The KonMarie method

fiftyeighter_2

Well today I have been sorting photo,s. I am not doing anything in order though, I don't have the book yet.
I have hundreds of photo,s and am finding this part quite hard. I hate throwing them away. I feel as though I am throwing the actual person away. I know, I'm mad.
Well I have been good and am now half way through. I'm leaving it now for a couple of days so I can regain my ruthfullness.
Is anyone else having trouble with photo,s.

astarte

Thank you for sharing!

GreyQueen

fiftyeighter wrote: »

Well today I have been sorting photo,s. I am not doing anything in order though, I don't have the book yet.
I have hundreds of photo,s and am finding this part quite hard. I hate throwing them away. I feel as though I am throwing the actual person away. I know, I'm mad.
Well I have been good and am now half way through. I'm leaving it now for a couple of days so I can regain my ruthfullness.
Is anyone else having trouble with photo,s.

I tip I got from Don Aslett's books was to try offering the pics of people you don't particularly want to the people themselves, assuming you are still in touch. If they're in them and don't want them, and you don't want them either................?

On a cull of photies I found 5 which I took in a friend-of-a-friend's back garden one afternoon. Most of the people present were very slight acquaintances, but dear friends of one of the women, whose address I did know.

So I stuck them in an envelope with a short note to say I thought she might want them, bunged 2 first class stamps on them and consigned them to the post.

I got a lovely card back - two of the women pictured had since died, although they were only in their fifties. One of them she had no photos of at all, the other was the photographer of their set, so although she'd known her for 30-odd years, she had very few photos of her because she was normally the one behind the camera. She was delighted to have those pics and I felt all warm on the inside.

On the flip side, an elderley relation by marriage had kept a pic of her ex SIL for about 50 years after she'd last seen her. Then she ditched it, a handful of years before that woman's long-lost daughter traced her family. I shall probably never see a pic of my bio-Gran, now.

mamaninie

penguine wrote: »

Giving them away for others to read before they started to disintegrate would have been a better use of the resources that went into making them...

thats is a quite a substantial observation - a learning point for me certainly

I've got lots of nursing and science textbooks that would have been much more useful for the books abroad thing or the charity shop if they were more recent. sadly I think its a bit unethical to send out of date technical books - much better to donate money to get those students the internet..... but they could of been of use if I hadn't hung on to them for no purpose other than acquisition and the feeling that I'd spent good money on them

mamaninie

fiftyeighter - konmari says do photos and those other personal sentimental items LAST because of the emotional hardness of it all. by the time you've practiced discarding on all your less emotional household items you'll be up to Konmari ninja level 10 on the decision making scale and it will all feel a lot easier

jinny

I have tons of photos I have wanted to sort them for ages
They are just in boxes I do need to get them out and preserve them properly.
I have loads of rolls of film not developed and negatives
Any advice on how to organise them would be most appreciated

7roland8

Have done my pics in albums year by year. Got some negatives just in a folder.
Some pics I have scanned and made a movie for each son from birth to graduation - but will still keep the paper copies too.


Also scanning in ones of myself now to make a slideshow of my life with favourite music added.


Could not destroy pictures - as mentioned you never know when a relative or yourself might want one. In the big scheme of things they are quite small to keep and what I would try and grab in a fire - irreplaceable.

GreyQueen

jinny wrote: »

I have tons of photos I have wanted to sort them for ages
They are just in boxes I do need to get them out and preserve them properly.
I have loads of rolls of film not developed and negatives
Any advice on how to organise them would be most appreciated

For the negatives, go to a photography shop (I've got them from Jessops in the past) and ask for negative sheets. These are a A4 pages with punched holes, to go into a folder, and slots in them, one for each negative strip.

Photos can be labelled on the back with a chinagraph pencil, which will ensure that should they become separated from their album, you will be able to identify who they are. Put that person's full name (rather than just Grandma) and the date of the photo, if you know it, as well as where it was taken.

Photos are best in traditional albums, not those ones with plastic pockets, the kind which are card and paper and have the little corners which you put on the paper to hold the corners of the pictures.

I'd get the undeveloped rolls developed as soon as possible, in case they go off.

A chance conversation in the past 3 months revealed to Dad that I had the original of a pic of his grandparents, taken when we cleared a family house. He was in touch with some second cousins via the interwebs (they and I share a set of great-grands, but we'd never met until last year). Short version is, we got the pic copied and it's now with the distant rellies and there are several more copies around, thus maximising the chance to preserve it for posterity.

You might also want to think of having irreplacable family pix copied, or keeping the negatives away from your home, so that in the event of a disasterous fire or flood, they could be reprinted. HTH.

lostinrates

7roland8 wrote: »

Have done my pics in albums year by year. Got some negatives just in a folder.
Some pics I have scanned and made a movie for each son from birth to graduation - but will still keep the paper copies too.


Also scanning in ones of myself now to make a slideshow of my life with favourite music added.


Could not destroy pictures - as mentioned you never know when a relative or yourself might want one. In the big scheme of things they are quite small to keep and what I would try and grab in a fire - irreplaceable.

Can I say it depends on the number?


A few people have talked about what happens in the case of death...

My late mil had several huge cardboard boxes of unsorted photos, and in the end family members weren't even looking at them, just chucking them.

cazmanian_minx

Two large old CRT tellies Kondemned to the recycling depot Apparently Mr Minx went through his two wicker baskets on top of his chest of drawers while I was mucking out the horses this morning and has Kondensed it down to one for the cupboard shelf. I am about to go and inspect his work when I take a whole basket of underwear upstairs to fold and put away (I know how to live on a Saturday night )