Downsizing your home can be stressful and overwhelming. When my grandmother relocated from the apartment she’d lived in for decades, it was filled with things... SO.MANY.THINGS. Shoes, clothes, magazines, trinkets and, of course, her life’s worth of photos. Everything was piled everywhere, hardly any of it being stored properly. Her photos ended up being distributed between her three children, thus separating her life’s story into three new households. Her story matters* and so does yours. Your life’s story is a treasure for your grandchildren and the future generations of your family. Studies have shown that KNOWING their family history, their family’s struggles and triumphs, has a tremendous impact on a child's self-esteem.
 
Your photos are an IMPORTANT piece of this legacy. Photos allow future generations to literally SEE what life was like in the past, the clothes, the cars, the households their elders lived in. In the immortal words of Bob Dylan, “The times, they are a-changin’,” and nowadays at an unbelievably fast rate. Having an organized photo collection helps document your story to show future generations what life was like in the “olden days.”
 
But where to start? Many of my clients feel completely overwhelmed when they reach out to me for help. Photos are strewn throughout their households, in closets, drawers and boxes. Many of them have inherited photos from loved ones and they’re at a loss as to how to begin the task. There are a few simple steps you can take to organize and ultimately DOWNSIZE your photo collection.

1. Go through your home and pull out your photos from all their many hiding spots. Check under beds, in drawers, closets, your basement, wherever you think your photos may be hiding. Collect all the photos you can find and put them in one location of your home. With my clients, it’s often the dining room. This will give you a great idea of the size of your collection and the task at hand.
2. Most importantly, don’t let the size of your collection overwhelm you. Tackle the organization project one box or bin at a time for an hour at a time. You might find that looking through your photos and reminiscing can be emotionally draining.
3. Find a large table in which to work. When sorting through your boxes, put photos into piles according to categories. For example, childhood, school days, birthdays, weddings, children, pets, cousins, etc.
4. At the end of each working day, keep the piles intact by placing them into gallon-size Ziploc bags.
5. Once you have categorized all the photos in your collection, take each category one at a time, look through them carefully and throw away any duplicates, any photos of people you can’t remember, blurry photos that have no meaning, excessive scenery, etc.
6. Once this pruning step is complete for ALL categories, you can then arrange your neatly categorized piles into an archival-quality photo storage box. These often have separate sections inside that you can label according to category. For example, the section might be titled “Weddings” and each individual tab can then be labeled with the names of those people getting married.

 
And voila! Your project is complete! Depending on the size of your collection, you may whittle your collection down to just ONE storage box. One of my clients ended her project with three boxes that each held 2,400 photos. However, she is now able to open the boxes and clearly see photos from her travels, from family reunions, school reunions, etc.  And when her nieces and nephews come to visit, she is able to sit with them and share her life’s adventures with them in a meaningful way.
 
 *My grandmother passed away suddenly in May 2014 and like the cobbler with no shoes for her family, I never found the time to document her stories. I had strong intentions to have her select 20 of her favorite photos, document her stories about each of those photos and create a book of her memories. Alas, I lost my chance. I have to rely on the memories of the stories she told me, and to be honest, I don’t have a very robust memory. Born in 1923, she lived a fascinating life and I want my two children to know the substantive woman who was their great-grandmother. So if this article does nothing else, I hope it inspires you to start documenting your legacy both for your current family and future generations. Your STORY matters.

My father passed along his love of photography to me at an early age. He was definitely our family historian, documenting every important event throughout the years. I began taking photography seriously in middle school when I signed up for a class where we got to use classic manual cameras, develop our own film in the dark room and also process our own prints. I absolutely LOVED every minute of my time in that lab and watching the magic appear as my prints developed. Although I pursued other interests in college, including dance and archaeology, and dabbled in many different jobs post-college, my love of photography stood the test of time.

