Decluttering 2013, the saga continues ...

couldsavemore_2

TheDoolallyDilly wrote: »

Ooh, well done Becky for sorting your photos. I did it last year (and blogged about it on my neglected blog!). Only my photos though, not inherited ones. I'm quite tough when decluttering, and all duplicate, blurred, bad and unflattering (to the person in the photo) pictures were binned. So were photos of people I didn't know. If it's any reassurance, the sky didn't fall in. All negatives were binned, as I'd never even looked at them.


I put the photos I kept into new albums, all properly labelled. It was a HUGE job!!

this a task I must get on and do I have lots of empty albums just a case of making time to do it. I'm a bit like you i dont mind throwing photos away if they are not very good etc or lots of the same thing.

Becky_2

wik wrote: »

ohh Becky, that is a job i have to do.. but shall be hard!! My mum started to do it with all family pics , but then got ill we lost her nearly 2 years ago and is hard as they still all in the piles she left them in - and worse thing is she never got to write in pencil who a lot were...

Mrsgibbs... its taken me a while to get over that evil norovirus thing!!! I didnt have Christmas day went down with it in the morning.. :@

Wik, I am so sorry to hear about your mum.

For me it has been an emotional journey too to go through my old photo albums. I started it in November, some photo albums have been really easy to sort out and others have taken ages. Before I started I thought about it for over a year feeling guilty for wanting to throw away photos of memories that no longer means anything to me (i.e friends I am no longer friends with etc). I have only done this task when I have been in the right frame of mind and have stopped if it has been too emotional. In my photo albums I have also incorporated special Christmas cards etc that I have received over the years. All the photos that were blurry etc. are now in the bin.

For the photograps where you don't know who the people are. Ask relatives, friends of your mum etc to see if they know who they are. I have one photo album with just black and white photos of my great grand parents and their cousins etc and that is one of my favourite albums because life was so different then. There are still some gaps of names in that album that I will ask my aunt about when I see her next time.

All the best if you do go through your photo albums one day.

Becky_2

Goldiegirl wrote: »

The photograph albums are a job that I have to do at some point.

I also have a load of loose photos as well - I want to get them at least into some sort of order.

These photos are from my mum and dad and my OH's parents too.

Some of these people in the photos aren't known to us. I have a real problem with throwing a photo of a person away.

A few years ago I bought some old photos at a charity shop, because I couldn't bear the thought of the people in the pictures being 'thrown away'.

However, I've since sold them on eBay, and people are keen to buy them.

I intend trying to sell some of my unknown people on eBay.

All the photos will be a huge project, it'll keep be busy for a while.

Goldie girle, good luck when you do start sorting our your photo albums. It has never occured to me that you could ebay photos and that other people wants to buy them.

I felt the same about throwing away photos of people but it feels great to have done it. In the end I asked myself if that person didn't turn out to be such a great friend and it's giving me a negative emotion to look at the photos why would I want to keep it? Seeing those photos going in the bin felt great in the end. I haven't been so ruthless with photos of family though, I have a half sister that I thought was a great friend who turned out to be a complete liar yet I have kept photos of her. I have learnt a lot about myself going through my photo albums.

charlies_mum

Snow here, so not going out. Hopefully a good day decluttering and listing on Ebay.

Think DS and grandchildren may come round later, so that will be a good [STRIKE]excuse[/STRIKE] reason to take a break.

Went to Dunelm Mill yesterday and bought two new bedsets half price in the sale, so they have come in, but really needed them.

Watched something yesterday afternoon that I haven't seen before, called something like Storage Hoarders. It was interesting that some of the things she was going to skip sold for good money. Just check before you throw anything away.

Becky_2

Gers wrote: »

ALL my photos have been scanned into the PC and the paper copies disposed off! My Dad's army photos went to his regiment museum which is really nice because they conserve them and also put them on display - not all of course but I assume they rotate exhibits to show particular aspects of the army life.

I have found that having them on the PC and other additional gadgets means that they are looked at more frequently and as they can be enlarged more detail can be seen. Photoshop can be used to get rid of any white marks or other flaws which have happened because of age.

Just some other things less to dust but all the more treasured.

No decluttering happening here today but I am gearing myself up for Tuesday evening!

Gers, I have thought about doing this as well with some extra special photos. If the PC or additional gadgets stop working, haven't you then lost your photos? Sorry, if this sounds stupid but I am not very technically minded.

Becky_2

couldsavemore wrote: »

this a task I must get on and do I have lots of empty albums just a case of making time to do it. I'm a bit like you i dont mind throwing photos away if they are not very good etc or lots of the same thing.

Couldsavemore, good luck when you do go through your photo albums

TheDoolallyDilly

Becky_2 wrote: »

I have only done this task when I have been in the right frame of mind and have stopped if it has been too emotional.

Yes, definitely be kind to yourself. I realise my post sounded a bit heartless - but lots of memories get stirred up, so I broke the job into very small pieces, only doing an hour or so at a time, and not doing it if I didn't feel like I was in the right place emotionally. Of course, there were happy memories too.

charlies_mum wrote: »

Watched something yesterday afternoon that I haven't seen before, called something like Storage Hoarders. It was interesting that some of the things she was going to skip sold for good money. Just check before you throw anything away.

I LOVE that programme - I record it now so I can eat lunch/iron/whatever and watch it! Although some things they have stored are worth 'something' quite a lot of it has been stored at vast expense for several years, so they only really get a little bit of money back. And a lot of it is, quite honestly, carp!

Fizzbitz

Morning - nowhere near where I would like to be as have been laid up with a virus for last couple of weeks. Feeling better but my strength is still low. Nevertheless the following have now left the building:

15 plastic bottles (r/c)
2 christmas teddies (c/s)
starry tinsel (c/s)
tree topper (c/s)
small table top tree (c/s)
box of paper/card (r/c)
2 bags of carriers (r/c)
7 books (freegle)
broken hanger
used notebook (r/c)
assignment book (r/c)
wine rack (freegle)
dead kettle
broken door lock
used inkcart (r/c)
frayed kettle lead

Hope everyone is keeping warm.

Fizz

DundeeDoll

Wow reading all your posts makes me feel quite lazy, but it's saturday and winter has defo arrived. Plan for today make a start on dumping bedroom (as in the potential guest room which is currently a dumping ground, not a bedroom we're gonna dump lol). Also make sure all stuff sorted for cs gets there. Doing fine at RC and binning as i go along, but CS more difficult as I work fulltime. Oh and some marking, making a stew from mystery meat in freezer, making a loaf of ciabatta, and a nice soak in the bath. In reverse order

Gers

Becky_2 wrote: »

Gers, I have thought about doing this as well with some extra special photos. If the PC or additional gadgets stop working, haven't you then lost your photos? Sorry, if this sounds stupid but I am not very technically minded.

I do regular back ups of them and also back up the back up. For important ones I also have them on a disc. The risk of losing them must be about the same as if you had a fire or flood - thinking especially of the extreme weather conditions last year.

Certainly my elderly mother really enjoys whizzing her way around family photos more and she also looks at them more often as they are very accessible now. However, whatever works for you is best!!