You might have noticed that I have a slight picture taking problem. I can definitely accept the title, mamarazzi! I truly enjoy documenting our lives (I mean I AM a blogger and vlogger) from the mundane moments to the big milestones. I’ve pretty much always been this way – ask any of my high school friends. I had a little camera I brought EVERYWHERE. I have a ton of pictures of us and probably too many pictures I shouldn’t have taken! Haha, sorry mom! Once I had kids, my photos went from 0 to 100 REAL QUICK. I needed to get these memories organized and put away in a special place.
It can be really overwhelming to have a ton of pictures taking up all your phone/computer storage. PRINT THOSE SUCKERS! If your phone or computer breaks, you will be so sorry to lose all those memories. Here is the process that works for me.
When I take pictures on my phone, I transfer them over to my computer. On my computer I organize all photos into folders, first by year then by month or season. I like having it set up that way, so that I can easily find what I’m looking for and it makes it so much easier when I make the Shutterfly books (below). Once they are safely on my computer, I will delete most of them from my phone – keeping my favorites that I will use for social media and what not.
I print ALL photos and add them to a large photo album. Each photo album is a different year. I usually just print my photos at Meijer (my local grocery store) because that’s what is convenient for me. I have a photo album from 2006-2017 since I’m a little behind on printing. The kids LOVE looking through these albums! Tip: always write the month/year on the back of each photo. That way if they ever come out of the albums you will know exactly where it needs to go back. Whenever the kids have school projects and need photos – this tip comes in handy!
I always print my absolute favorite pictures to display around my house. I will usually update these photos once a year. Since they are the big 8×10 or 5×7 size pictures, I store the previous years photos right in the frame. For instance, the girls’ school pictures from K-4th grade are all in the same frame.
On top of printing, I’ve been making “yearbooks” for McKenzie and Kasey since they were born. I make one album per year and highlight some of my favorite moments, holidays, etc. I will also make a page of their “favorites” from the year… favorite toys, food, tv shows. It’s fun to look back and see what they were doing that year. I make these books on Shutterfly. Look out for their promotions or coupon codes. I almost always get the book for free and just have to pay shipping! I’m actually up-to-date with their yearbooks! I haven’t started making them for Harper and Mason though.
Since I put a lot of effort into my Instagram account and post my absolute favorite pictures on there, I decided to make a mini “Instagram” yearbook as well. I use Artifact Uprising to print these. They are pretty basic.. just photos, no words or graphics. These would look cute sitting out on a coffee table for your guests to browse through. I can’t do that since I have two toddlers who destroy everything in sight.. but maybe one day!
Another idea that I liked was using decorative boxes for each year and separating pictures by month or event using file tabs.
If there is one thing you pull away from this blog post… I hope its the importance of printing your pictures! Pictures travel through family for years and years. Your grand kids will be looking at them one day and then your great-grand kids! I have pictures stored away from when my grandparents were little kids. Cherish your memories because you will never get them back!
PIN ME