When planning my wedding seven years ago, I knew I wanted to hire a solid photographer who would give me full digital rights to use the photos as I wished post-wedding. Don Mears and his wife, Lindsay, did a stellar job to say the least! While a traditional wedding album was included in the package, I wanted to make digital wedding albums to give our parents as a gift. I did a bit of research and learned of My Publisher and I've been using them for various photo book projects ever since. I cherish my traditional album from Don & Lindsay, (it is absolutely gorgeous!) but it remains safely tucked away in its storage box most of the time, while my digital album is out and about for anyone to flip through any time. And let's get back to the gifts... it's an understatement to say that both sets of parents LOVE their books. It's a stunning documentation of our special day and we all still flip through and cherish the memories of that sunny September day seven years ago. Seeing the joy this gift brought to our families made me want to give more. Photo gifts are unique, personal and truly priceless; they share our memories and tell our stories.

Fast forward to 2012, after I'd been a stay-at-home mom for three years and was looking to return to the workforce. I had so many business ideas during my time at home, but one kept coming back to me. Photo books. And yet, I couldn't see how making photo books could be a profitable business. So I signed up to attend Tory Johnson's Spark & Hustle conference that summer, hoping to get some inspiration for starting my own business. It was there I ran into Coach Jenn Lee, who I'd exchanged e-mails with earlier in the year. I was excited to introduce myself and to thank her for offering business advice to me (that I failed to follow up on!) The first business I told her I was considering was a career as a Virtual Assistant, after all, much of my corporate experience was in executive assistance. But then I mentioned photo books. And her face lit up. And apparently so did mine. She immediately pounced and could see that making photo books was my passion. And ironically enough, she'd been hired by the recently formed Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) to provide some coaching support. So she asked if I'd ever heard of them. "No," was my simple answer. Within a week, an employee of APPO called me to follow up on the interest I'd shown Coach Jenn. Two weeks later, I joined APPO. Three months after that, I'd completed their certification program and had officially launched Picture This Photo Solutions, LLC. It's been a whirlwind ever since!

Many are confused by my varied background in dance, then archaeology and now photo organizing, but I find a connection between all three. For one, I was never a "cubicle" person, even though I toiled away in one for many, many years. That's the dancer in me. Wanting to be up and moving around. And two, I've always had a deep love for history beginning with day trips to Colonial Williamsburg as a young girl and being absolutely fascinated by the "living" history represented there. It truly was like stepping into the past. So pursuing archaeology made a lot of sense to me. And it's also quite a physical activity when working in the field. But what does photo organizing have to do with any of this? Every person has a story to tell. And those stories are often buried in their boxes of photos. And as mentioned in yesterday's post, there are many treasures to be found at the bottom of those boxes. So photo organizing gives me the opportunity to be up and moving around, helping my clients sort through their photos, while also hearing fascinating stories about their lives and, like icing on the cake, I get to HELP people, which is another lifelong passion of mine. To sum it up, photo organizing takes everything I love and wraps it up into a nice, neat career that fulfills every passion of mine while making a difference in my clients' lives.

Clearly, 2014 has NOT been the "Year of the Blog" for me, but I'm hopeful that this week's FREE blogging challenge from Alex Beadon helps me get back on track with my business blog, so here goes!

Challenge #1: A Simple Introduction

Who am I? 
I'm a certified personal photo organizer who is passionate about helping my clients organize, protect and ENJOY their precious photo memories. A few fun facts about me: I have a Master's degree in anthropology/archaeology and have worked on several historical sites in Virginia, including spending a year at James Madison's Montpelier. I find a strong connection between my archaeological background and my photo organizing career. There are many treasures to be found at the bottom of my clients' photo boxes, including Civil War-era tin-types!

Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging as a form of networking, to put myself out there so that future clients could get to know me, to share my photo organizing expertise and to interact with my blog readers.

Who is your blog for?
My blog is for anyone with a passion for photography, but who struggles to find time to enjoy the photos they take. I share photo organizing tips, fun photo gift ideas and other photo-related topics that can help you on your photo organizing journey. I have a particular fondness for working with baby boomers & retirees and hope that my blog is helpful as they begin to ponder their life's legacy.

