Are you in the driver’s seat when it comes to organizing your digital life? I’m referring to photos, videos, audio recordings, and any other important documents. Or are you thinking, ‘I’ll let my sister, or brother, deal with the family photos, or even my kids, after I’m gone? Or I’m too busy, or I don’t know where to begin.. These are all thoughts that go through your mind.
I just finished the book “My Next Breath” by Jeremy Renner, and he made a statement that is truly resonating with me. (If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it.) I believe it so much that I made the graphic above. Sometimes it’s just you who needs to get through things.
Let’s discuss what’s holding you back from organizing your photos.
- Time – I hear that a lot… I don’t have time. However, my answer is that if you spent 15 minutes on your photos each day for a year, you’d have worked with your photos for over 91 hours. I bet you would put a dent in your project in 91 hours.
- I don’t know where to begin. Again, I’ve heard that a lot. May I suggest first making a list of what you have? An inventory list might consist of physical photos (loose and in albums), digital photos on your computer, in Dropbox, iCloud, Google Photos, and any other cloud storage sites. Hard drives, USB sticks, SD cards, old computers, and camera rolls on your old smartphones. Videos: VHS, Beta, cassettes, and I probably forgot a few. You might want to put all these “things” in a box. I call that the scary box, and if you have a lot of things, it might be several scary boxes. But now it’s now all in one place. As I type those words, I’m starting to feel relaxed, and you will probably feel the same way when you do it. Now, I would suggest that if any of those albums are the magnetic ones that you can’t peel off the photos, then you should deal with those first, because they are like a chemical sandwich.
Why Conservators Call It a “Chemical Sandwich”
All three layers—acidic paper, unstable adhesive, and plastic—are chemically active.
Over decades, they:
- Release acids and plasticizers
that migrate into your photos. - Trap moisture between the plastic sheet and the adhesive layer.
This accelerates mold growth and color fading. - Bonded to the emulsion so tightly that removing a photo can tear or peel the image.
So the photo sits between two chemical layers that slowly eat into it—just like the filling inside a sandwich. Dealing with these photos means you’ll need to scan or have someone else scan them to obtain a digital copy.
After you’ve dealt with the chemical sandwich, what’s next is really up to you. What is your goal? Is it to preserve everything you have, or do you want to keep only the special photos and videos digitally stored, while protecting the rest?
For me, I’ve embraced FOREVER, and I have absolutely everything of my own, as well as my parents’ and grandparents’ things stored there. But if I hadn’t done that, I could store the precious things in FOREVER and then store the rest on my computer using a program we have called Historian, ensuring that I had a backup system for my laptop both on a hard drive and to Backblaze. I have to tell you that Backblaze saved me last year when I had a computer issue and had to get a new laptop. I was up and running again with all my files in hours.
Once you have a plan, you’ll feel so much better because you know what you need to do. Whether you DIY the scanning or have someone else do it for you is up to you. It’s about deciding if your time is better spent scanning or organizing and telling the stories of your photos.
One thing I haven’t mentioned is that by getting started, you are disaster-proofing your collection, and that’s a good feeling, too.
🏁 Key Takeaway
Start with planning and gathering
Would you like a map of these steps? I have a 6-week action plan so you can pace the project without feeling overwhelmed? You can download it for FREE at my new site, Family History Hound Dog Park HERE.
Note: The post above contains affiliate links. This means I make a small percentage of the sales via these links. This does not INCREASE the price you pay as a consumer. This is a supplement to my income, allowing me to continue supporting this blog and making donations to the Alzheimer’s Society.
