From A Woman's Perspective: June 1st, 2024

Monday Jun 03rd, 2024

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A picture is worth a thousand words...

Good morning, Marilyn. In polling my clients, I have found that there are a few common categories of surplus items that people battle with. Clothing, books, papers, and photos. In past segments we have given resources for donating surplus clothing and books, and twice a year, we help our clients by providing a free paper shredding event. So that takes care of the first three, but what to do with the boxes and picture albums full of photos?

In our popular workbook, “The Decluttering Battle Plan,” we outline our straightforward five-step strategy for conquering clutter. It is designed to get you started decluttering in the most efficient way possible. Photos, on the other hand, are almost guaranteed to sidetrack your efforts to declutter. Their emotional pull is almost irresistible, and before you know it, hours have gone by and you are no more decluttered than when you started. My advice is to set them aside and deal with them as their own special category. Here is my advice for dealing with family photos.

1.Reduce: By sorting through the piles, you’ll immediately notice that not all old photos are worth the storage space it takes to keep them. Before the days of auto-focus “point and click cameras”, our picture-taking skills might have left something to be desired. Time to pull out and discard:

  • Duplicates
  • Fuzzy, out of focus, or heads chopped off
  • Landscapes with no people
  • Portraits of people you don’t know, remember

    The goal is to keep only the best, and get rid of the rest. 

2.Annotate: While your memory is fresh, why not take a minute and add a brief note on the back of important photos so their significance is captured.

  • Identify people
  • Guestimate time and place
  • Perhaps add a bit about the context: “This is when Grampa won the pie-eating contest at the church picnic.”

    This will help whoever next receives the photos to understand this precious piece of family.

3.Compile

  • Follow the basic principle of sorting like with like: To the best of your ability, start sorting the remnants of your photo collection by era or person. Perhaps all your childhood photos from Winnipeg in one box, and all your teen photos from Toronto in another. Or all of Auntie Susan or Grandma. Maybe you even want to go the extra step and arrange them chronologically. 

4.Curate

  • As you’re sorting, start gift collections for children, nieces & nephews. Photos are an invaluable link to the past that future generations wouldn’t otherwise enjoy.

5.Digitize: By transferring photos to digital media you can ensure safe, long-term storage.

Start by taking photos of photos on your smartphone. This is the simplest way to start the sharing and storage process. Here are other ideas for preserving the memories, with links to helpful articles. 

If this all sounds like a foreign language, ask someone under 40 to help. You might even request it as a birthday gift to have your photos digitized by a professional company. These companies scan, digitize and back-up your family’s old photos, slides and home movies. Some even come to you, collect everything, digitize it then provide you with the digital copies. It’s that simple.

No doubt family photos are a treasure to be kept, curated and passed on. With a bit of time and effort, they can bring joy to you and be a blessing to those around you. 

For more information about decluttering, you can request our workbook, The Decluttering Battle Plan, by calling me, Sharon, at 416-460-5636 or by visiting smartrealtysolution.com.

Please also visit our website for past blog posts with resources on a variety of downsizing and decluttering topics.

Like everything at SMART Realty Solutions, they are available free of cost or obligation.

 

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