I have the same problem and have "kind of" targeted this year to get them organized. I'm not ready to scan or digitalize, but am ready to prioritize and downsize. I agonized over the many photos I also inherited upon the death of my mother--SHE had boxes from her aunts and cousins who died before--I had gone through a few with her in the last years of her life and so was able to identify some of her friends and relatives, but there are still gobs of old-time photos of folks I don't know and there is now no one alive who knows or cares--my mother did not even know all of them. Still there is some kind of emotional pull that someone someday may want to see that photo taken in World War II or whatever. What's helping me is that I can't imagine my kids would experience it so differently, and I expect they too would just feel the burden passed on--that vague what do I do with these? thing that nags you because "photos" are special and harder to throw away. So far my plan is to save and label, and frame, our closest relatives, make 2 or 3 albums of "my" relatives, particularly with my brother and I as children with them--as these would be the ones that mean the most to me and might be amusing to my kids. That way, they would not inherit boxes! I still have years of our own nuclear family photos in boxes and again, I hope to mainly "albumize" just a few shots of each event and thin out the rest to keep some photo box storage; occasionally someone wants a photo for a project.

Except they tell me that computer printed pictures will fade with time. I'm hoping that is because of the air and light getting to them..which wouldn't be the case in an album. I had one that I had hanging on my bulletin board and it faded to a ghostly print in a short time. I have one under glass on my desk and it is fading some but not as fast as the one that was completely exposed...both have had about the same amount of light..only the one under glass was sealed from the air...but it "is" fading. I can't see that the ones in my albums have faded, but I don't think they will stand the test of time...

Yeah Ive seen them at Petsmart for 10$ and sometimes they go even lower then that! I would get one but between my cat, dog, fish, pond fish, budgie, and plants I don't think I'd have enough time to take care of one! Or have the room..... One day I shall get one! One day!

This is one of the places I get a little (lot) obsessive. I have far too many rules.. so feel free to use or discard as you find appropriate :) A side note: Not the same thing but I am helping a friend/ex setup some photo galleries. He's gotten wise -- he's given me full reign because (in his words) 1. he trusts me .. and, 2. he doesn't want to hear all my picky reasons why to swap out images or move them (yeah, both-- mainly the latter) - only one pic of a person/location combination unless you have two extraordinary images... and I mean extraordinary! (i'd even extend this to outfits) - images next to each other or on facing pages should have complementary colors-- not the same colors. They have more impact when they are largely different. - be mindful of landscape vs portrait. No real rules here but keep them visually interesting. If you have a collage (I know you say you won't be using them-- but if you do) pair a larger portrait with two medium size landscapes-- but they should align so that the height of both the stacked landscape and the portrait are the same. - mix up angles/orientations. You don't want all images facing you dead on.. or all looking away. - maintain some white space -- some full page images are ok, but don't have two on two facing pages so they meld together. - consider the collection/book as a whole. Curation is important-- it's not just about the best photos or your even your favorites. It's about the trip record.. you will likely need to cull some that you love. - finally, I like some establishing shots. It helps set the mood and spark memories. Have fun with the project! It's going to be so nice to have the books to look back on!