Panicked and Picture-less
Advice for the Memorabilia-Challenged
© Vicki Norris, Restoring Order®, 2003 

   Printable Version

The month of May is host to National Scrapbook Day. This is a day when ambitious, creative “scrapbookers” world-wide convene to work on their memory albums.  

Crafting beautiful photo albums is such a growing phenomenon in America that the noun “scrapbook” has actually become a verb (“scrapbooking”) when describing the act of compiling albums. Scrapbooking stores and experts are cropping up (no pun intended) all over the place. 

For those of us who struggle with photo and memorabilia backlog, I want to share with you a recent request for advice I received.  

I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I did, and will learn from my response that there ARE options for the rest of us. 

--Vicki Norris
Owner, Restoring Order®
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Dear Restoring Order®:  

I need some organizing help.  No rush, since I'm already 20 years behind, but how do I begin my photo albums?  I'm so paralyzed on wanting an album for each kid, plus one for me, plus one for my husband, plus another for "all," that I don't know how to begin the sorting.  Do I set up an accordion file folder for each kid and number the years birth to 16 and just throw in some representative photos for each child?  What do I do with the unused photos?  (No, don't you dare say toss them.  I'll have heart failure!) What do I do with the pictures that are so good or representative that they should be blown up to a larger size? 

I have photos from most years crammed in a shoe box, labeled by year, but not in order necessarily by month.  I have a zillion empty albums:  some with Hawaiian covers; some with school memories covers; some color-coded for each child.  All albums are empty. I have pictures pulled up sideways to remind me to get the negatives made into 5 extra prints.  Sometimes I actually have made the extra copies so I have jackets full of multiple copies of "must have" photos.  I have tons of empty picture frames.  

On the topic of vacations, I have (somewhere) bags of photos from a Hong Kong trip (almost twenty years ago), and before!  And, this does not mention the bags of souvenirs (one for each trip) of mementoes like napkins, postcards, trinkets, etc. from each location. We’ve been twice to Disneyland; three times to Hawaii; London; Paris; Sun Valley; etc. etc. and I intend to put each trip in appropriate scrapbooks, again, one for each kid, plus one for me. Heaven help me there!   

I have no idea what all that cute scrapbook paper and borders and hole punches and funny scissors and colored glue pens is for. To make perfect pages?  If I buy all that stuff, what will happen if I glue down an item or photo and then change my mind later?  EKKKKKKK. I am stuck and cannot move forward. Should I just put loose stuff in scrapbook pages and glue down later? Should I use loose pages and not worry right now about them being in the correct order to tell the story?  Am I worrying this to death?  

How do I begin?  I've told myself that even if one kid gets the "best" of the double prints (sometimes I take two slightly different poses of the same general scene therewith yielding 4 photos) that at least each kid would have something in an album.  But I can't seem to begin. I am almost to the point where I could set aside an hour a day to begin this long overdue project, but I can't seem to get beyond my panic. I've even taken up ironing instead of addressing this photo and scrapbook issue, so you know I'm terrified! 

Any tips for me?  Is this a common problem?  I really think it is deeply psychological, in that if I ever get everything up to date, I'll die. I probably need counseling. 

Am I hopeless? 

Signed, 

Hi, Panicked and Picture-less in Anchorage, 

First off, you should know that I recently hired a scrapbooking expert to give me a "historical makeover," as I'm calling it. She took apart all my old albums with my ex, six in total, and eliminated all the stuff I no longer wanted, and created one simple album with the memories I did want to keep. She was a genius, and created a fabulous album for me, with no sign of my dysfunctional life! (Don't you love it?) Some people couldn't believe I was going to pay good money for this, (it cost $10/page, including materials, which I thought was a steal) but I think it was a fabulous best investment. It freed me up to concentrate on the albums I DID want to work on. It unblocked my creativity, and I recently finished my first album in years. So, you might want to consider doing a web search in your area, or going to the phone book to look for someone like this. My gal has a website at www.personalscrapper.com, and she takes national clients. She simply handles the needs over the phone, and receives the photos through the mail. I'd also try calling local scrapbook stores (if you have any--they're a big phenomenon on the West Coast) and asking for a recommendation for someone like this. Perhaps this person could give you some direction, especially at key points in the process. 

