You know what I mean! Boxes and boxes of old photos. Love letters from your sweetheart! Kindergarten artwork from years ago! Once worn, bridesmaid dresses and wedding gowns!! Inherited stuff, like books, jewelry, and grandma’s coveted sets of crystal and china.
It’s a lot to consider. What to do with these one-of-a-kind sentimental keepsakes?
It’s such a daunting task, and so overwhelming that we’d rather do anything else than this.
That’s why I’m here. To help guide you towards ENJOYING your TREA- SURES, rather than cursing all this stuff taking over your attic, garage and every space imaginable!
Action must be taken. For this month’s column, let’s look at your sentimental photograph collections. Pictures take up space. Whether in digital or paper form, they affect us physically and mentally. Emotions are involved: Joy, grief and bittersweet memories that may last a lifetime.
Here’s my process you can practice to pare down on pictures. Remember, it took this long to collect these pictures, so it will take a few sessions to go through your inventory and make sense of it all.
David’s Top 10 Tips for Decluttering your Photographs
1. ELIMINATE DUPES – Spread out your pictures on a large, well-lit table. As you sift through the pix, eliminate the duplicates. You know, those eight or nine sunset sequence photos for example.
2. EDIT PIX – Toss out the really obvious bad pictures. The ones of Uncle Henry’s nostrils, the bad flash surprise face photos, and the really outof-focus ones.
3. START SORTING – Be judicious and discard the pix that don’t represent your best work.
4. SORTING by DATE and by EVENT – Start grouping like events and timeline photos together. A wedding, a summer vacation, a Fourth of July BBQ, whatever you have, place them in groups that are easier to identify and therefore more manageable.
5. DISPLAY – Imagine that you might actually find some gems you want to share with others!!! Replace photos in frames with some new ones. Freshen up the look.
6. DISPLAY a Collage – With a wall of “corkboard wallpaper” (sold by the roll), I’ve pinned lots of pictures that told a story … of family, of love, of travel, of art and so forth.
7. Making a collage wall for your home can be inspirational. Consider creating some framed pix collages as gifts for friends and family. (Think Holiday season!)
8. PUT PIX BACK – With pix reviewed, revered and edited, you may rebox your photos and label them. Or you can assemble photobooks and framed pix.
9. BE WISE AND DIGITIZE – In Boca, I use Forever Studios. They transfer your paper into digital format for you. Or scan the pix yourself and transfer Smartphone pix to your computer files. Digitizing your photos is the way to go.
10. TAKE A BREAK – Start slowly to get best results. You can enjoy revisiting the memories as you decide what to do with each photo. But take a break, it can be a drain on the brain. Set up specific project time and share with a loved one willing to take that sentimental journey with you.
11. ENJOY THE JOURNEY – You’ve collected a lot of memories, so enjoy the process, the reflection and appreciating your pix.
Next month we’ll take a look at other sentimental items and what best to do with them. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to contact me at 561-706-7779 or David@APlusClutterClearing.com