Tips: Organization
Articles to Choose From:
Preserving Your Family Memories
Organizational Tips from Cropper Hopper
Get Organized and Stay Organized
Preserving Your Family Memories
By Michele Correa of Photo Express
© 2006 - Photo Express foto source
(may be reprinted for non-commercial/non-profit use only, with appropriate credit given to
Photo Express, http://www.photoexpressfotosource.ca)
Your photos are one of your most priceless possessions and are the starting point of your family’s history. Most people say that if a fire happened in their house, they would first make sure all family members were safe, then their pets, and then their photos. Everything else can be replaced – your memories can’t.
It is important for you to develop a system to organize, display and care for these priceless memories. Your photos and memories deserve to be shared with others, not kept in a box until someone finds them and has no idea who or what they are about.
If you have boxes and boxes of photos and memorabilia to organize, you probably keep telling yourself you will get to it “one day”. That day is today! Take it one envelope at a time and set a goal for yourself. If you can organize one or two packages of photos each night, you will very soon be organized. If you wait for that one big chunk of time to get it all done, 5 years from now, you will just be further behind.
Organizing is a skill – a learned skill. There is no right and wrong way, only what works for you. Below are some suggestions as to how you can organize. Pick and choose what works for you and make a commitment to stick to it. If you have years and years of photos to deal with, don’t get overwhelmed. Work in small sections and enjoy the process. Reminisce about the events in the photos and enjoy knowing that you are further ahead than most people – you have taken that first step to getting your photos organized and properly cared for. This is valuable and meaningful work that forms a priceless connection between you and future generations. If you can, enlist the help of family members - a special kind of closeness comes to families who work together in documenting their shared family history.
Photo Organization
Step 1: Gather
Gather all the photos in your house into one location –preferably a location you can leave it out for a while. Make it a treasure hunt and enlist family members in your search. Check drawers, desks, attics, closets, files, old albums, the garage, framed pictures etc, and bring them all into one location. Remember to check old letters and cards that may have photos in them. You can also ask relatives for pictures and memorabilia that you would like copies of. Don’t worry if you can’t find certain photos – this should be an enjoyable process. When you do come across more photos, you will be able to add them into your system.
If you have photos that are in old magnetic albums, remove them from these albums. This is an unsafe environment for your photos because of the adhesive on the page protectors and the acid in the pages. If the photos are stuck, there is a product called Un-Do that easily removes most photos from these albums. A little bit of dental floss can also be used to pry behind the photos.
Step 2: Sort
Now comes the fun part. Don’t get overwhelmed now; this is the heart of the project. You will need to decide how you want to sort your photos, and then take it in small bits of time. When you pass through the area, sort one or two envelopes of photos. If you can find a whole afternoon to sort, great, but don’t wait for that chunk of time as it may not come. You CAN do this! Enjoy the process.
There are different ways to sort your photos and memorabilia. Before you start grouping your pictures and stacking them in piles, you'll need to decide which one will work best for you. Remember that with each new package of photos you bring home, you will want to continue this system so make sure it works for you. Whichever system you decide upon, label your photos with an acid free photo pen. Don’t use a ballpoint pen. It is also a good idea to wash your hands before you sort photos. The natural oils on your hands are not that great for photos. You could also wear light cotton gloves. Also, remove all tape, paper clips, staples etc from the photos. While you are sorting, make notes of photos that need restoration or that you want to make additional copies of. Both services are available at Photo Express.
Sort Chronologically – This is the most popular way to organize photos. You will be able to access a specific event with ease, is straightforward to do and easy to maintain. If you have many years of photos to organize, start with “decade” piles, then work down to years, and then if you want, down to months. If you come across a photo and don’t know when it was taken, check to see if there is a date stamp on the photo or the envelope it came in. Guesstimate when it was taken (look at the background, age of people, style of clothes) and put it to the side of that decade pile, and as you sort more photos, you will be able to narrow down the date.
Sort by Event or Theme -You may want to organize photos of a special vacation or Christmas photos from each year by theme/event. This way it is easy to do up a “Christmas Album” with photos of Christmas on a yearly basis. You may want to start a “Celebration” album and put in birthdays, graduations and other family celebrations. Whatever album you decide you want to have is how this style should be sorted.
Sort by Person – You may want to group all the photos of a specific person together. This works really well for heritage photos or portraits. You may want to have an album for each of your children or an album of their school years. You could also break this down into period of life – for example each child could have a baby book, and elementary age book, a high school age book etc.
