years go by - we keep our memories in our hearts forever. Thinking that way I have put my error to bed. Mostly.
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A friend who, as a teenager, had a Saturday job in a well-known photography shop recommended undeveloped film should be stored in the fridge. This I did when my children were young, vowing to do something about it...
When they’d flown the nest I had the rolls developed. It took me three week to put the prints into chronological order with dividers in a shoe box as you suggest Applegran. Car registration numbers, items of clothing worn together with signs in various foreign languages helped me to identify locations and dates. It was a Herculean task but much fun - a real test of detective skills!

This is something I meant to do over lockdown but dudnt.

I find it hard to throw away photos of people unless they are terrible. In fact I have a file of rather nice old photos labelled 'Who am I' because they came from MIL's house and no-one now has a clue who any of them are.

We, too, have lots of photos, including on the computer. Future generations may be interested in pictures of their ancestors but not of places (unless they are important in showing how the places have changed, like the old ones in our village archive).

I haven't sorted them all out yet but I do now make the best of our holiday ones into books with the holiday diaries. When they're printed they make nice things to browse for the memories and the diary part puts them into context for the next generation.

My mum went through all the old family photos before she died, putting them into an album and labelling them so that I know who everyone is. Really useful!

Mine are all sorted thank goodness and the oldest one is of my mother in taken at a studio in 1900 when she was around 10 months old and is sitting in an old boot.
YES I DID SAY AN OLD BOOT.

Fascinating photo and never seen another like it.

My dear dad soon after he retired spent a long time cataloging old family photos and naming all the relatives . I am so pleased he did , I think as we get older we get more interested in our old relatives. Now both parents have died I have many photos of theirs plus all our own also in shoe boxes all waiting to be culled and sorted .My brother kept all the slides my father took and has discovered they are deteriorating. We are wondering if we can take a photo of the projected picture . Does anyone have other suggestions?