OK, if that doesn't suit you, then you are going to have to tackle this yourself. Don't panic. Realize that each child does not have to have an album for each year of his/her life. Accept that, as much as you cherish every photo, your children will not be nearly as impressed as you think they should be with an album you create on their behalf. (They still have to get through college; they don't want to lug those albums with them). Since they will be away in college, you also have some time to get these done. This can be fun if you don't self-impose a strict deadline.  

Don't let those scalloped-edged scissors pierce your heart with fear. In fact, don't buy any scrapbooking supplies until a lot later in the process, there will be plenty of time for enhancing your photos. Last piece of advice, throw away anything from Martha on this subject or you will give up before you start. 

Put the vacation albums out of your mind. In fact, put all albums out of your mind. My recommendation is to begin by sorting. I think a chronological pre-sort is an excellent place to begin. I agree that an hour a day would give you a dedicated period of time to work on this. Set up a few tables in a spare room to work on this, and try to get all photos into the room. Then, you're off to the races, and the sorting begins. You can line up boxes (I like using the lids to paper ream boxes--they're deep but not too huge) on the tables or on the floor. Then, write the approximate dates on each. They can read, "Pre- 1985," "1985-1986," and so on. Or, if you don't have dates on your photos to help with this process, you can simply label the boxes with major events like, "Pre-children,"  “Baby’s first year," "Kids--elementary," "Kids-middle school," and so-on. Events and trips that happened during those times would just go in the right box to start. Be sure to make a box that is labeled "?". In this box, put all photos whose date you don't know. Then, when you've finished with your sort (which will take a long time), you can come back to the "?" box, and resolve the mysteries from there. By then, some of the photos may remind you of others, and may fall right into place. 

After you've finished the chronological sort, and found general "homes" for the dateless photos, it's time to add the memorabilia related to those years. Bulky things won't fit, of course, but most things, like maps, pins, concert programs, napkins, tickets, and coasters will fit just fine. After adding memorabilia, I like to sort each box again, one at a time. You can apply the same sort, but on a smaller scale within each box, sorting into photo boxes, using the tabbed guides provided in the photo boxes to mark months, seasons, or major events. Don't get too caught up in worrying about the exact dates. Seasons and events work just as well. I use boxes that are a hair bigger than the photo boxes, because I've found my memorabilia fits in a little better.  

I caution against feeling compelled to make an album for each child for every year. I have lots of friends who have made each child a birth to one year "baby" album, but all other albums are "family" albums. You can always color copy your own "family" albums later for each child. (Try not to be heart-broken if they don't care about the "family" albums, and feign interest in their "baby" album.) Many women I know have huge albums for their first child's baby book, but run out of steam, and their last child's album is testimony to an abandoned hobby. It may be worthwhile to discuss with each child what is important to them AFTER you show them the boxes of photos and memorabilia, but BEFORE you've put the photos in albums. 

Only after each box is organized to the point where you've grouped like photos together should you begin thinking about albums and supplies. At that point, you will be feeling quite confident about your new organizing skills, and you won't be as intimidated by your piles of albums. Simply stack up all the albums you currently. Shuffling through each box of photos, make a list of each type of album you'd like to make, and match the empty albums available to your list.  

Your list might look something like this:
           Baby albums for all three children
           Family album for every two years
           Birthday albums for each child
           Cumulative vacation albums--as many as will fit in one album
           All Hawaii vacations
OR, lower the level of complication, and go with one family album per year (or however many years you can get in one album.) I think it is unnecessary to duplicate all those photos so everyone can have their own album. You will burn out if you attempt to create five albums for every year (by the time your eldest is 18, that would be 90 albums.) Vacation albums, too, have a way of multiplying like rabbits. If you can find a scrapbook consultant, it might be helpful to bring her in at this point to help with the decision about what albums to make, and how to go about doing so. 

Whatever you do, enjoy walking down memory lane as you begin this process. Remember that you are not tackling a project, you are beginning a new hobby. You are preserving memories for posterity. You are the keeper of your family's history, and this is important work. Make an hour long date with yourself, complete with coffee and biscotti, every day, to work on this new hobby. Some people tune in to their favorite talk show while they work. A lot of your questions will be answered as you go, and the sorting process will help clarify what is important, and what may not be important anymore.  

Good luck to Panicked and Picture-less in Anchorage. 

Best regards,
Vicki Norris
Restoring Order®
 

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