Have you seen the Exposures site & catalog?

Here is a link that might be useful: Exposures

Expensive, but nice! I guess the big book would mean less work too! Thanks for the link!

If you google 'photo album', there are about 48 million responses. Just maybe there might be one for you in all that.

Good luck!

Barbara

Here's a question: why? I finally scanned all my photos, saved them on discs and then selected the very few that I wanted to actually save. Keeping zillions of out of focus snap shots that no one will ever want to see seemed pointless to me.

ideefixe, who's to say that jjkadaba69 would KEEP the out-of-focus snaps? Maybe she'd toss those as she goes. But she'd rather simply stick the prints she already has into an album.

I certainly hope you didn't spend time SCANNING any of those out-of-focus snaps--that would be a big waste of time.

I know people often suggest scanning your pictures, but I just can't wrap my head around it. Talk about chore clutter! Another thing to put on your to-do-list, and another system to organize.

Plus, the whole POINT of pictures is to LOOK at them. I have yet to see anyone live in a world in which digital pictures get looked at after they're taken. The very format makes it difficult. If course, if your pictures are already digital, then you'll want to store them digitally, and figure out how to look at them (I love the idea of those electronic frames that display digital pictures).

Of course, I'm still film-only, and MY pictures don't get looked at after they're taken either. That would be the point of getting albums and slipping the pictures in there--it would be easiER to look at them.

And the fastest way to get pictures that are ALREADY printed to be easily view-able is to simply stick them in an album, right as they are. Without the intermediate step of scanning them. The process of moving the photos from one format to another seems like a major waste of time.

jjkadaba69, maybe you should price out 3-ring binders, and plastic page protectors.

The other option is to buy as many as you can find from a place like Target or Kmart all at once time, so they'll match. Start saving up the ear-marked money first, and then pick a time to go spend $100 or more on matching albums.

You can also pick a basic color (maybe medium blue w/ yellow), and then buy ones that coordinate whenever & wherever you can find them.

Also, it's only the SPINE that will be seen when they're on the shelf, so you can simply pick a basic design & size, and then not worry about color so much, and so you can buy them in stages.

Thanks guys! I did the google thing and Barbara's right, there were a kabillion responses and there's no way I'm going through all of that! That's what great advice sites like this one is for, right? I would rather have a personal recommendation than a clickable link anyday!

Ideefixe-I'm a computer junkie and most would think that I'd be the first to scan them all onto a cd, but it's impersonal to get out the photo album by opening your laptop. I mean, it's the guests who come to our home that like to see pics and thumb through albums so that's why I want a "hard copy" so to speak. I think it's nostalgic.

Tallysue-I tried the 3 ring binder thing and made even more of a mess. The plastic page protectors aren't the same size and stick out the end (looks kindof preschoolish) and so I gave up on that. I was thinking to buy a whole bunch of nice ones, wouldn't ya know it the price on the ones I like are up there!

Ok, so middle of the road, I've decided to go with scrapbook binders that can be customized per decade and I can go back and add pages. I can put one of them on my coffee table when guests come by and still have the rest of the collection on the bookshelf.

I'm waiting for the biggest sale at the craft store when I can get a bunch for cheap! Maybe after xmas?

Thanks everybody!

The scrapbook binders sound nice--you can easily combine photos w/ other stuff if you want to (programs from school events or people's weddings, your family's yearly Christmas letter, stuff like that).

i went looking at the photo albums online, and can't find the one photo-album size that appeals to me. I *think* the one linked below is one I have thought was sensible.

The biggest thing for me would be to find a single common size that I liked, and then stick w/ that. There is one I've seen (it's tallish and skinny-ish), but I'm having trouble finding it in that horrendously huge list you get on Google.

My mom has bought me a big refillable photo album--by Webway, i'm pretty sure--but I haven't expanded on it.

I think maybe the best choice is to big a size that will be around for awhile--the 12x12 pages of a scrapbook is going to be pretty long-lived, I think. And you can find plastic pocket pages for photos for that size, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: a size I like--this is from Staples

What I did. I'm talking about the old photos from years back. First I dedicated time and just sorted into boxes, lids, piles. Really old -my family, my school days, early marriage etc. Then the kids group pics, individual piles for each boy, the of course the pets, Christmas decor etc.

They sat around in their own boxes for a while. Then I decided to just get regular 3 ring binders and the slip in from the top clear sheets. Since I had a lot of scrapbook paper I just started gluing on each page (with archival glue stick) the photos. For example I tried to put them in a kind of time line. I might have made a note on the page as to when and what, then I'd slip them in the clear page thing one in the front and one in the back so there would be a front and back .
I ended up with a notebook or two for each of the catagories I mentioned. They are resting on a bookshelf. I still have quite a few more boxes to go through but get tired of looking at so many old photosw.

I think maybe the finished products were looked at one or two times.
Now I take digital photos and very seldom print any out. They are stored in the computer and on disks.

I think before you go to a lot of trouble figure out who is going to be interested in looking at them (if any) at a later date

I had gone through all of my photos a couple of years ago just before all the kids would be visiting. I gave each of them most of the pictures of themselves. They were really happy to have them and I'm sure some of those memories of meant more to them than to me. They spent a whole evening reminiscing and showing photos to each other.

You get a good deal on albums at Costco or Sams club. You buy a pack of 2 & they come in 3/4 colors.

Minnie is so right: Think about who will enjoy them later. I inherited many, many old photo albums of relatives from the early 1900s through the 1970s, all labeled neatly and organized, and no one is interested in them. Most albums were put together as the pictures were taken, a few were organized in a project of my mother's. They have never been looked at by anyone since they were put together, as far as I know. Yet I hate to throw them away.

I have many boxes full of unorganized pics of my kids from 1968 to the present that they love to go through that I've always wished were in albums. The grandkids love to find pics of their parents in there. I would never be able to find a particular pic, though, and that has always bothered DH and me.

Seems like an awful lot of effort to me, unless you were making representative albums to give to specific people. But, consider the source - I am disorganized to begin with and lazy to boot! If it makes you happy, I hope you find just the albums you're looking for and find pleasure in your project.

Sherry

but just because someone won't look at them 20 years from now doesn't mean you shouldn't tuck the photos in an album so YOU can look at them NOW!

My dad has said: One of the most important duties of a parent is to create memories for and IN our kids. (this from his perspective after the death of HIS dad at age 99.75) Talking about events, reminiscing, and looking at photos are the way you do that.

I think if the kids are going through the pictures that are tossed willy-nilly in a box, then you've accomplished your purpose.

The idea is not to be neat and beautiful, etc. The idea is to LOOK at them.

Which is one reason why I've considered using photo boxes for the photos only; my mom does this, simply labeling the envelopes she brings home from the photo store (she sorts out the crummy pics) and sticking them right in the boxes she has on her shelves. And she gets them out later.

I recently bought great little boxes suitable for keeping photos at the Dollar Store. Dollar Tree and a different one in town. They are foldup boxes, When your unfold and put the lid on they are everybit as sturdy and attractive as the ones sold in Michael's or Hobby Lobby for a lot more money. They are about 2 1/2" shorer than the regular boxes

Here is a link that might be useful: