Raise your hand if you have a huge box, or three, of loose photos needing to find a proper home. Without the help of my dear friend and professional organizer, Elizabeth Jones with Nest & Transformation, I would have never been able to downsize my photos and mementos from the huge cardboard boxes into seven neat and tidy binders. Elizabeth readily took the boxes and went to work.
First, she had me order personalized binders in a pretty pattern with numbers on the spine to help me know which binder to source depending on the subject. I found these custom mint and gold binders on Zazzle. Elizabeth suggested ordering at least two more than I needed so I have extra binders for the future that way they will all match.
Next Elizabeth ordered plastic three-ring binder pages for a variety of sizes of photos (you can find all these suggestions in my Amazon Home Organization store here):
- Trading Card photo pages for school photos, concert/sports tickets
- 3 1/12 x 5 photo pages
- 4 x 6 photo pages
- 5 x 7 photo pages
- And 8 1/12 x 11 sheet protectors for love letters, certificates, full-page recipes, playbills, and travel memorabilia.
Elizabeth sorted through all my photos and memorabilia organizing them by subject – like my school photos in one book, photos of family members in one, and so on.
Then Elizabeth returned the finished binders for me to store neatly in my closet. When I want to use a photo for my blog or enjoy it, I can easily find what I need.
And the best thing about three-ring binders is that when you find a forgotten stack, you don’t have to redo the whole album. Just insert the pages in the right spots. Having all my photos neatly organized in one space feels so good. How easy is that?! Please reach out to Elizabeth for her help on residential and commercial organization projects. Her team will do just about anything and with a big smile!
Hospitality is in my DNA. I founded Home with a Twist, a daughter’s twist on her mother’s traditions, in memory of my mother to celebrate her life and the gifts she shared with me. Mother loved to celebrate life’s occasions – big and small.
Thank you for this ! So need to get the photos out of boxes and into something that like this- and it looks doable and also pretty. I’m ordering all of it.
Thank you Kim for commenting! I just love this system of organizing my photos. Makes it so easy to find something. Enjoy.
Can she come to Nebraska and organize mine?! So. Many. Boxes.
That is so funny! She does travel so maybe someday she can do that for you!
I was so happy to come across this, because it is exactly what I am in the middle of doing right now, and this reinforced to me that I am on the right track. I am combining my parents’ and my own photo collections, and believe me, it is a HUGE project! The biggest difference in what I am doing compared to what Elizabeth did for you, is that I am arranging them chronologically. They cover everything from about 1900 until now. Also, I have chosen to use 12 x 12 three-ring binders, which will also take a big variety of pocket protectors, and I can easily mix them with sheets made for 9 x 12 binders, too. I expect to fill about a dozen big binders by the time I’m done. I have a question: did you ever feel the need to label your photos from the front, for the person looking through the album; if so, what’s a good way to do this, that is attractive? Thanks!
Hi Patricia! I’m thrilled you found me and my post on organizing treasured photos. Your question about labeling them is a good one! My first thought is to create a Master index of all your photos with the context of the photo included. You could put a tiny circle label in the corner with a number corresponding to the index description. Let me ask Elizabeth and I’ll follow up. Please show me your final results! You can email [email protected]. Good luck!