"I Have No Idea" box – This is where the photos that you can’t identify go. When friends or family come over or when you go visit, ask if they can help you figure out who they are or when they were taken. You can also scan them and email them to friends or family to see if they can help uncover the mystery. (This is another good reason to label your photos – so they don’t become “mystery photos”.)
Step 3: Purge and Select
You now have organized photos and memorabilia. The hardest part is behind you and you deserve a big congratulation! Now you get the easier job of sorting through the photos to remove duplicates or bad photos (yes, it is ok to throw away pictures that aren’t great.) This is best done as a separate step, rather than as you sort. You may discover that the 2 blurry photos of your grandma as a young girl are all that you have. You can share duplicates with family members. You can frame duplicates and display them (better yet enlarge them), or you can create a photo gift with them. You can find lots of options for photo gift ideas at Photo Express.
Step 4: Don’t panic
Realize that it is going to get worse before it gets better. You will have photos spread all out over your dining room table, but the end result is more than worth it. If it gets stressful figuring out which year a photo is from, set it aside and go onto another pile, or take a break.
Step 5: Maintain
Once you have sorted and organized all your photos and memorabilia, your job is not done. This needs to be an ongoing task. Whenever you bring new photos into your house, label them and put them into your system. This is much easier than having to do a major “sort” every 5 years.
Photo Storage
Now that your photos are sorted, they need to be stored in an archival manner so they can be enjoyed for years to come. Archival products are more expensive than shoe boxes (which are very bad for photos), but think of it as an insurance policy for your memories.
Storage products should be acid-free, archival, lignin-free, and PVC-free. Acids in some papers, cardboards and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products will literally eat away your photos over time and should be avoided. Photos should also be stored away from humidity and not in direct sunlight. Depending on what you plan on doing with your photos, and how many photos you have, you may have more than one storage system. The most common type of storage system is a photo album, which can be a traditional pocket album, or a scrapbook album. A scrapbook doesn’t have to be fancy with lots of fancy papers and embellishments – it can be as simple as photos on a page with photo corners and a little bit of journaling or it can be elaborate. The choice is yours. An album is the easiest way to share your photos with others. You will find a huge selection of albums at Photo Express and the knowledgeable staff to help you choose the right one for you.
Photo Boxes are another great option for storage, especially if you want to do something with the photos at a later date but can’t get to that right now. Make sure to label the outside of the box so you know what is inside. Choose archival boxes made for photo storage. Actual shoeboxes usually have a lot of lignin in them, which will deteriorate your photo, and acid that will eat away at your photos. You can also find hard-sided photo storage boxes that hold up to 2,000 photos at Photo Express. There is also a section in these boxes for enlargements.
Large file boxes are great for storing larger photos or memorabilia. Again remember to make sure that they are safe for your photos. When you store larger memorabilia away from the photos they relate to, post a note with the photo as to where you can find the item. If you have larger items such as children’s artwork, you can reduce the size by making a colour copy (make sure the paper and toner is acid free like at Photo Express) or by scanning them and printing a smaller version from the computer. This also works for bulky items or you can take a photo of the bulky item.
Archival envelopes come in many sizes and are a convenient method of storage especially for those larger items. They can be used to store papers, certificates or photos.
a) Negative Storage
As you are sorting through your photos, you have two options to sort your negatives. Deal with them as you deal with the photos, or set them aside to deal with later.
The most effective system for storing negatives is to place them in PVC-free plastic negative sleeves and store them chronologically in a 3 ring binder. This protects them from dirt, scratches, and the oil on your fingers. Most sleeves also have an area at the top to label the subject and the date. Photo Express also provides an index print with each order that shows a colour copy of all the photos on the negatives. You can attach this to the top of the negative sleeve to make it easy to locate a photo.
It is also best to store your negatives in a separate location from your photos – not together. For example, store your photos at your house, and your negatives at a friend or family member’s house. Hopefully, if a catastrophe happens in one location, the other location will still be safe and you will be left with either photos or negatives, but won’t lose both. The other option is a safe deposit box. The fire safes for homes will usually not protect your negatives.
b) Digital Storage
The ease of taking pictures with a digital camera means that most people are taking way more pictures than they did with a traditional film camera. It has also created a backlog of photos that need to be dealt with.
The first step is to move your digital photos from your camera’s storage card or disk to your computer. Choose only one computer to do this process on, so all of your photos are in one spot. You will usually find it easiest to find a photo if you store them in chronological order.
Create a folder called “Photos” somewhere on your data drive. Create a folder for each year within your Photos folder-for example a folder for “2004,” “2005,” “2006.” Depending on how many photos you take, you may also want to create a folder for each month within each of these yearly folders. You can also go one step further and create a folder within each month for each day or event. Again, use whatever system works for you and will make it easiest to locate a photo.
