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Saving Memories Without Losing Your Mind
The summer is flying by for Cindy and her family. It seems like just last week when they visited Disneyland. In fact, it seems like last month Nicole was born and now she's 7! Yes, the kids are growing up too fast and yet not fast enough all at the same time. Thank goodness for pictures! Cindy started scrapbooking when she was pregnant with Nicole. She has the first 2 years of her life documented in a beautiful album which Nicole still enjoys looking at. Then there was Megan....she started a book for Megan somewhere....And Zachary, well, she's lucky if she remembers to take any pictures of him, let alone start a photo album. Cindy longs to have these memories of her children's growing up years preserved, but the thought of dragging out her supplies and sorting out the pictures is truly overwhelming. After all, the pictures from the last 5-6 years are scattered everywhere (in drawers, under piles of paper and who knows where else) and very few of them are dated. The other problem is finding a place to spread out her stuff where Zachary, who is now crawling, can't get into it. Time is also an issue. When in the world could Cindy find an uninterrupted 15 minutes, let alone an hour or two? A few days later, Cindy's mother in law calls asking for recent pictures of the kids. She is wanting to bring pictures to her class reunion and needs them by next week. Cindy assures her that they just took a family photo at Disneyland in May and she will get it right out in the mail. Unfortunately, finding the picture took over an hour of digging through piles of paper and mail. If only she had some way of organizing all of this photo clutter! Tracy walks to the mail box to pick up the prints from their vacation to Disneyland. She sent her film to Snapfish, a company who develops her film, scans them online and sends the hard copy and negatives to her in the mail. When she arrives home she sends a quick email link to view her photos to her friends and family who live out of state. After dinner the Tell's enjoy looking at the photos together and Tracy tosses any that were blurry or didn't turn out. When they are finished, she stores them in a photo box labeled 2005. She has an index card subdividing each month's pictures. Negatives are stored in the Negative storage box. Each month has an envelope to hold the negatives of all pictures taken during that month. The following week Tracy prepares for scrapbooking with Brook and Brandon. She and the kids do this once a month during Alex's nap time. Tracy has a scrapbook area set up in the closet of her office. The doors have been removed, a large table has been placed inside and a hanging system on the wall holds all of her supplies. Brook is able to sit at the table with her and they each create pages for their own albums. Even Brandon can feel a part because Tracy moved his little table into the room with Brook and her. The little table gives him a place to practice cutting scraps of paper left from mom & Brook's scrapbooks. When Tracy's mother in law calls needing recent pictures of the children, Tracy tells her she can pick the pictures she wants online and either print them herself or pay by credit card to have Snapfish send her the sizes and copies she wants. Tracy's mother in law is satisfied and Tracy is off the hook! Traditional Photo Organizing Tips: Digital Photo Organizing: Susan Stewart is a professional organizer and the founder of Perfectly Placed Professional Organization and Design in the Phoenix area. Perfectly Placed specializes in bringing peace and order to busy families through organization. You can find out more about Susan and Perfectly Placed at her website: http://www.perfectlyplaced.org
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