If DD doesn't have room for them but she wants you to keep them, can she pay for the storage space? (and arrange it, too!)

I have so many pictures of my own that I have actually stopped TAKING them. I think I should take them more, but since every one I *have* taken is still in the little paper envelope and stuffed into a box or on a shelf, I just can't see the point anymore.

It's sort of depressing.

And I'd tackle them, but that means a big upheaval, and there are other more important things to deal w/ now.

I's frustrating, isn't it, when people think *you*, bcs you're the mom or the one w/ the house, or whatever, insist YOU should keep stuff THEY want?

Honestly, someone's willingness to bother is evidence of how much they REALLY care. If DD or DM REALLY want those photos, they'll find a way to store them. If they're not willing to stuff them under their bed, or line THEIR living room w/ them, then honestly they don't REALLY want them. So don't have any guilt at telling them they've got 2 months to get the ones they want, and then you're throwing them out or giiving them back or dropping them off, whichever.

Good luck!

I got all my grandmother's pictures a few years ago, when she moved in with my dad. What I did was go through them and sort according (roughly) to who the picture should 'belong' to...ie, all the pictures featuring one person (we have a family of 6 siblings) into separate files. All the pictures of my dad on his own into a pile. Pictures of both my parents (very precious as my mom died young) together. And so on.

Then I made what was either a smart or foolish move: I gave each of my siblings 'their' pictures which culled the number in a big way. Smart because it decluttered my group. Foolish because some of my siblings aren't as responsible/solid/rooted as I am and I know for a fact at least a couple of them have no clue where all those irreplaceable photos of them as babies, children and young people are now :(.

On the whole I can't say I regret distributing them though my family historian-archiver inner voice still sighs at me occasionally.

Anyway, if you could at least get the pictures organized in some fashion maybe you could get rid of some that you definitely don't want, that someone else in the family might.

Ann

I like Ann's idea--but remember to spread the pics of "dad by himself" among everybody ELSE's pile.

Bcs dad may not need pics of himself, but other people might care.

And maybe give pics of aunt as a child to HER kids, so they'll have pics of their mom.

I need to sort, and when I eventually do, I want to be sure each kid has pictures of their sibling as well. In fact, I have succeeded in starting to sort the school pictures, and I've given each kid at least one picture at each age of their sibling. Kids also needs pics of themselves w/ their dads, themselves with their siblings, etc. (those are the pictures I regret not taking now that I've scaled back)

It's other people who want pictures of us, mostly.

I suggest you take advantage of modern technology and have a large number of photos put on computer disks. You can do this yourself with a scanner or digital camera, or there are services that will do this.

Are the people in your mother's photographs identified? If not, and no one knows who they are, there's little point in keeping them.

My dad was an avid photographer, and I take after him. I'm having many of his slides trasferred to DVD, and I've been photographing many of the prints, simply to to make them last longer.

Susan

If you don't want any of them, tell your DD that you can't & won't keep them simply because she's into geneology. If she really wants them, she'll find a place to store them.

Is there someone else in your family who might like to have them? If so, call them & tell them you have a gift for them.

Photos & other sentimental things from family are difficult to deal with. Some people are very touchy about it. I remember once when my compact car was about seven years old I mentioned that DH & I were thinking of trading it for something slightly larger (no one above 5'6" was comfortable in my car for long & we wanted something for trips & DH's business travel). My mom gave me a wounded look & said in a hurt voice, "But we bought you that car. You're not going to trade it, are you?"

Greta

One thought about digitally saving those (where's Steve-o?):

Remember 8-track tapes? 5-1/4" floppy disks? Word Perfect? The days before MP3? SyQuest? Zip drives? Parallel interface, or serial interface?

The electronics and computer industry doesn't have a good track record for keeping formats (software or even hardware like disks) around very long!!!!

it may take up less space on a CD or a disk, but there's no guarantee it'll be easy to retrieve it in 4 years!