What's something I've been working on lately that I'm REALLY proud of?
Recently, I completed two different slideshow projects: one for a returning client and one for a brand-new client. One was a surprise for a 60th birthday party, the other premiered at my client's son's wedding reception. Both clients told me the slideshows were the hit of the parties. I take great pride in creating a product that is so well-received and brings so much joy to so many people.

What’s the ONE MESSAGE that you hope people take away from your blog?
I hope people find that I'm down-to-earth, accessible and full of helpful knowledge with regards to their photo collections.

I have a wonderful friend named Nadine Medina who happens to be an outstanding professional photographer and is the owner of Fotos By Nadine Photography. She asked me if I would appear on her blog in a video interview to discuss some basic digital photo organizing how-to's. Between both of our crazy, busy lives, it literally took SIX months, but we FINALLY sat down to chat earlier this week. Click here to view our first post regarding basic digital photo organizing. We have more episodes planned for the future, including backing up your photos and great photo gift ideas. If you have any other suggestions for topics, please comment below and we'll be happy to accommodate! Also, we will be switching roles in future episodes with me interviewing Nadine on basic photography how-to's, so if you have any questions on that topic, please let us know!

I can hardly believe it myself, but Christmas is officially less than 100 days away! That means it’s definitely not too early to start thinking about how you’d like to incorporate your photos into amazing and unique holidays gifts for all your loved ones.

Here are 15 of my favorite photo gifts (in no particular order) and why I love them:

1) Digital Photo Books: The classic, can’t-go-wrong gift that your loved ones will cherish for years to come. There are so many publishers to choose from, but you won’t go wrong with either of my favorites: Shutterfly and My Publisher. My Publisher has a lovely, simple Pocket-sized book at a great price point that is perfect for sharing your family’s photos with grandparents and other family friends.

2) Digital Photo Slideshows: Easily my favorite photo product because pairing your photos to music never fails to pack an emotional punch. I love to make slideshows for not only major events like milestone birthdays, memorials and vacations, but also of day-to-day events, like an afternoon at the pool or a month’s worth of photos of my children. Regardless of the theme you choose, seeing your photos in this format will ramp up the emotional impact and is likely to bring the viewer to tears (in a good way!)   You can make free slideshows with Smilebox and Magisto to name a few.

3) Photo Calendars: It all started with one calendar gifted to my mom years ago... now it is a yearly tradition that both my mom and mother-in-law have come to expect. It’s the photo gift that keeps on giving each and every month of the year. I love that not only can you design the top half, but you can also personalize the bottom half with photos added to the date squares to mark special events like birthdays. And since I’m already making one for the family, I always order an extra copy for myself. I just love looking at each month’s photos and seeing how much my children have grown from that point a year ago. Shutterfly is my personal favorite for calendars.

4) Wall Decor: You take a million pictures. Of course, you want to ENJOY them. So why not hang your favorites on your walls? The old school way would have been to print an enlargement, frame it and hang it up. But now, you can have your photo printed onto an actual canvas to hang on your wall. Canvas wall art is a booming business these days. I see Groupon and Living Social deals for them all the time. Just beware you sometimes get what you pay for. Oftentimes the canvas is stretched across a wood frame that will start to sag with time. Also, the corners can often look messy. If this bothers you, you can work with me to purchase an Artsy Couture canvas, whose quality is bar none. Originally designed for professional photographers to sell to their clients, I have partnered with them giving you the opportunity to use your own PERSONAL photos on their professional-quality products. The product is made right here in the DC metro area, is stretched across a solid piece of wood (so sagging can never occur) and they’re known for the tightest corners in the industry. Artsy Couture also offers Couture Gallery Blocks. These products are also handmade locally and consist of a photo laminated over a solid wood box. They are stunning, to say the least, and are one of the higher-end gifts for this holiday season. WeMontage is a newcomer on the photo decor scene, but one of the most exciting that I know: removable photo wallpaper!!! Just select 12-15 of your favorite photos and you'll receive a stunning sheet of wallpaper to hang. Sizes start at a 2' x 3' poster and go up from there. They can even be customized to your space. So go pick of few of your best shots from the year and display them proudly in your home. If you'd like even more suggestions on how to use photos in your home decor and/or other products available, don't hesitate to contact me any time!

