[jane032657]

What does everyone do with all the pictures/phototgraphs from life when they are getting ready to move to TV? Is if my own life collection and that of my husband were not enough, my dad just died and my mother is passing away as well and I packed up all their things. I found pictures, drawers of pictures, going back to WW 2 when my dad was a medic. Keeping all the pictures seems like it will fill every nook and cranny in our new place. What do people do with multi generational pictures when they downsize?

[wendyquat]

I threw away any duplicates but still wound up with a Wal Mart "grey" plastic tub full! It's on the top shelf of my closet. My intent is as it has been for the past 50 years -- put them in albums and scrapbooks! Guess my children and grandchildren will have to deal with it! I'm too busy now!

[wesmin]

We had to build shelves in master for albums. We now take digital and print less.

[memason]

This is a topic the wife and I discuss periodically... We have a couple boxes of our own photos, plus a large box that came from my parents and my Grand Mother. The photos from the Grand Mother are from the turn of the 20th century and even I don't know most of the folks in the photos. Certainly, my Son and his family would not want these...what to do? Pitch them?

We also have digital photos. Lots of 'em! At last count, I had about 35,000 digital photos on my computer. Yes, I said 35,000! I bought my first digital camera in 1995, while living in Japan. Digital cameras were not yet available in the US.

At some point, I say you just have to throw them away, including the digitals.

It's a real sentimental problem ...

[pooh]

Years ago Mike and I took a very large container of pictures with us on a camping trip. We looked at each and every picture we brought. Some of them were duplicates of ???who the heck remembers why we took this picture of a rock....lol. Out it went.....along with pictures of people we could no longer remember. So often we take pictures of scenery to help us remember the moment....and after years, all palm trees in the west start to look alike, as does the desert. We kept ones of our family and pictures of scenery we truly remembered.

Pitch the ones that don't bring back memories you love. Who needs 6 pictures of the Las Vegas skyline or images of the valley floor from a hilltop. Once you start getting rid of the ones you really don't want or need, you'll feel liberated. Old family pictures aren't as easy to eliminate, but I'm sure if you can't remember who or what or when, what's the point in keeping them.

[angiefox10]

Scanned the pictures I wanted to keep, gave the kids their pictures and threw the rest away!

I didn't want to leave them for my kids to sort out. Most of them would mean nothing to them and to be honest... I don't look at them now. But I have them if I want to look.

[jgbama]

Originally Posted by jane032657

What does everyone do with all the pictures/phototgraphs from life when they are getting ready to move to TV? Is if my own life collection and that of my husband were not enough, my dad just died and my mother is passing away as well and I packed up all their things. I found pictures, drawers of pictures, going back to WW 2 when my dad was a medic. Keeping all the pictures seems like it will fill every nook and cranny in our new place. What do people do with multi generational pictures when they downsize?

We have done some major "dejunking" over the past 5 months, getting ready for when we can move to TV. DW and I sat in the hall floor one day and went through folder after folder of photos we took over the past 41 years. After trashing useless photos like sky, trees, landscape, photos of people we don't remember, we eliminated 2/3's of the pile. I have some of my father's WWII photos, not many but requiring a decision. I trashed them. They weren't of him. You can ask other family members of they want old pictures you don't treasure.

It's a personal decision for sure, but we have no need for all but a few of old family pictures.

Good luck with the task, it does take time to go through them all. We are just heeding all the TOTV advice to "dejunk, dejunk, dejunk". DW and I plan to start life anew once we move and will only keep the most treasured of old photos. All we plan to bring is a change of undies, our toothbrushes, and only the significant keepsakes. Well. . . okay. . . a piano and one dog!

Can't wait to be a frog!!!

[Ooper]

Took the time and scanned all the ones I wanted. Now I can give copies to anyone I want.

[angiefox10]

Originally Posted by pooh

Years ago Mike and I took a very large container of pictures with us on a camping trip. We looked at each and every picture we brought. Some of them were duplicates of ???who the heck remembers why we took this picture of a rock....lol. Out it went.....along with pictures of people we could no longer remember. So often we take pictures of scenery to help us remember the moment....and after years, all palm trees in the west start to look alike, as does the desert. We kept ones of our family and pictures of scenery we truly remembered.

Pitch the ones that don't bring back memories you love. Who needs 6 pictures of the Las Vegas skyline or images of the valley floor from a hilltop. Once you start getting rid of the ones you really don't want or need, you'll feel liberated. Old family pictures aren't as easy to eliminate, but I'm sure if you can't remember who or what or when, what's the point in keeping them.

