Thinking about kids launching and their childhood photos…

[footballmom]

I am at least a couple of years behind in printing pictures, and as the kids have gotten older the sheer volume of pictures has decreased.  But, one of my summer projects is to catch up on printing pictures, step two is organizing by year (ideally month / year), step three is scrapbooked photos (a girl can dream).  Oldest is heading off to college, so I have time to get my act together, but I need a system so my kids can eventually have photos in a format that is accessible for them.  What does that look like for you? I’m not an early tech adapter, and I am sure the CD’s I had burned with their early years are completely obsolete at this point.  Help!

[Ellie]

35 minutes ago, footballmom said:

I am at least a couple of years behind in printing pictures, and as the kids have gotten older the sheer volume of pictures has decreased.  But, one of my summer projects is to catch up on printing pictures, step two is organizing by year (ideally month / year), step three is scrapbooked photos (a girl can dream).  Oldest is heading off to college, so I have time to get my act together, but I need a system so my kids can eventually have photos in a format that is accessible for them.  What does that look like for you? I’m not an early tech adapter, and I am sure the CD’s I had burned with their early years are completely obsolete at this point.  Help!

I made photo albums (also known as scrapbooks to most of y'all whippersnappers). I contemplated only digital, but who knows what technology will look like 30 years from now? They can look at scrapbooks/photo albums forever. Of course, it took much longer than one might imagine for me to get it done, but I did it. 🙂

[Harriet Vane]

I am right there with you. No advice, just commiseration. I've been decluttering and organizing for more than a year. I've got some work deadlines to get through and I am revamping our paperwork/files first, and then I am sorting the photos in the fall. It's so overwhelming!!! But one step at a time really does get you all the way to the end.

[bookbard]

I make a photobook using Snapfish at the end of every year and print out a copy for myself and a copy for the grandparents as a gift. I use the smallest and cheapest option, not a huge coffee table book but a slim paperback. The photobook is basically about what the kids have done that year. A page on time in nature, a page on a holiday, a page about school, a page about cousins etc. A tiny percentage of the year's photos are used.  

Each month I start a folder to put that month's photos in (from phones etc). Around November I start flicking through the year's photos and uploading the good ones into Snapfish. It takes me maybe a weekend to put the book together. 

I used to scrapbook but I don't have the space for huge scrapbooks and most people won't want to drag them around. A slim book is a heap easier. I'd definitely advise making a photobook. 

[Guest]

Well I recently got a Skylight digital photo frame while planning a graduation party and I’ve got to say, it is better than years past in which I printed out a bunch of photos and put them on boards. It’s also nice because anyone can send their photos from their phones directly to the Skylight. 
 

I am several years behind making Shutterfly books. I’m beginning to think just keeping them backed up on Picture Keeper and using them digitally is preferable. 

[alisoncooks]

Every few years, I still print out several hundred pictures and stick them in an album. I don’t do any scrapbooking above just writing the dates on the outside of the album (ie 2017-2019). 

We hardly ever look at them, but I used to love looking at my pictures from when I was little. Maybe it’s just the over abundance of photos now (social media, etc) that make the albums less special. Or maybe I need to store them in a more easily accessible space. 

[mom2scouts]

I'm right there with you. I have SO MANY PHOTOS, both printed and digital, and they're a complete mess. I like to scrapbook and I've found the kids are more likely to look at pictures in scrapbooks than online or prints in boxes, so I'm trying to go through piles and piles, sort them and scrapbook them. I'll probably print out newer photos sometime soon too or maybe just print photobooks. I'm not opposed to digital pictures, but technology changes so fast that I find that I'm always trying to update digital storage to make it accessible again, so I like having hard copies. 

[Arcadia]

Mine are in cloud storage and then I sort them into albums to share. For example, my late mom’s childhood/young adult photos are in my parents home. I didn’t have a scanner there so I took photos of those photos with my iPhone. My mom’s sisters were very appreciative as were my married aunt’s children (they were in the photos). 
I have six photo albums of girl scout photos (1985-88) probably because I was in charge of photo ordering and I was one of the photographers. I haven’t had time to scan them in but I know my friends would love to have them.

I had time to scan a photo album of one of my ECA (1991-1997) and my friends told me how thankful they were that someone still had a copy. 
My teens so far prefer digital photos because they can have their favorite photos with them everywhere they go on their phones. 

[BlsdMama]

I have the last 15 years on Google photos. When they graduate, I print off all photos they’re in - hundreds. Put them in a container for them. I’ve done it for five now. Thinking of doing a photo book of each year. I do have a photo book of favorite photos of each child. 

[Beth S]

I've scanned all our photos, by year, & have uploaded them on to Google Photos, each year in a separate album.
This took several years.
(I used an inexpensive flat bed scanner, scanning 4 photos at a time.)

Also, each kid went thru our photos & scanned their favorites for their High School Graduation Photo Boards.
The kids really prefer digital copies of photos now.

Recently, I scanned each kid's baby book, each in a separate Google Photo Album.
Now, when I run across something specifically for that one kid, I upload it into their Google Photo Album.

My brother only wants Google Photo Albums (no prints), so he's paying for extra Google Storage for the family.
This way I can upload & then share each album with specific extended family members.

Honestly, it's not perfectly done, but it's "good enough" for fun reminiscing.

I also have 2 external hard drives, with the scanned photos.
The technology advances are difficult to adjust to, but it becomes somewhat easier once the files are digital.
I've saved all 25+ photo albums, but I"m no longer afraid of a house fire, etc.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by Beth S

[kirstenhill]

We are keeping things mostly digital here.  I started using a digital camera right around the time DD18 was born, and this year I finally uploaded everything that I had stored locally (we have a home server with redundant storage drives) to Google Photos.  Everything we took in 2017-present was already there.   One thing I really like about google photos is that it can auto-identify people in the photos, so I could very quickly make an album of just the photos of DD18.  Then she and I worked together to create a huge 100 page photo book of the highlights of her childhood.  It was part of her graduation gift as it cost maybe $80 have printed, even with a really good sale/coupon.   This will be her photo book to take with her, plus she has access to the photos in Google photos.  I would probably not want to rely on just ONE cloud storage service if we didn't also have a home server.  Any one cloud storage service could theoretically experience some kind of failure, stop offering a service, etc.  So if I weren't storing with redundancy at home as well, I would probably do two different cloud storage servers for photos.  We have our Google Home displays set up to show highlights from various photos albums, so we get to see our pictures pretty often that way -- way more often that we would look through a physical photo album.

[footballmom]

Thanks for sharing what’s worked for you.  It’s helped me ponder what I envision for them to have and I think it’s hybrid - I have an archival envelope with each of their team pictures and special memorabilia for each grade already sorted.  I think I want them to also each have their own copy / access to our digital family pictures growing up and they can decide what to print / store, etc.  They can hash out splitting the physical scrapbooks I’ve created once I’m no longer walking the Earth. 🙂. Now I need to look into the different platforms, pick one or two and start The Big Sort by year, etc.  

[Annie G]

I’m so impressed with those of you who have done scrapbooks or Shutterfly books. When our oldest two kids became adults we sorted through all our photos and made a box for each kid and one for us.  That’s it- a box for each of the four kids. They were pretty boxes, does that count as effort?  
 

[freesia]

22 minutes ago, Annie G said:

I’m so impressed with those of you who have done scrapbooks or Shutterfly books. When our oldest two kids became adults we sorted through all our photos and made a box for each kid and one for us.  That’s it- a box for each of the four kids. They were pretty boxes, does that count as effort?  
 

It counts!