Need ideas for storing thousands of Photos
 

I have thousands of photographs stored in 3 large filling cabinet drawers & other nooks & craneys around the house & i need ideas on how to make photo albums to keep them dry & safe as i dont have negetives or copies of the photos as i burnt them as they all go mixed up over the years,anybody who has any ideas please feel free to share your ideas as i badly need some good ideas,thanks a million.... bikerchick

I know the feeling of coming down with photos. I have loads also from over the years - lots of them now safely in photo albums - but still hundreds more loose and needing albums.

photos
 

Your best bet is to get at least the most tresured scanned into your computer and then copies made onto CD's.

You can also then use a company like www.myphotobook.ie or Lidl's and Aldi do equivalents and make little booklets with captions.

I paid about €15 for a book. They let you down load a program and it is simply then a case of drag and drop.

loads of photos
 

hi
i seen on a diy show once and they put loads of photo on a kitchen/dining room table and put a sheet of 6m glass on top with polished edges for safety. which made a great talking point when at the table... you could do that with some... or scanning them into your computer and storing them on cd is a great way to store...
hope this helps

Scanning
 

I think that the best way is to clean, scan and catalogue them, on a computer!! There are lots of packages out there. This way they are airtight, waterproof etc. Store them on Archival CD's, they last 100 years so should be good enough for future generations........ we live in hope!

It'll be a mammoth task but so worth it i believe! Good luck with the task.

I have ideas
 

Hi bikerchick (love the name). I have several ideas of how to keep them safe.

But I need to know.

Do you intend to just store them or would you rather display them?

You could of course scan them onto a computer and then save them onto a DVD and look at them on a DVD player. But of course you still have the originals to store.

Lat me know if it's storing them or displaying them you have in mind and I'll help as best I can.

Robert.

photos
 

Hi biker chick

I have load of photos too and I had them all in boxes, I pulled them all out and picked my favourate, then I arranged them on the floor and made a collarge and framed them, they look lovely but takes a lot of time, every time I go past my frames I stop, its great to look at something or someone that means a lot rather than have them filed away.

coby12

Need ideas for storing thousands of Photos
 

Biker Chick. I almost cried when I heard you had burned negatives! I would advise anyone never never ever get rid negatives. This was done in my family by someone thinking they were doing the right thing after an elderly person died. We now have very little in the way of photos of that person- its a tragedy. As I'm interested in family history I would always suggest using family albums. TKMaxx do lovely ones very cheaply. Get the ones that need photo corners - I don't recommend the sticky albums. If you could put the names, dates, and place name on the back of the photos it would help or in a label under each photo. Yes, it can be a big job but so worth it in the end. When people get older they can forget who someone was or where a photo was taken.

Some people have taken up the American hobby of scrapbooking but I am not in favour of this myself as what they do is print out a second photo and stick it on a page decorated with lovely paper, flowers, memorabilia etc. It's an expensive hobby and you actually end up with double amount of photos. I'd just prefer to be able to look at the photos which are the most important thing. Although scrapbooking works for special family events, like first day at school, weddings, special holidays, etc. Its just not for me. Or the other simpler answer - shoeboxes!!

But a scrapbook page has the story associated with the photo written up on/with the page as well. A lovely way for others who do not know the story behind the photo to relive the memories as well. I got one for a recent birthday and everyone at the party could read about my life rather than just looking at photos and not understanding the importance of the events in them. Yes, scrapbooking is not for everyone but it doesn't have to be expensive.

scrapbooking
 

I have thousands of photos too.Alot are stored in boxes but I also got big albums that hold 400 pics in tescos over the years.Great birthday and christmas presents to recieve.
My hobby is scrapbooking and card making.I've made a few scrapbook pages and the most important thing is to make sure any papers used are acid free.This is to make sure that photos last longer.
If you do put your photos onto your computer make sure you copy it onto a disk.My sisters computer crashed and she lost everything including a photo of my son with my dad not long before my dad passed away.You can never get memories like that back.
Scrapbooking is expensive because we live in rip off ireland but alot of hobbies are expensive and its building up your stash over time that s enjoyable too.

Regards
Scrabble

Photos-a Poem
 

LET ME GET THIS RIGHT..YOU BURNT THE NEGS AND NOW... YOU NEED TO STORE THE DREGS? THIS COLLECTION MUST BE NICE,OTHERWISE WHY SEEK ADVISE..FROM PEOPLE YOU ONLY MEET THRU THESE PAGES AND HOPE YOUR GUILT IT ASSUAGES; TO THINK SUCH PRECIOUS MOMENTS CAUGHT IN TIME.WERE TREATED WITH DISDAIN SUBLIME,UNTIL AT LAST THEY MEANT TO YOU WHAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO.
SORRY BOUT THAT,BUT HAVE YOU TRIED THE COLLAGE IDEA?
IT WORKED FOR MY AUNTIE(HER NAME IS RHEA).
THE WAY IT WORKS, .. GET A LARGE FRAME; WOODIES HAVE
THEM-THEY'RE NOT ALL THE SAME-THEN SELECT SAY FIFTY
OF YOUR FAVOURITE SNAPS-FRAME THE MEMORIES-THEN RELAPSE
TO THE TIME THEY WERE TAKEN,THE JOY UNFOLDING AS
THE DEAR PEOPLE WITHIN YOU WERE ONCE AGAIN HOLDING.
THIS WORKS A TREAT,YOU CAN CHANGE THEM AROUND
AND THE SMILES WITHIN WILL ONCE MORE BE FOUND.
Love.X

Mrsl - point taken regarding expense. I was thinking about the printing of the photos - it runs into a lotta ink.

Scrabble - I'm a cardmaker myself and source most of my 'stuff' on the internet - Ireland is a joke when it comes to craft supplies. Maybe we should have a separate forum for our kind of crafting!?

Hi TickTock,
I don't buy stuff off the internet.I don't own a credit card.Really glad I never got one.(I've seen too many people get into heavy debt ).
Anyway, next year we are planning a trip to America and my empty suitcase is for crafting goodies.I CAN'T WAIT.
America has some beautiful stuff or I've bought off QVC in England.They take postal orders.
A site I love for scrapbooking is called twopeasinabucket.com .They also show altered art which sites like jumble town is a great source to get things for this.
I'l try to upload a photo later of a scrapbook page to show the way I love to display photos.

Regards
Scrabble

I use www.madaboutcards.com for craft items. I find them very good.

Need ideas for storing thousands of Photos
 

Mrsl and Scrabble - thanks for your replies. I've heard about those site all right. I have a few favourite sellers on Ebay and I've got some good deals there. However, we've gone way off the original subject here so I'll list my favourite sites for you on a separate post under 'Papercrafts' in a little while. Chat later.