5) Smartphone and Tablet Cases: Almost every one of us owns either a Smartphone or a tablet and have them with us 99.9% of the time. A photo case is an excellent way to keep your favorite photo(s) with you at all times, easily bringing a smile to your face in the midst of a hectic day.

6) Coffee Mugs: Although I’m not a coffee drinker, many in my family are, and they have LOVED the personalized coffee mugs I’ve gifted them through the years. What grandparent wouldn’t want to start the day seeing the smiling faces of their grandkids? What parent wouldn’t love to see the smiling face of their child as they perform their daily grind in the office? Coffee mugs are affordable and make a great gift for the coffee or tea drinker in your life.

7) Magnets: Even more affordable than mugs, magnets are a fabulous way to keep your photos front and center in your home. Select a few of your best photos, design a handful of magnets and voila! Your refrigerator becomes a photo gallery for your family and friends to enjoy.

8) Water Bottles: I don’t know about you, but I carry a water bottle with me everywhere I go. Did you know you can put one of your favorite photos on a stainless steel bottle, creating a unique and eco-friendly gift?

9) Placemats: I’ve shopped for placemats recently and have been sorely disappointed. The selection isn’t great and the prices seem high. A better option would be to design my own placemats that display my photos. How about one for each family member for their special spot at the table? These are also great items for events such as weddings and milestone birthdays. Afterwards, they become a unique party favor for the guests to bring home.

10) Coasters: I think coasters make a great gift because it’s an item people don’t often purchase for themselves and it’s an unexpected place to see a personal photo displayed. You can get them in the standard hardboard version or the upgraded porcelain version that comes complete with a wrought iron stand.

11) Pillowcase & Throw Pillows: Who would have thought you could get a personalized photo pillowcase or throw pillow? Not me!!! I designed one for my daughter several years ago, featuring a photo of her precious Maya (a stuffed lamb she’s had since birth.) She has had the sweetest dreams ever since, resting her head upon her favorite lovey. There are so many ideas for gifting a photo pillowcase/pillow, including using a picture of a loved one who is deployed thereby keeping their memory close to the recipient’s heart while they’re away. I think this is one of the most unique photo gifts because very few people would be expecting one!

12) Photo Quilts and Blankets: Here's a great way to display your favorite photos without making a single hole in the wall: photo quilts and blankets! The quilts become a modern-day family heirloom and can be used either as a bedspread or as a wall hanging. The fleece blankets are super cozy for those cold winter nights and are almost always sprawled across our couch for guests to see.

13) Tree Ornaments: One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is decorating our tree. Unpacking and displaying all the ornaments we have collected through the years. When photos are included on your ornaments, they bring back so many great memories from year to year. So let’s not forget that one of the easiest (and, again, affordable) holiday gifts to give this year is a new ornament for their tree! My mom does a gift exchange with friends each year and has received so many beautiful ornaments for her tree. Why not make your friend a photo ornament memorializing good times spent together? Or spotlight the grandkids on a special ornament that the grandparents can proudly display to all their friends? A tree ornament can also make a special and unique gift for your children’s teachers, too! 

14) Scanning: A non-tangible gift, but an extremely important one, nonetheless. Give the gift of photo scanning to a loved one to assist them in getting their precious memories, be they on prints, slides, negatives or film, digitizing for lifelong preservation. Once these memories are digitized, a whole world opens up for the family to share and re-live those treasured family stories. I highly recommend using a reputable company, such as Fotobridge, to assist with this process. There are many companies looking to profit off your desire to protect your memories, but who, behind the scenes, ship your items to foreign shores where labor comes cheap. When you send your items to Fotobridge, located in New Jersey, that is the first and last stop on their journey. Fotobridge is family owned and operated and I've met them personally. They handle ALL their clients' materials with kid gloves from start to finish and their track record is impeccable. You absolutely can't go wrong with a gift certificate from Fotobridge to help aging parents preserve their legacies. And if the thought of gathering and packing up your photos is too overwhelming, I'd more than happy to facilitate your order!