Now you can go through each folder and delete any photos that you won’t use – too blurry, or dark. You may also want to take some time and jot down some journaling notes in a text file for each photo group so that you remember what was happening when you come to put your photos into an album.
An excellent program to categorize your photos in your computer is Adobe Photoshop Elements (available at Photo Express). This as an organizing feature that allows you to "tag" each photo to easily find it later. For example you can say I want all photos on my computer of Aunt Sue, or all photos at Christmas etc. How you tag it is how you can find it.
You also must archive your digital images. Hard drives can crash and you don’t want to lose all your priceless memories. You want to make sure to have a backup copy (or two) on a CD-R disc (stands for Compact Disc – Recordable.) Watch the type of CD that you use to store your images on. There is a big difference in the quality and longevity of the CD’s. The typical big box CD, where you get 50-100 for $30, will last around 1-2 years, as the organic dyes in them begin to decompose. Silver CD’s (typically cost about $1 per CD) will last 70-100 years. The best option is a Gold CD (available at Photo Express), which contains a layer of evaporated gold, thus increasing its stability and longevity. The typical cost of a Gold CD is $5-$6, and they will last 200-300 years.
These little storage devices are great because they take up less space than negatives and you can archive several hundred images on a single CD. Again, it is a good idea to store at least one of your CD’s offsite.
Make sure to make regular backups of your digital library as you will lose everything since your last backup (for some of you that means EVEYTHING) if your computer crashes. Here are some tips to make your CD-R’s last longer: 1) Store them in a cool, dry, dark place as heat, humidity and sunlight can cause damage; 2) Store CD-R’s in their cases, upright like books. 3) Use only water-based or alcohol-based felt markers (usually marked “non-toxic”). 4) DO NOT use ballpoint pens, touch the bottom of CD-R’s with your fingers or bend them too much. You may be surprised to hear it, but archival-quality prints are the best way to preserve your digital files.
Prints made on archival paper will last at least as long as a CD-R and are easier to display! Use archival inks (not dye-based) for inkjet prints, or better yet get your prints done on photo paper just like you used to from negatives. You can come into Photo Express and use the in-store kiosk to print your photos or get a copy of the free software that allows you to order prints from the comfort of your home in your pj’s! Both options provide you with excellent quality prints on photo.
Again, as with negatives and photos, it is important to maintain your system once you have it started.
Slides
You can store your slides in plastic PVC free pages made for slides and place them in a 3 ring binder. Any marking you do, should be done with a photo pen. Another option for slides is to make photos of them so everyone can enjoy them.
8mm movie film and video
The old 8mm films are becoming very brittle and can easily break when viewed. You can have these transferred to video or better yet, transferred to DVD. The same goes for all of your home videos. Photo Express offers this service.
Newspaper and Other Paper Articles
Newspaper has a very high lignin content in it, which is why it becomes yellow so fast, and gets brittle. If you want to save newspaper articles, you can copy them on a machine that uses acid free paper and archival toner (as at Photo Express). You can also “wash” older newspaper articles. Place the article in a pan with distilled water, and wash, and then dry. This will strengthen the article.
Documents such as birth certificates, programs, and report cards may or may not be printed on acid free paper. There is a spray called Archival Mist, (available at Photo Express) which can be sprayed on the front and back of the paper article. This will deacidify it so that it is safe to put in your album.
Photo Restorations
You will most likely come across some precious photos that are damaged. You can bring them into Photo Express to have them restored. Go to our website www.photoexpressfotosource.ca and click on the restoration link to see samples and prices. Each photo is handled individually and doesn’t leave our store so you can rest easy, knowing your photo is being handled with care.
Here is an example of a photo before and after restoration:
 
Floods and Water Damage
Though everyone hopes this never happens, sometimes it does. If your photos have suffered water damage, the first rule is to not panic. Here are some steps to help salvage your photos from www.canadianphotorestoration.com
- Don’t let the photos dry out! As your photographs dry, they will stick to each other and any other materials they may be in contact with. You’ll find it impossible to pull them apart without causing potentially irreparable damage.
- Get to work as soon as possible. Your photographs shouldn’t stay wet for more than two or three days.
- While you’re working on your photos, store them in a container full of cold, clean tap water. The colder the better. Don’t add chlorine to the water, but change the water every day. The chlorine in tap water is enough to prevent the growth of fungi and other biological threats.
- Rinse your photos in a container of cold, clear running water. Don’t run the water directly onto the photos, because that could damage the chemical emulsion, causing permanent damage. Keep rinsing them until the run-off water is clear.
