I am so impressed!! I have a trunkful of old photos from nearly 40 years ago spanning through to about 5 years ago when I went digital. It's one project that for all those years hung over my head and I always kept saying I've got to get to it. Unfortunately most are not dated, so as time went by, the difficulty of figuring out the order to place in albums kept getting worse....now it's nearly impossible. What I think I need to do in the next year or so, is to start sorting through gradually, separate out some favorites, trash the obvious junk, and offer the rest to my grown kids. Then maybe I could actually enjoy flipping through a couple albums - even if the dates are out of order!. As it is, the current mountain in the trunk makes the photos largely inassesable. (I don't want to scan them and toss the images as I would worry about losing them. ) Thanks for the inspiration.
Catsoup, good work!! I understand the wonderful feeling of getting organized, and of the calming, restful feeling from serene surroundings when the clutter is gone. I'm still working on the process, but have made great progress.

Thanks peegee! This has even extended out into my yard. I had 4 flowerbeds my husband had put in when our kids were little. The oldest is nearly 40 now. Working full time I lost all interest in weeding and watering and keeping them nice. With my husband's help, we have torn out those flowerbeds and he will be able to mow across that area now. The lawn will look much prettier without them.

Great job! 42 years of pics is no easy feat to conquer. I always seem to find that how long it takes is usually shorter than the time I think something will take.

Hmmm I have about 40 years' worth of photos still in their envelopes. I take them, get them prnted then invariably set them aside to put in books "later". Oh, I did get a few in books. Photos of my kids as infants/toddlers. Photos from our Alaska and Hawaii vacations. But the rest are scattered throughout the house still in the envelopes.

Jannie, I did the same thing you did. I put some of the kids' picures in albums several years ago and gave the albums to them. I included some of our Colorado vacation in them and kept some. Since that time there have been 4 grandbabies born. I found going through and separating the pictures was a very emotional experience. There were divorces, deaths, hard feelings, joy & love that all resided there in my pictures. I cried some and my heart melted some. It took me a long time to decide to tackle that job. I'm so happy I did it, tho.

I love it when I find a new way to make an old way better. Good for you!

For photos, I find it amazing how the digital world has changed everything. My kid will never have this photo dilemma. Ha!

I guess I'm not very emotionally attached to my photos (the paper aspect, anyway). Many years ago, I got tired of the bazillion mismatched photo albums. I took them all apart, rubber-banded the groups, and filed them all in 2 photo boxes. That was freedom right there...to rid of the album clutter & space.

In recent years, I've been scanning the banded photos to my computer, and...*gasp*...I throw away the paper prints.

I've whittled the 2 full photo boxes down to 1 box which is about 3/4 full. When I want to frame & display a photo, I go find it, and am able to print to whatever size I want. Crop, fix, and make a so-so print something worthy of framing.

I've scanned obituaries, childhood report cards & certificates, and many other paper keepsakes. Paper is gone and I don't miss them at all. They are now preserved & won't yellow further on the computer. If I want to find something, I know exactly where to find the digital document. No digging, no distractions of other treasures in the middle of my search. No mess. I'm able to print or email & share the obits and documents with family who lost their copies.

Liberating.

I sure am learning how good tossing excess stuff feels - but the reason I'm so hesitant to scan and then ditch my old photos is that I've lost everything, including all my digital photos, when I lost a good computer to a virus, despite having virus protection, etc. Nothing was retrievable, even with professional help. Additionally, although I have since backed up my photo's on an external hard drive and various flash drives, I was surprised to recently learn these devices have a lifespan of not that many years, so now I get to worry about that!...I'm not suggesting that other people should not ditch their paper photos, etc., I'm only pointing out why I am hesitant to at least to get rid of my favorites.