15) Photo Organizing: Last but not least, consider giving the gift of photo organizing to a loved one. There are so many of us that are completely inundated not just with our digital photos, but with a lifetime of prints as well. A photo organizer can help downsize their collections and consolidate them from multiple boxes and bags into one or more clearly labeled and categorized archival-quality boxes (see Legacy Box in photo slideshow below) that will take up much less room than before. A photo organizer can also help get overwhelmed families back on track with photos that reside on multiple devices and never get enjoyed beyond the occasional Facebook or Instagram post. And most importantly, a photo organizer can work with you to develop a back up plan so that your precious memories are stored in multiple locations and can never be lost permanently to natural disasters or hard drive failures. The gift of photo organizing is a priceless one! Contact me to purchase gift certificates for your loved ones today!

I sure hope I’ve helped kickstart your holiday gift planning with some truly original ideas to get your photos off your computer and into both your life and your loved one’s lives! Enjoy the slideshow below and please feel free to comment on your favorite photo gifts; I’d love to hear your ideas! As always, if you need assistance with any of these items, don’t hesitate to contact me, the sooner the better, to ensure your gifts arrive on time this holiday season!

I recently learned about Thumbtack and have signed on as a service provider in my area. It is great both for small business owners to find new clientele and for the consumer to be able to receive multiple quotes for a variety of services easily and conveniently.

I highly suggest any small business owner to give it a try and see what new leads it might bring. The sign-up process is free and you don't pay a dime until you provide a quote to a potential client. At that point, the cost is extremely reasonable. Also, clients may contact you directly, in which case, the lead is also free! 

Take a look at my Thumbtack profile (it's a work in progress!) and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me about my experience using it!

Most of us live in a hectic, highly-scheduled world. We are bound by clocks and alarms. And from this perspective, we attempt to organize our lifetime of photos. But we get hung up on TIME. Your goal of organizing your lifetime of photos seems too overwhelming and it gets tabled for later.

I’m here to tell you a little secret. When it comes to organizing your photo collection, throw time out the window. Don’t get hung up trying to puzzle together days, months, years, even decades. You’ll make yourself crazy and won’t get anything accomplished.

The easiest way to start thinking about your photos is in categories. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, vacations, immediate family, extended family. You get the picture. While every family will have a different set of categories, it is MUCH easier to pour over thousands of family photos within the context of categories. Your category piles will start to build and you won’t waste any time struggling to remember the date & year of your Uncle Joe’s wedding.

Think about it. When you need to find a specific picture, you wouldn’t think, “I need to find that picture of my sister taken on April 5, 1973.” You think, “I remember a great picture of my sister taken at Uncle Joe’s wedding.” So when your photo organizing project is complete, you can easily open your archival-quality storage box, find the weddings section, then find the tab that says “Uncle Joe’s Wedding” and voilà! There’s that great pic of your sister!

This one tip alone will make it so much easier for you to start your photo organizing project, but if you still feel overwhelmed by the sheer VOLUME of photos, just remember I’m here to help. Contact me any time!

This was the scene in the court next to mine earlier this evening. A house engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. Thankfully, the two residents who were home at the time got out safely. But guess what was the first thing she mentioned after saying all was lost? Her PICTURES. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when tragedy strikes, what people want most are their pictures, not their clothes, their jewelry, their furniture. Their PICTURES. And sadly, so many of us don’t take the time to BACK UP our photo collections until it’s too late. 

Here are a few steps to take to protect your non-digital photo collection:

1) For the boxes and bags of prints you have from the pre-digital days, possibly scattered all over your house, gather them all in one place.
2) Next, commit the time to sorting through and organizing them.
3) Once organized, put them in an archival storage box that is easily accessible to grab in case of emergency. 
4) Another option with prints is to hire a reputable company like FotoBridge to scan them all to digital so they can be backed up along with the rest. 