- Carefully remove your photographs or negatives from the water, taking the smallest quantity possible. Pull them out of their wrappers and gently separate them. DO NOT FORCE THEM APART. Separate as many as possible before returning them to the cold water and starting on another batch. Repeat the separate-soak cycle as many times as necessary. However, sometimes you may not be able to separate materials without forcing the issue. In those cases you will probably have to just accept the corresponding damage.
- Once your materials are separated, store them in water until you can wash them individually, using cold, clean running water. Use cotton balls, a soft cotton cloth or a soft foam rubber brush to remove foreign objects if needed. Rinse your photographs or negatives one more time after cleaning is complete.
- Hang-dry prints and negatives from a clothesline. Make sure they will not be exposed to dust. As an option, special solutions are available that facilitate uniform, spot-free drying when applied to negatives and slides. These solutions can be purchased from your local retail photo lab or dealer.
- If your prints curl while drying, wet the paper side (NOT the emulsion!) with a moist sponge and place each one between two pieces of acid-free paper or photo blotters, and leave them under a flat, heavy object for a day or two.
Unfortunately, dye-based ink jet images are almost always destroyed after short immersions times in water. This is another reason to trust your memories to a professional photofinisher like Photo Express.
If you have too many wet prints to deal with within a day or two, then place them in plastic bags and in your freezer. This will prevent the growth of mould. The prints can be stored safely in your freezer until they can be properly washed and dried. Remove photos from page protectors before placing in a plastic bag in your freezer.
Presentation of your Photos
There are many ways to present your photos. The most common would be in a photo album. This can be a regular pocket type album or a scrapbook. A scrapbook can be as simple as photos on a page with some journaling, or very elaborate with patterned papers and embellishments, or somewhere in between. The journaling is almost as important as the photos. This is where you get to tell your story – who the pictures are about, what they were doing, or thinking or feeling, funny anecdotes, or your thoughts. These are the words that connect this generation and future generations. Instead of just a box of photos with no story, you end up with a beautiful storybook to be enjoyed by everyone. Photo Express has a wide variety of classes to help you learn to scrapbook – whether you just want basic information to create simple scrapbooks or whether you want to go one or two steps further and create more involved scrapbooks.
Photos can also be framed and hung on a wall. Remember that when exposed to light, they will fade over time; so if you are framing a one of a kind priceless photo, have a copy made first so that you have a backup.
Home décor items have also become a very popular way to display photos. A great way to do this is to put a photo on canvas or on tile coasters to display in your home.
Conclusion
Your photos are a precious link between you and future generations. They are too important to let sit in a drawer and become nameless pieces of paper. Make the time to properly and safely preserve all your priceless family Memories. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to come and see us at Photo Express. We have the knowledge and supplies to help you created treasured Family Keepsakes.
Organizational Tips
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Before organizing, first decide how you want to organize your papers by asking yourself these questions:
- What categories make the most sense to you?
- How do you scrap?
- Do you tend to use several papers from the same manufacturer on one layout, or do you mix it up?
- Do you like to work with themed papers?
- Do you use a lot of vellum?
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Close your eyes and visualize how you would have your paper arranged in your dream scrap room. Here are some ideas for paper categories:
- Solids and Patterns by Color
- Solids by Color and Patterns by Color
- Theme
- Manufacturer
- Manufacturer Sets (i.e. SEI Serendipity, Brazille, KI Memories My Guy, Basic Grey Jack)
There are many different ways to store your paper, but the most important factor is that the system works for you. Cropper Hopper products to organize both 12x 12, 8x8, 9x9, 8.5x11 and 6x6 paper:
- Vertical Paper Holders (available in 3 sizes and 2 colors)
- 12x12 Hanging Vertical File Folders (available in paper or plastic)
- Paper Envelopes
- Paper Organizers
Paper Organizing Tips:
- Because vellum tends to crinkle and rip, store more fragile papers together in their own category.
- Remember: Do NOT be afraid to open paper packs and sort the paper into your collection. You are more likely to use it this way.
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Be sure to evaluate your system after a few months, and make sure that it’s working for you. The most important factor in a maintainable system is that it works for you!
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Organizing photos can be a daunting task, especially when you have decades to sort through. This is probably one of the most time-consuming tasks, but it will also be one of the most rewarding. Set aside a significant chunk of time to handle this task. It really should be done start to finish in one session because if you take a long break, it’s tempting to just put those photos back in a box and tackle them, “some other time.” Clear your schedule on a weekend day, send the kids (and the pets) off with dad, and spread out. Consider asking a friend to come over and provide moral support. Put on some of your favorite music, make yourself snacks that you love, and then gather every single photo in your home and put it into one area. Make sure you find every single photo, even the ones that are hidden behind your framed photos throughout your home.
