12 You Asked: Precious Picture Packets

I recently received a fabulous question from one of my fabulous readers regarding storing excess kid's photos!  Here is what Crystal had to say.. or I should say, ask:

I am really enjoying your ideas!  Here's my question...what do you do with all of the pictures of your children that you do not currently have on display?  I have lots of picture packages I have bought that still have many leftover large and small pictures in them.  You can only put so many pictures out at one time.  What do you do?

First off, no matter how you store them, I recommend making a checklist of all the friends and family that you typically share your portraits with.  For example, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, etc... that way, you won't be as willing to over or under order when choosing package sizes, and when you receive the photos, you can cut them and put them in envelopes for your amigos on the checklist and store the rest.

When it comes to actually storing the photographs, there are a couple of easy ways to get them under control.  

1.  You could use a paper storage box large enough to hold the packet envelopes.  Once you have handed out and displayed your photos, anything remaining can be placed back into the photo envelope that they came in.  Write the date on the envelope with details of the contents, and store them within the paper box.  You could use something like this one, from IKEA:

2.  You could head to any local department or office supply store and pick up a standard 3 ring binder, or go as fancy as a scapbook.  Then, using page protectors, or scrapbook pages, insert the remaining portraits from the package.  Snag some dividers and section out the portraits by either date or type or kiddo, whichever works best for your specific situation.  Then, anytime you need to go back to them, you can just page through them, like a book and go down memory lane, or grab exactly what you were looking for and move on! 

3.  My personal favorite, because it's how I personally roll, is using a filing system.  Whether you decide to use a fancy filing cabinet, a file tote, or an expandable file {my choice}, they are all easy ways to file away your precious memories, and keep them orderly to return to in the future:

Inside, the tabs are labeled by year, and each slot contains my munchkin's extra photos from their school and sports packages:

 

So there you have it!  A couple of easy ways to tuck away those extra photos from the many portrait packages that build up over the years!

 

Thanks again for contacting me with a question!  How about you other readers?  What do you do to keep your families portraits stored away?  Anyone out there have all their kid's scrapbooks completely up to date with all of their school and sport photos?  Anyone have creative and unique ways to display the plethora of pride that we call our children?  We would love to know!