For your digital photo collection, it’s common advice now to back up your digital files in at least three places. Two of those should be off site and at least one as far removed from you geographically as possible should disaster strike.

Here are several options for backing up your digital files:

1) Use an external hard drive (EHD) like PictureKeeper, that makes it ridiculously easy to collect ALL the digital images from your computer. Then keep the EHD either in a fire-proof safe, a safe deposit box or even send to a friend to store for you.
2) Use a cloud storage service like Carbonite or This Life which will cover you for remote location storage.
3) Burn your images to archival-quality DVDs like these from MAM-A and, again, put them in a fire-proof safe, a safe deposit box or a friend's house. 

I'm in this business because I care about protecting your family's cherished memories. I don't want to see another family in tears because they've lost everything, including their photos. I implore you to develop a back-up plan for your photo collection in the event of a catastrophe. We never want to think it could happen to us, but there's no harm in planning for the worst. If tragedy were to strike, you’ll be crying about your lost “stuff,” but feeling grateful that your photos are safe off site and can be recovered with ease.

This post has joined the Let's Get Organized Blog Hop over at Dinosaur Superhero Mommy's site.

Do you have piles and piles and bins and bins of your children’s artwork cluttering up your house? I sure do and my daughter has only been in preschool for two years!

Here’s a great way to preserve your budding artist’s masterpieces:

1. Scan or photograph all their paintings, sculptures and drawings.
2. Either make prints and put them in a traditional photo album or upload them and design a digital photo book.
3. Enjoy those masterpieces forever in a book on your shelf vs. a bin full of clutter.

Take a look at Shutterfly’s children’s art-themed book called Mini Masterpieces. They also have several more professional-looking artist portfolio themes. Once you set your mind to it, the project won’t take as long as you think. Then when you have a beautiful photo book in your hands with all those special memories, you’ll feel less guilty throwing all their bulky art in the trash.

Did you hear me? I just said, “Throw their art in the trash.” Of course, you might want to hold on to a few key masterpieces that are just too hard to part with, but for the majority of drawings and paintings, they are now preserved for all eternity both digitally and in a printed book, so belly up to the bin and start tossing!

(I must admit this is easier said than done. I completed the first book of my daughter’s art several months ago and haven't had the courage to send the original art dumpster diving just yet.)

And don’t forget what a treasure this is to your children. My 4-year-old may not realize the effort it took to create the book, but she sure does appreciate it. She thanks me profusely for her art book and is so very proud of it. She’s gained a valuable sense of self-worth knowing Mommy thought her art was special enough to create an entire book of it. And that, in itself, is priceless.

This post is linked to the blog hop at A Dish Of Daily Life.

If you’re like me and have family and friends abroad, or even across the country, a shared site can be a great way to stay connected and keep everyone up-to-date on your family’s story. While family blogs are popular (and I follow a few), I prefer tighter control over the security of my family's personal information. I don’t want any random person in cyberspace having access to photos of my children or knowing every minute detail of our daily lives. And due to ever changing privacy rules, I am also wary of how much I share on Facebook. Not to mention, and I know it’s hard to believe, but I still know quite a few people who refuse to participate on Facebook, including my husband.

So when I became pregnant with my first baby, I knew we had to find a way to share pictures and updates with my husband’s family in Ireland that was secure. I did a lot of research and decided to create a Shutterfly Shared Site. Once created, your site can be password-protected then you can add members, so you stay in control of who has access to your information. The sites have sections for photo albums, journal entries, video postings and a calendar to name a few. Of course, I was much more diligent about journal postings with my first-born, but at least I’ve managed to keep up with photo albums and funny videos of the kids since my second child was born. If you’re looking for a more private way to share family photos and stories, then a Shutterfly Shared Site may be right for you!

Disclaimer: I have received nothing from Shutterfly for this post, I am simply a satisfied customer.