Take A Picture, It Lasts Longer

Solutions: Photo Storage

I'm now four months into this whole parenting thing and I now realize that the biggest problem is not the continuous stream of spit-up, but the never-ending flood of photographs. There are nights that I wake up in a sweat worried about whether or not I got copies of the photos from Easter that we took on my husband's camera and not my own. Then there are the nights that I worry about the eventual change of technology that will make our digital photos obsolete like so many of my (I'm sure) adorable antics lost forever on my parents' Super-8 movies.

But, I've devised a plan to deal with this photo organization nightmare:

Step 1: Invest in photo albums. I bought plain linen-covered books from Target and then used a rubber stamp to decorate. (Crafty!) For a cheaper solution, three-hole punched vinyl sleeves easily pop into a binder. On the spendier side, these lovely felt books (left) from Kate's Paperie will be nice when the baby wants to look at images of her younger self.

Step 2: Upload and print pictures quarterly (or when I remember). I upload photos to Snapfish and have them printed for 10 cents each at the local Walgreens. I could have them sent to my house which saves time but adds postage cost (and gas to get them here).

Step 3: Have an archival box for less-impressive photos. Having a box handy to store pictures as a way-station and then sort them once a year and pitch out pictures you don't love.