Before you begin, decide how you want to sort your photos. Ask yourself how will you look for them when you need them? How will you scrap them? What system will make them the easiest to retrieve? Some possibilities are:
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- Chronologically – this may seem to be the most logical option, but if it doesn’t make sense for the way you scrapbook, find another option that works better for you.
- Holiday/Event/Vacations – do you create themed albums by holiday, birthday, vacation, etc? Consider sorting in a way that would make these photos easier to find.
- Person – if you have separate albums for each person in your family, it may be easier to have separate categories for each one.
- Periods of Life – this works particularly well for heritage photos, since the actual details may be difficult to determine. It may make scrapbooking these photos less intimidating if you have them broken down into times of life.
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Sort, Purge and Assign
Depending on the amount of photos you have, you may be able to sort these on a dining room table, or you may need an entire room to really spread out. Make signs for your categories – i.e. for chronological, have a sign for every year, for vacations, create a sign that says, “Disney World,” and so on. If you’ve vacationed in the same spot through the years, you may want to make separate piles for each year you’ve gone.
Now is the time to decide if you want to put some of your favorite duplicates into a photo album for your coffee table, give away any photos, or if you see a small scrapbook in your mind based on photos you’ve gone through, set those aside for yourself in a clearly labeled category. Don’t worry about being neat at this point (although make sure your piles do not slide into each other), the neatness will come in the next stage.
Now is also the time to throw out any bad photos – blurry, dark, etc. Once you’ve gone through the first sorting stage, it’s time to take each pile and decide if you need to further sort chronologically or if the photos make sense to you just as they are – this is completely up to you and your organizational style.
Containerize
Now that you have your photos all sorted out, decide how you want them to be stored. Cropper Hopper photo cases and photo holders are an excellent option, cardboard photo boxes are another, or you can store the photos you plan to scrap the soonest in a container nearest your scrap area. Just make sure whatever system you use is clearly labeled for easy retrieval later. Larger photos can be stored in a 12 x 12 Expo, a Paper Holder, Cropper Hopper’s large photo case, or a file folder.
Negatives can be stored with your photos or in a negative binder. If you store your negatives away from your photos, be sure to include the index sheet or a written note with each set, so you know exactly what’s on each sleeve, and you don’t have to pull them out and touch them each time. You can also store negatives in Cropper Hopper 4 x 6 Photo/Negative holders so you have them handy to make reprints.
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Equalize
Make sure that your system is one that will make it easy to organize your future photos. Once you have it down, you should put your pictures away as soon as you have them in your hands, and they will be easy find when you are ready to use them. Customize your system so that it is picture perfect for you!
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Organizing Basic Supplies, Tools and Adhesives
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Tools and adhesives are some of the most important items in scrapbooking. There are many things that you don’t necessarily need to create a page, but these are essential to each and every layout you do. So, how to store them so that they are always at your fingertips but not in the way?
First, decide what tools are the most essential to you, and also which adhesives you can’t live without. Think about the things that you reach for every single time you scrap. Those things need to be the closest to you, while the things you use occasionally are placed a bit further out of reach, and the items you use the least often are stored away or purged. Here are some ideas for each of those types of supplies:
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Most often used:
- Use a Cropper Hopper Flat Pack. This will store your trimmer, scissors, pens, and adhesive and still have room for your most used embellishments. You can store this on your desk, and when it’s time to leave for a crop, just grab it and go! With a Flat Pack – you can easily carry all you need for crops and classes.
- Store in a basket on your desk. Whether one small basket or a silverware-type basket with dividers, this will keep your most-used items right in front of you.
- On a peg board or wall-mounted modular organizational system. There are so many hooks, cups, and holders available for these systems that all of your essentials can be stored within easy reach.
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Occasional use:
- A peg board or wall system is also good for these items, keeping them accessible but out of the way.
- Eye-level drawer of your storage unit, whether it’s an Iris cart, a dresser, or your shelving unit. The closer the drawer or shelf is to eye level; the easier it will be to retrieve these items.
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Rarely used:
- Store these items (extra trimmers, gadgets used infrequently, extra adhesives) up on your highest shelf or down below your desk or on your lowest shelf. These items should be stored in the most inconvenient place; so that they don’t get in the way of the things you use the most. Use a Cropper Hopper Supply Case to store these items.
