Organization. . .

I Love organizing my stuff almost as much as I enjoy buying it and using it!! I am always on the look out for clever and creative ways to organize my stash and it seems like I reorganize a lot!! Probably my least favorite thing to organize are my pictures. . .only because there are thousands of them. . .and it takes forever!!!

But. . .something that happens a lot. . .to me included. . .is that people get "hung up" by their notions of "if I get my stuff organized, then I will get more scrapping done!" Now I will say that you will never be 100% perfectly organized. . .ok, maybe some of you will. . .but don't let this stop you from getting your memories documented!

Really photos is what people struggle with the most. I can't believe how many times I hear. . ."I really want my picturs to be organized, then I will get some scrapping done." It is really easy to buy into. . if only this is done then I can do this. . . But if you only have time for one or the other I say pick the creating instead of the organizing! Your photos don't have to been in perfect chronological order to create a scrapbook page. Just grab a few pics and some paper and create!

Now, with that being said. . .I will say it is nice to be a little organized. . or to at least have some sort of system for your stuff. It does make it a little easier to get some things done if you know where things are. But keep in mind this is an ongoing process. What works today, may not work tomorrow or the next day!

As far as picture organizing goes. . .I use photo storage boxes from Hobby Lobby and the Creative Memories Power Sorter boxes (they are great!!). I also have the Cropper Hopper Photo Storage 2000 and it is OK, but the envelopes that come with it are very small. . .too small for me!!

I have my pictures organized chronologically. . .must be the history teacher in me. . .so all 2004 pictures are together and I have them divided by month. So each month has its on tab in the year box and then I have important events tabbed in each month. Now several big Scrapbooking gurus are way against storing your pictures this way. They store pictures in themes. . .like they would have a family vacation box where all of their vacation photos would go. . .a holiday box . . .bithday box. . .things they do together. . .and maybe a box for each family member. I really like the idea of this. . .for instance I may be searching for a photo of us on a family vacation but I might not exactly remember what year we took the vacation in. . .it would be a lot easier just to go to our family vacation photo box instead of looking through several different years of photo boxes!

My brain kind of works on a timeline...I can easily remember the things we did each year and I am pretty good at it. BUT as I am aging and more and more events occur in our life...I can see how it is going to be harder and harder for me to remember as easily!!!!!! I am not on the verge or reorganizing my enormous picture stash. . .but I do see the merit in this school of photo organization thought.

I do know some people who when they are done scrapbooking a particular event throw the extra photos away!!!!! GASP!!!! I say good for you!!!! I wish I could do this. . .I am a horder by nature, so this goes against my instinct of "but I may need it someday!!" But this definitely would be a freeing concept. . .to scrap the event and get rid of the clutter. Looking over at all of the photo storage boxes I have in my cabinet makes me want to chuck the right out the door. A lot of them are doubles and even triples of pictures I have already used or will never use!!! I used to think you were supposed to make a double of every single photo I took. . .just in case. This was before I ventured in to digital storage. That brings up another thought.

I won't be purchasing as many photo storage boxes. . .though I will continue to store the extra photos I haven't scrapped yet or will never scrap. Because I now upload my photos to my computer and store them on a DVD and a CD!!! This has been awesome!!!! I will delve into the world of digital storage and how easy it is another day. . .this post is long enough!!