Family photos and paintings

The really old ones would often be taken by an antique shop. The black and white or sepia ones of our parents or grandparents.

We are in the same position as you truman. A couple of years ago my husband scanned all of our photos onto our computer and we recycled all but the most precious originals. That way we get to enjoy them but have already dealt with the disposing issue whilst we are together and feeling strong about it all.

Your local museum or conservation society might be interested

Perhaps you could leave your treasured dog portraits to an animal charity who can sell them on to people who will appreciate them and then use the money to benefit other dogs?

I hope this is helpful.

What Richmondpark said

"They will not mean anything to someone else but they mean the world to us."
And that is the problem with material possessions- luckily you have time to make proper arrangements

I have been painting my grandchildren for 28 years. These are displayed in our house as well as my daughter’s. Other paintings are hung along side them of other members of the family, places we have been, flowers bought for special occasions etc etc. I often wonder what will happen to them in a few years time when we are no more.

Asks yourselves -

What happens when a relative passes away?

Probably the same outcome when we all die

I buy and sell at auctions, there are often family photo albums for sale where house clearance firms have removed everything or the family has just instructed the auction house to sell the whole contents of a house.

If you go onto a genealogy site you might discover some distant relations, perhaps descendants of the people in the photos, who would love to have them.

Write who they are and dates on the back. It’s so nice to know who they were when they end up in antiques shops or charity shops.

We found we had some very early, 1860, photographs of a particular village and some of the inhabitants, we had them made into a book online and gave a copy to the local history society, still no idea what to do with rapidly deteriorating originals.

In an old leather case I got from a second hand shop I found a photo of of an unknown man . I kept the photo in the suitcase as it belonged there and was doing no harm just being there.

If Truman hides a photo minus frame inside a good quality ornament or inside the lining of a good quality case of some sort the image stands a chance of existing long beyond Truman's life span.

If you are willing to create a family tree on a genealogy site such as Ancestry you can upload photos to taht and share the tree, then distant relatives can see images they may never have seen before.
I have found photos of distant relatives this way, and even a photo of my great grandmother of whom I had heard much but never 'seen' - it was thrilling to discover that photo - posted by a very distant cousin I'd never heard of, but who had inherited the photo.

All of my old family photos have been uploaded to my Family Tree on Ancestry along with an up to date one of living relatives ( these are private whilst they are alive).
A lot of Villages have a History page on Facebook, it might be worth asking them if they would like any old photographs, the Village I grew up in has all sorts of photographs of people and places that they keep in the Village Hall.