- Consider purging some of these items. If you tried embossing but find it’s not your cup of tea, sell your heat gun. If you are hanging on to that adhesive you don’t really like just in case you run out of your favorite, give it to your friend, your child, or your local school and stock up on the supplies you’ll actually want to use. Now is the time to purge those supplies that are just taking up space. You’ll be glad you did!
Once you have a system in place for your essentials, putting them back in the same place every time will become a reflex, and you will never have to hunt for your favorite scissors again!
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Organizing Embellishments
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Embellishments are like the icing on the cake, adding a certain flair to your layouts. It’s important to find a system that will help you store all your embellishments in a way that won’t overwhelm you and is visible enough that you don’t forget to use them.
As always, first you must bring all of your embellishments together, touch every piece that you have, and sort through them, determining what to purge and deciding how to sort them in a way that makes sense to you.
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Some ideas for sorting your embellishments:
- By category (buttons, brads, alphabet charms, etc.)
- By color
- By manufacturer or lines within manufacturers
- By type (metal, acrylic, tin)
- By theme
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For alphabet embellishments, there are different considerations.
- Separate your alphabets by letter and have an “A” section that will store your metal, button, tin, eyelet, and game board letters together.
- Sort each type of letter separately (i.e. your alphabet buttons in one place with each section devoted to a different letter).
- Sort each color separately and then separate the letters.
Most importantly, the organizational plan has to make sense to you and the way you would use your alphabets.
Now that you’ve decided how to sort your embellishments, the next step is deciding how to store them. Which embellishments do you find you use the most? Those should be the closest and most easily accessible to you. Do you crop away from home often? If you do, your embellishment holders should be portable enough to be able to toss in your Cropper Hopper Flat Pack and go, without your having to stop and transfer them to another container.
Don’t forget to label everything – labeling is the key for easy retrieval and clean-up! Whatever system of storage you choose, review it from time to time to make sure it’s still working for you. Is it still easy to find exactly what you need? Is it easy to clean up after a scrap session? Is it easy to put away new purchases? If you answer no to any of these questions, it may be time to tweak your system a bit. Remember, being able to maintain your system is one of the most important aspects to organization!
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Organizing Flat Page Enhancements/Stickers/Die-Cuts
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Stickers and die-cuts are some of the hardest things to organize because the different sizes and shapes pose many challenges. Rub-ons present their own challenges because if they aren’t stored properly, they stick to each other, damaging precious supplies. By now you know that the first rule in organizing anything is to first purge ruthlessly and then to determine how you will be using these items when you scrap.
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Some ideas for sorting:
- Color
- Manufacturer (i.e. KI Memories) or Lines within Manufacturers (i.e. KI Memories Uptown Collection)
- Theme
- Size
- Type (i.e. stickers - letters, pebble, clear, embossed, etc.; die-cuts, tags, circles, pockets, etc.; rub-ons, letters, quotes, phrases, etc.)
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However you decide to sort them, there are many different options for storing them:
- In Cropper Hopper Expos. The 12x12 Expos are great for storing all different sizes of letter stickers. The 7x12 Expo also holds stickers and the 5x7 Expo is the perfect size for die cuts once they’ve been punched from their packaging.
- The flat side of Cropper Hopper Embellishment Cases is a great spot to hold die-cuts that you don’t want to remove from their packaging.
- Peg boards or modular wall units (see image).
- Rub-on sets from manufacturers such as Making Memories and Scrapbworks can be stores standing in baskets. This option works better if the rub-ons remain in their packaging.
- Large sticker and die-cut sheets can be stored in drawers, but they pose a risk of snagging other sheets when removed.
- Large sticker and die-cuts can also be stored in hanging file folders.
- Stickers, die-cuts and rub on sheets can be stored in mail slots or a desk organizer.
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No matter how you decide to store your die-cuts, stickers and rub-ons, be sure to label them as much as possible to ensure quick retrieval. If you have space, sort them out as much as possible according to the categories that work best for you because it will save time and frustration when you want to use these items.
Get Organized....and Stay Organized!
by Michele Correa of Photo Express
With supporting information from Cropper Hopper and the ScrapRack
© 2006 - Photo Express foto source
Organizing is one of those words that make some people feel calm and serene, but makes the majority of us feel overwhelmed and stressed out. We would like to be organized but can never find the time to do it, or just don’t know where to start. Following are some ideas to help you on your way to being organized for your scrapbook pursuits. Pick and choose the parts that work for you and make a commitment to stick to it. These are only partial suggestions as I could write an entire book on organizing scrapbooking supplies. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to email us at
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or stop in for a visit and let us help you design a system that works for you.
Calming thought: The whole of anything is overwhelming so work in small manageable increments. You can do it!
