Photo Downsizing & Organizing Video Series

A 3 Step Recipe to Downsize Your Photos

Let’s face it, what are we going to do with all those photographs? 

There is a lot of time, energy, and resources that go into taking a photo, printing a photo, sharing a photo, etcetera. And over the years you may be collected a lot of photos and now are uncertain of what to do with them all. I found myself in a similar position and below I share my solution to the challenge of making that decision. 

Remember, this solution won’t work for everyone, but it worked for me and my family. Have a peek and enjoy the videos.

Step ONE: Deciding to Go Digital

The Challenge I was facing:

My grandmother died and I inherited a very heavy photo album that she organized before her death. It was a lovely dedication to her family, but it was difficult to transport, share, and store.

The Solution:

• spend time making photos digital
• create a condensed version with the digital photos in a photo book online and print it
• let go of original photos and photo album

Step TWO: Scan the Photos

The Kitchener Public Library saved me hours of time and provided me with access to the tools I needed to downsize and declutter my photo collection.  In the video below, you can see a brief overview of the Epson FastFoto FF-640 and Cannon 9000f Mark II Scanner. I used both of these devices, for free with my library card, to digitalize over 550 photos in less than 2 hours.

You don’t have to be a tech expert to use these tools. The staff demonstrated all of the equipment for me and also were there for any questions I had. An absolute pleasure that I recommend you take advantage of.

Information about the devices I used:

Epson FastFoto FF-640

• Digitize your photo collection with the world’s fastest photo scanner
• Scan as fast as 1 photo per second
• Restore, edit, crop, and batch name photos
• Accommodates fragile and panoramic photos

Canon 9000f Mark II Scanner

• Scan documents, photos, slides, or film strips
• Convert to JPG/Exif, PNG, TIFF, or PDF
• Save to USB or email digital file
• Maximum optical resolution: 4800dpi
• Maximum document size: 8.5″ x 11.7″

Step THREE: Ordering Photo Album Hardcopy & Share

It was important to me to still have a hard copy of the photos that my Grandma had worked so hard to organize before she died. I wanted to gift this photo album to my parents and knew it will be something that I will be able to see whenever I visit. I ended up using Photo Book Canada, but there are so many options to get your album printed (if you even choose to print a hard copy). Below is a summary of how I felt about this project.

Positive results are:

• I have more space on my shelf
• photos are now digitally archived
• photos are easily shareable with relatives and friends
• backed up in case of damage to the physical book
• the weight of my storage has decreased significantly (making it easier and cheaper to move if that need arises)
• a lasting physical album that can be passed around or handed down

Negative results:

• time invested was 4.5 hours
• difficulty letting go of original copies of photographs
• $50 spent on printing final photo album

Final thoughts?

The positive results far outnumbered the negative results of this project (for me). Not everyone will find it easy to let go of physical copies of photographs. However, you have to decide what is important for you “to keep” and “to let go of,” everyone will be different.

I’m really proud that my community has such an amazing resource like The Kitchener Public Library. I would not have been able to complete this project for free without the access to technology that they provided to me as a library user. Thanks for being awesome and continuing to allow our community to learn and grow together.

Organizing photos and tips for sharing them with others.

Every year we’re taking thousands of photos, but what happens after?

The biggest take away from this segment with Rosie DelCampo and CTV’s Quick Fix segment is to ask yourself, “What will I do with the photo after I take it?” Remember the more photos you take results in more photos for you to organize. 

5 Ways to get photos organized:

• Get Help — enlist your family or friends to help sort and decide on what print photos to keep and which to let go of. This is a great activity for families who are challenged with large amounts of family albums.
• Digitalize — clear the photo clutter and get those images into digital storage
• Make a Photobook — this can be done with a traditional album, scrapbook, or printed digital book
• Prioritize — select a spot to display in the home and set a limit to how many are displayed
• Digital Frames or Screensavers — link your digital folders to a screensaver or upload images to a rotating digital frame for trips down memory lane

Watch Samantha downsize all the photos she inherited from her grandma here.

We hope you enjoy this segment. If you have questions or want to see something different please comment below!

As you make your move towards living paperless, know that you’ll still have SOME papers you have to keep.

Paperless Myth: You can be completely paper free.

The truth is you are required by law to keep tax files, birth certificates, and proof of ownership paperwork… just to name a few.

But don’t let this get you down. The paperwork that you are required to keep can be safely stored and filed in less space then a single bankers box or similar.

Going paperless with all of the remaining paperwork that you receive on a daily basis can be significantly reduced or eliminated all together. And let me tell you from experience, letting go of paper is an immensely rewarding lifestyle change. See the image below in which we store our personal paper files and our business files in just one filing cabinet. The remaining important documents that we deem important to refer to, but don’t require a hard copy of are stored digitally.

5 Tips to get started going paperless

• ONE: No Junk Mail – get a piece of masking tape and write “No Junk Mail” and affix this to your mail box. Believe it or not, post office workers obey this instruction. It won’t stop all unsolicited mail from getting in your mail box, but it will reduce it.
  If you have a private box, you can leave these instructions in person at the post office where you pick up your mail.

• TWO: Recycle Bin – get in the habit now of making a decision the first time you read your paper work and have a recycle bin in place to toss papers that you do not need to keep.

• THREE: Paperless Billing – switch over your monthly bills to digital (you’ll be forced to eventually) and create a habit or routine to make sure you know how to find and pay your bills as they occur. We’ll dive into Digital Organizing in a later blog, if you want to learn more on this topic send us an email.

• FOUR: Let Go – the most challenging step of going paperless is letting go of the backlog of paper work you have in your spaces. If you have difficulty knowing which papers you need to keep and which papers to let go of speak with the professionals in your life with whom you trust. If you want to learn how to Tame the Paper Clutter we have a course for that 🙂 Learn more about the course.

• FIVE: Set Paper Limits – Of course keep those papers that you deem irreplaceable, but set limits on how much you’re willing to store. I personally have a hat box that I keep stored under my dresser that holds a selection of cards, notes, letters, and other memento papers that I don’t want to part with. The hat box is the perfect storage space for these treasured notes, but it has a limit in what it can hold. As the box gets full, that’s when I know I need to declutter and par-down my collection.

Watch our latest Rogers Daytime 20 interview about Paper Management Tips.

Paper management could be very challenging for some people.

Every paper you have involves one decision you need to make. The more papers you have laying around, the more decisions you will need to make when you want to organize them.

Join host Susan Cook-Scheerer from Rogers Daytime 20 as she interviews Samantha Kristoferson and Emilio Jose Garcia from KW Professional Organizers. share tips and ideas to set up systems to get your papers organized.

Want to learn more? Read our post “Tips to win the constant battle against paper clutter“.

Are you having trouble with paper? Is tax season a stressful time for you? Can you find a paper when you need it?