Originally Posted by jgbama

We have done some major "dejunking" over the past 5 months, getting ready for when we can move to TV. DW and I sat in the hall floor one day and went through folder after folder of photos we took over the past 41 years. After trashing useless photos like sky, trees, landscape, photos of people we don't remember, we eliminated 2/3's of the pile. I have some of my father's WWII photos, not many but requiring a decision. I trashed them. They weren't of him. You can ask other family members of they want old pictures you don't treasure.

It's a personal decision for sure, but we have no need for all but a few of old family pictures.

Good luck with the task, it does take time to go through them all. We are just heeding all the TOTV advice to "dejunk, dejunk, dejunk". DW and I plan to start life anew once we move and will only keep the most treasured of old photos. All we plan to bring is a change of undies, our toothbrushes, and only the significant keepsakes. Well. . . okay. . . a piano and one dog!

Can't wait to be a frog!!!

These are funny to me because as I was going through our pictures there were people that had clearly were on vacation with us and we had no clue who they were.

One ocean starts looking like the other and unless you name the fish you see at the bottom of the ocean... it just doesn't matter any more.

We took pictures of our waiters in our travels! WHY????

Like Pooh said... Why would we take a picture of a "rock" and how many lizards do you need to take a picture of?

The funny thing is... I never looked at them until it was time to get ready to move.

I scanned pictures of hubby, the kids, our dogs and myself. That's all that's really important to us anyway.

[Pturner]

Originally Posted by Ooper

Took the time and scanned all the ones I wanted. Now I can give copies to anyone I want.

I did the same, Ooper. For my parent's 60th anniversary several years ago, I gave them a digital picture frame with the digitized family photos. I also made a music video that had a four-generation family history. I Played it at their anniversary party and gave them the CD, which can be played on the digital photo frame.

[CarolSells]

Originally Posted by jane032657

What does everyone do with all the pictures/phototgraphs from life when they are getting ready to move to TV? Is if my own life collection and that of my husband were not enough, my dad just died and my mother is passing away as well and I packed up all their things. I found pictures, drawers of pictures, going back to WW 2 when my dad was a medic. Keeping all the pictures seems like it will fill every nook and cranny in our new place. What do people do with multi generational pictures when they downsize?

I've just spent days going through years and boxes of photographs from my parents, grandparents, and my own stacks and albums. Whew! As was previously mentioned, I have oodles of old pictures of family etc. that are unidentified. It's hard to pitch those because the really old sepia pictures are so interesting but they must go. I tossed out a whole album full of pix of my mother and her friends from the '40s. Sorry, Mom.

I did genealogy reports for my sons for Christmas and included pictures of everyone that I had an identifiable picture of.

My dad took pictures of everything and to top it off, he had multiples of all developed. Throwing away 3 copies of the Thanksgiving turkey from 1984 was easy. People pictures are harder. Thank goodness there was a huge time lapse in the hard copies because he had everything made into slides for years and my younger brother is the custodian of those! And, honestly, how many pictures of my adorable children do I really need?

And then there are the scrapbook items. Good grief! Some items are interesting - the closing document from my family's first house in 1954 was one short page. Payment due: $54.00! Greeting cards are another thing. Aren't those hard to pitch, too?

Okay. I apologize for being so long winded and putting everyone to sleep. Thanks for letting me ramble.

[Mikeod]

Originally Posted by Pturner

I did the same, Ooper. For my parent's 60th anniversary several years ago, I gave them a digital picture frame with the digitized family photos. I also made a music video that had a four-generation family history. I Played it at their anniversary party and gave them the CD, which can be played on the digital photo frame.

We sort of did the same. We had old, old photos of my dad when he was a kid through high school, college and beyond. For his 70th birthday, we made a video of his life through those pictures and movies and gave it to him. We were really glad we had it when we lost him almost two years later.

[cquick]

We went through as many as possible to get rid of pic after pic after pic of "that really interesting rock formation" or "that really unusual view" or the many pics of scenery taken from the car window.

Kept any that had the kids in them.....or friends. I also sent any I had of my brothers and sister as kids to their kids......nothing like spreading the wealth!

Our biggest problem is the artwork we have purchased and collected from Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line. We had room at our old house. Not sure what to hang in the new house.

[zcaveman]

I went through the entire box that I have a few months ago. I plan on sorting them into some meaningful order and scanning them into the PC and set up online photo albums.

Then I will shred the pics and the negatives.

[getdul981]

I have had the intention of scanning all the photos we have and our parents had for years. Just can't seem to find my round tuit.