Why you need to get organized
Many scrapbookers are not actually “scrapbookers” so much as “supply collectors”. (You know who you are, and I’m one of them. A classic sign is you have bags at home with your purchases still in them!) One easy way to become a scrapbooker is to get organized so you can find your supplies and use them. When you are organized you will actually enjoy scrapbooking, you will save time, you will save money (how many of us buy duplicates because we don’t know we have something) and you will reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Remember to choose a system that works for YOU! Your system will be different than mine and different from your friends. It has to work for you so you will actually do it, and maintain it (which is even more important than the actual getting organized).
Ideas for How To Organize Your Photos
There are different ways to organize your photos. Most people tend to organize chronologically, but you can also organize by person (helpful when you want to do an album for/about that person), by holiday/vacation/event (helpful for theme albums) or by period of life.
The first step is to assess the situation- figure out where all your photos are and gather them into one safe area where they can be left undisturbed for a period of time. This way when you find a few minutes, you can go and organize an envelope of photos.
Step two: Come up with a game plan – figure out the best way for you to organize/find a photo. If you had to find a photo of your child’s 3rd birthday, would it make more sense to you to find it chronologically by date, or in a birthday section for that child with all their birthday photos in it? Figure out what types of albums you would like to create, and organize accordingly.
Step three: Purge. Yes it is ok, to recycle photos you are not going to use. Give them to your kids, other family members that might enjoy them or yes, even the recycle bin. Keep photos that you are going to enjoy looking at again, even if they don’t make it into a scrapbook, but don’t keep really blurry photos or 10 of the same image in slightly different poses.
Step four: Realize it is going to get worse before it gets better. Take it one step at a time, or one package of photos at a time. If you think of organizing 20 years of photos, it is overwhelming and paralyzing so you won’t start. Instead, think of organizing one package of photos a day. You can find 5 minutes a day to do this, and often may squeeze in 3 or 4 packages. If you do this, your photos will become organized. (And you’ll have a lot of fun reminiscing too!)
Step five: Enjoy your success and maintain your system. This is probably the most important step so that you don’t end up with years of photos to organize again. Even before your photos are organized into a system, commit to always organizing your photos as soon as you bring them home from the photo lab or print them at home. This way they won’t pile up. It is much easier to organize one envelope of photos at a time, than facing years of photos to organize.
I use a combination of ways to organize my photos. I organize the majority of my photos chronologically, but when I have a photo that says so much about a person, it goes into their area (I use photo boxes and regular pocket albums for this). Each of my girls has their own box, my side of the family has a box, my husbands side of the family has a box, and other friends and family are in a box.
I also have specific work in progress albums I work on so when I find a photo that goes with that, I put it in that album. For example, I have an album about our cabin, I have a friends album all about my friends from elementary school to now, I have an album just about my favourite pictures and more. This way, when I go to work on that project, the photos I need are with it. If I know I want to scrapbook the photos very soon, I place the photos in a page planner file from Cropper Hopper, along with papers and embellishments that match. I have 5-10 of these files at any time, so that when I want to scrapbook I just pull one out, sit at my desk where my basic supplies are and scrapbook right away without wasting time figuring out what I am going to scrapbook.
Having been in the photo industry for 24 years, I have a TON of photos and my goal for 2007 is to get them all organized. I find it frustrating sometimes when I go to find a photo for a layout, and I have no idea where it is. I now have all my photos in one location and bit-by-bit I will organize them. (I don’t let this stop me from scrapbooking though, as then I would never get any scrapbooking done!) I really like Stacy Julian’s system she uses in her Big Picture Scrapbooking Book – she has albums for All About Us (her immediate family), People We Love (extended family, friends, co-workers etc), Places We Love (places they go, from local jaunts to holidays), Things We Do (church events, work, sports, etc) and Things we love (things you do and love including the everyday things of life.)
For ideas on how to store your photos, negatives, digital files, slides, 8mm movies, and newspaper articles see our previous article on Preserving Your Family Memories.
Organizing Your Supplies
Do you spend more time searching for that perfect embellishment you bought, or the perfect colour of paper you know you have? The more time you spend searching, the less scrapping you will accomplish. If you can find it, you can use it!
- Learn to eliminate everything you do not need. That paper you bought 3 years ago that you now look at and think, “what was I thinking”, is not going to improve like wine. Recycle it to someone new to scrapbooking or schools, or hospital programs. You will have more space to breathe, it will be easier to find what you do own, and when you see a beautiful new paper, you won’t have guilt over buying it as it will fit into your space and you will be able to use it.
