How to Organize Old Photos and Slides: Best Tips

If you‘re anything like me, you have drawers full of old slides and photos that you never look at. But every once in a while, you get the urge to go through them and reminisce about the good old days. If you‘re looking for tips on how to organize old photos and slides, you‘ve come to the right place.

In this blog post, I‘ll share some tips on how to sort, organize, and store your old slides and photos.

Sorting Your Family Photos – A Daunting Process

However, for most people, the prospect of organizing these irreplaceable photos has been daunting – it’s both emotional and time consuming.

So, we have created this guide to help you sort your photos and slides in an organized and controlled manner.

Be Preparer From The Start

Make sure that you are organized and make the process of sorting and labeling old photos straightforward:

• Have available a number of empty boxes/large envelopes with covers, labels (or masking tape), and a marker. The number of boxes will partly depend on how you will be organizing the photos or slides. See below for organizing method
• You don’t have to label the photos right there and then, you can see how many of each you have and then label
• Keep a rubbish bag handy for any duplicates, old film negatives, or photos you don’t want to keep

Use The One-Touch Rule

Pour out piles of photos at a time on your kitchen table or desk.

There are two real decisions to be made. Asking these questions as you go through your photos will help streamline your efficiency and help you determine which memories are truly worth preserving.

Do you want to keep the photo or slide?

For some pictures, you may want to snap a photo of it and share it online before dropping it in the rubbish bag. For other slides or photos, you may want to mail them to the person who is in the picture.

Which category does it fall into?

There are several ways to organise your photos, these are:

Chronological Sorting

Chronological sorting is sorting by a specific date or time. This is how most people assume they have to sort their photos, and then they struggle with remembering dates and eventually give up. Don’t get too worked up by remembering the exact date of each photo if you choose to use Chronological Sorting otherwise you may never get the job done.

Thematical Sorting

If you’re the type of person who remembers events by where you were and who was there, rather than by when it happened then thematical sorting will be your best option.

Combination Sorting

This way of sorting combines two ways of sorting into one, most commonly used would be a chronological and thematical era. An era is a defined period in your life. For example, an era could be based on where you lived at the time.

By Person

Some people like to create collections for their relatives and so sorting the images by a person is the way to do this.

Conclusion:

After sorting your photos or slides you will probably want to share them with your family and friends.

The best way to do this is to use photo and slide digitizing, and then there will be many ways to share your treasured memories with your loved ones, such as additional sets on the USBs that Digitize Media offers (just £9 per set), Social Media, We Transfer, Dropbox or create a special gift such as (link to Fathers Day). You may also want to upload photos to a family tree site like Ancestry.com

Digitize Media will create a high-quality Photo and Slide Digitizing – meaning that you always have a reassuring backup and allow you to easily share your memories and experiences on your digital devices and with family and friends.