Lots of printed photos from the last 30 years - what to do with them?

[Fushia123]

I’ve got about 30 packets of colour photographs of family over the years. They are stuck in a drawer and never see the light of day. I don’t want to take photos of them to keep on my phone - too many! Has anyone got the same problem and has found a good way to display, look at and appreciate them? I would like them to be occasionally accessible, tidy and practical!

I'd either photo album them or get those segmented pictures frames and put them on walls I'm in the process of doing the latter.

I bought several photo albums with the intention of putting the photos in (obviously!) But I have never got round to it. I have loads of packets in a couple of pretty storage boxes. We take them out occasionally and have a look.

Although 30 packets Is a lot..

Ive got packets of photographs and negatives, a big box full !

I've an old chest of drawers in the spare room chock full of photos some on albums some just in photo envelopes.

We had a cull (probably threw away 90%) and put the best ones with identifiable people in a photo album. I wrote the names and other details in the album

People under 35 just have photos on their phones don't they?

Take digital copies of the best ones and get them uploaded into a photo book?
Get rid of originals.

Easier to store a book book than a photo album, not as bulky.

This I a good plan!

Get them scanned by a company and use a digital photo frame or app? Or love the photo book idea, we'll be doing that with photos of a much loved pet we lost.

I've got about eleventy billion, including a stack of slides that go back to the sixties. Some I'm just chucking, then I'm going to get my siblings to take what they want.
Then I'll probably come back to this thread to see what good ideas people have

I will be inheriting my DF’s cine films and camera to add to my collection.

I have a massive box of packets of photos from my dad's house that I've been meaning to sort. They are all over the place, different years and occasions mixed up in the packets.

Now I'm not the biggest fan of Amazon but my DH ordered a photo album that holds lots of pictures. They come in different sizes and colours and can be filed like books on a shelf. This is my next project!

We have cinefilm and slides from late Mil.but we don't have anything to view them with they are gathering dust ! We also have all her old cameras.

Great idea for a thread. I have boxes and albums of photos. When I rarely look at them I skip all scene pics and only look at people ones. I’m allowing the idea to grow about perhaps culling all except the people ones.

Got loads of baby / children photos too. I couldn’t bin those but perhaps I could put them
on albums for my dc.

The scanning services... is it £££

@Redshoeblueshoe we digitised the best slides - my DF was a crap photographer - named people, locations and dates and saved. It was quite a nice activity to do with DF when he was alive.

@DustyLee123 i haven’t got round to the cine film yet

I took mine to Boots and had them put on a memory stick. I think it was £150 for anything up to 1000. That was a few years ago though. If I did it again I would go to a small independent shop, as Boots send them away and it did scare me that they would go missing.
Though once they were done I had to get around to identifying them all again and putting them into digital folders.

@Rummikub I have a used slide scanner if you want to buy one

I do a very concise album of the main events - kids birthdays, Christmas, significant events - and then I just do big collage frames with loads of the best /funniest pictures in. I have one with about 40 pictures of all our pets over the years. One of all the children when they were babies. One of summer holidays etc . The rest I filter out all the rubbish and just write the dates on the envelope and store them in date order in a box.
I had, no joke, probably 500 photographs of farm and zoo animals taken on days out over 20 years of parenting, and every single one went in the bin
now I do a free prints order every month and just order prints of the best pics from the month, much more manageable.

If you put them in a photo album that takes several to a page, don't be afraid to trim them down to cut out excess background. They don't all have to remain the same size and shape.

This resonates with me as I have been involved with family history for years. Unfortunately we are now the oldest generation and we have so many anonymous photos who probably fit in somewhere but there's no one to ask. You don't know who, in the future might want to know who these people are. Label any old photos and keep in a box - labelled!!

Surely you just keep them in a bag in the loft and never look at them?

I’ve just thrown all mine away as I’m moving, have no kids, and had nightmares about people finding them after I’m dead and chucking them away. They don’t mean anything to anyone else. And I never looked at them.

@thinkofanewusername did they return originals?

@Michaelmonstera somewhere in my house I have a negative scanner! Unless I gave it away. But I know that I wouldnt have the inclination to scan everything.

Really wish I’d dealt with these at the time as now these old photos feel more precious!

Mil kept all of DH’s and BiLs baby photos and had them turned into photo books which she gave them when they were 21. We’ve got a digital photo frame for the million photos of nieces, nephews and god children and any particularly lovely photos are in frames and stuck on the wall going up the stairs.