If you’ve heard of Marie Kondo, you know about her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” The worldwide bestseller has people purging possessions that no longer bring them joy.
But the task is made harder when it comes to personal items such as photos — and even more difficult when the people in them are no longer with us. Often, there are so many photos it can be overwhelming. But these photos are windows into your family’s and farm’s past.
Identify Photos, Spark Joy
Over the next month, families will celebrate the holiday season. No doubt, talk will turn to what’s been a difficult year for many. Use the opportunity to create a wonderful and productive distraction.
Grab a small pile of family photos. Pass them around or show them via a virtual gathering. Who’s in the photo? Who can guess the year it was taken? Make it a game!
Write down as much as you can on the back of the photo with a pencil or acid-free pen (regular ink pens can damage photos). Then, you can separate the photos by family and place them in photo storage boxes.
But what if you don’t want to store thousands of paper photos? Purchase a photo scanning app and enlist a tech-savvy teenager to scan photos and upload them to that mysterious digital cloud. You can go in and label the now digital files.
After scanning, you can store the paper photos, give them to family members or toss them. Now you have a backup in case you lose the photos or your computer crashes.
So, let the magic begin. Pull out those photos and start sharing memories by starting a new holiday tradition — one that honors the past, while preserving those memories for the future.
Tips to Protect Family Photos
- Don’t store them in damp basements, garages or hot attics. Keep them away from food or water, which attract insects and rodents.
- Don’t store photos in so-called “magnetic albums.”
- The glue on the pages can damage photos.
- Don’t use glue or adhesive to mount photos. Use sheet protectors or albums that are acid free.
- Mount photos in albums using photo corners. Use corners made from acid free paper or plastic such as polyester, polypropylene or polyethylene.
- Make digital copies of your photos and share them with friends and family so you have a backup.