- Keep all material in related categories for easy retrieval. Stamps together, paper together, adhesives together, etc.
- Develop simple systems to organize your different categories. Remember it has to work for you and the way you scrapbook.
- Don’t ignore vertical storage. If you are running out of space, don’t be afraid to look up.
- Use color-coding to help organize different categories within your files.
- Make sure that everything in your area has it’s own place. Know where that assigned place is and return items there after each use.
Organizing your scrapbook area…
Not everyone will have the luxury of having a dedicated scrapbook room, but even just a corner table, or hall closet converted with at desk and light inside, is a great place to scrapbook. Anywhere you can leave out your supplies without having to pack up each time, will allow you to accomplish a lot more scrapbooking.
· Divide your area into different zones if you have the space. You may have different areas to set or store eyelets, journal on the computer, stamp, die cut, and actually lay out pages. Think about how you spend your time in your area.
- Purge your supplies at least yearly. Go through all of them and decide what needs to stay and what you should give away, throw away or sell. Photo Express collects your unwanted supplies and donates them to the Maple Ridge Hospital for their use in their seniors programs, children’s programs and new mom’s programs and to BC’s Children’s Hospital for use in their programs with the kids and families.
- Know what you have so you can assess what you need. You will be less likely to purchase duplicates or run out of things you use a lot. Keep a list of what you need to pick up the next time you visit Photo Express.
- Make your space a nice place to visit. Fill your area with things you love…photos of your loved ones, your favourite candy in a jar, paint the walls your favourite colour.
Paper Organization
There are many ways to organize paper and I think I’ve tried them all. For me the easiest thing is to have my paper vertical. I use a combination of Cropper Hopper Class Totes with vertical hanging files in them, and Cropper Hopper’s Vertical paper holders. I find it very easy to find paper this way. For me, horizontal storage didn’t work, as I found it very hard to find paper below the first few layers.
I have a file for each colour – white, pink, red, yellow etc. Each file has sections (I actually have so much paper that each section is its own file). For each colour I have (using pink as an example): pink solid paper, pink patterned paper (that isn’t an obvious theme), pink specialty paper, and pink scraps. This makes it very easy for me to find papers. I do this with all my colours. I also do this with themes such as Christmas, baby, etc.
Other ways to organize your paper:
- In a Rubbermaid tote
- In Iris Carts with each drawer labeled for what is inside
- The wire cubes put together as narrow paper slots instead of cubes
- Paper pouches
- Paper trays
Organizing all your other Supplies:
There are so many options available to store your embellishments and stickers and such. PE has a good selection so stop on in and we can help you figure out a system that will work for you. You may want to organize by supply type – all brads together, all stickers together, all ribbon together. You may want to organize by colour – all red supplies together, all pink supplies together etc.
I use a combination of these. For all my supplies (not including paper, stamps and die cuts) I have them organized into the following categories:
- My theme section (done alphabetical):
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- Animals
- Baby
- Celebrate, Cooking, Crafts
- Disney, Characters
- Expressions
- Family, Faith
- Girls and friends
- Heritage
- Music, drama
- Nature, outdoors
- Ocean
- Park, play, pool
- Sports
- Tools
- Weddings, weather
2. The Calendar section: events that happen in those months
· Jan-New Year’s, #’s, clocks
· Feb- Valentines, love
· March – Spring, St. Patrick’s day
· April- Easter
· May – Flowers, garden
· June - Graduation
· July – Canada Day, Summer
· August – Travel and Vacation
· Sept – Back to school, Fall
· Oct – Halloween, thanksgiving
· Nov – Winter
· Dec – Christmas
3. The things that don’t fit into these categories are in colour sections.
It was a lot of work getting it organized like this, but it is so easy to find anything I need. For me because I am so busy, the hard part is making sure I put things back into their spots, and putting new things into their spots. That “maintain” thing. Recognize that I have been scrapbooking since 1998 so I have a lot of supplies. A much simpler system may work perfectly for you. Whichever way you choose to organize, take it one little step at a time and maintain from today on.
For my basic supplies I use all the time, I love my Totally Cool Tote from All My Memories. It keeps all my basics at my fingertips without taking up lots of room. I also love the Flat Pack from Cropper Hopper for my punches and stamps I use all the time.
You can also use Rubbermaid containers, or the plastic shoe boxes from Zellers ($1.97 and great to stack) to organize these in. The turnabout things from cooking companies for cooking utensils also work great. Ikea also has lots of great things to help organize your space.
Get Organized and Stay Organized
~ Remember – use a system that works for you
~ Make a commitment to get organized and stay organized
~ Spend more time Scrapbooking!!
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