Old Family Photos

Here is a place that will scan photographs pretty affordably: http://www.scanmyphotos.com/photoscanning.html.

Ditch those frames...and put the photos in an archival box or sleeves. I just did the same thing and I cannot even begin to tell you how much space I regained. Many many cubic feet of space.

I would hang the oil painting in your child's room; it's cool to have unique pics of the parents as children in the kids' room! Also, remove the images from the frames and store them in an archival-safe box. A great place for archival-safe storage boxes and albums is Archival Methods.
http://www.archivalmethods.com/
I am a professional historian and photographer, so I can authoritatively say that their products are fantastic. They even supply several key national archives with storage products!

I would scan them all and load them onto a digital picture frame or 2 so you don't have to have so many frames. Then you can take them all out of the frames and store them in an acid free box. As far as the oil painting if you don't want to hang that you can store it in an acid free box also.

Hi J.! You'll probably get lots of people that tell you they need to go into a quality album...and they do. But for now my suggestion is to take them out of the frames (donate all the frames to Friends of the Inn, etc), get an acid free storage box from Container store (they come in various sizes) use a photo pencil (soft lead) to mark any details like age, date on the back of the photos and put them in the box until you have time to do an album. I do know that CM has new albums that you can just slide in photos but I think it's just 4x6 sizes. Hope you find this helpful! L.

I would buy an archival quality scrapbook and put the photos in there. You don't have to do any scrapbooking, but just put them in and keep them safely preserved. I have a great Creative Memories contact if you need one-- you can get quality adhesive and safe for your photos pages.
A.

I would scan them no matter what. then, remove from the frames and put in a photo-safe box. My ex is one of those SUPER-sensitive people about photos and we did this with his. As for the oil painting...hmmm - maybe ask a local antique store about how to store it! I have no idea!

HTH!!

Hi, J.,

I am a photographer and the family genealogist and it kills me to see family photos stashed away and even worse, in thrift shops.

I certainly understand not having enough space to hang them all, but they should be preserved. Do you have a place to store them where they're in an controlled air environment, such as a closet, etc? Certainly not in an attic where the heat will destroy those memories. If not, is there someone else in the family who would love to be the keeper of the family treasures?
Whatever you decide, it would be a very good idea to have copies made of all the pictures (either through scanning or having photographs taken of each one and keep a disc or thumb drive of the images in a safe place (safe deposit box, etc.) so that you don't lose those momentos. And you could also have a family history book made through shutterfly, My Publisher, etc. Just a note, not trying to sell you my services, but I have taken pictures of pictures, and I design family history type books - have done one for my mother and my mother-in-law. if you'd like to see examples of what I've done, I can send you samples - my email is ____@____.com

Whatever you do, please treasure your family photos. Once their gone, their gone!

Hope that helps,
Chris Leiter

You've gotten very good advice. Put them all in a photo album or scan them into digital format at your local photo store like CVS, Walmart, Target etc.. Scan them at the photo kiosk and select digital photo cd as a backup in case something happens to the originals.

I think that I would take them out of the frames and put them into a good photo book. Also, can you scan them into your computer and have a disk of the pictures. The oil painting...well I dont know about that one! But you could get most of them into a bigger photo album I would guess. ~A.~

Oh my gosh!!! Put them in an album-or better yet let MIL do it as a gift to you-and put the ominous baby picture in storage- or ask MIL to hang onto it for you.

Hope this doesn't sound too harsh, but I just can't imagine! You needroom to breathe and I can't see how you could even turn around in your house without baby hubby smiling at you from somewhere! :) It seems almost like a Twilight Zone episode! (meant in the nicest way, of course!)

When I received almost the same thing from my MIL, I took all the photos out of the frames. Got rid of the frames and kept photos in a box. Don't feel bad for getting rid of anything.

J.,

If you have a MAC computer you can create photo books, arrange the photos the way you want, add verbiage and everything, then send them off and they will print them into a photo book for you and deliver it to your door. Prices range from 3.99 to 21.99 depending on the size and type of book that you choose. You could also make them into a calender. Check out the site apple.com. or http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/print-products.html There are also other good sites like shutterfly and snapfish.com that you can do it really cheap or free. Once you decide, then put them away in a binder or scrap book for safe keeping. Whatever you do,don't give them back to MIL, save them for your children. It might be fun to hang the photo in the new baby's room alongside a photo of each baby to look at the likeness.

Scrapbook or photo album

J.,
I offer a photo archival service with my business Unforgettable Slide Shows (www.unforgettableslideshows.com).
I scan all photos at a high resolution, then use basic photo restoration techniques, and finally save all images on a CD or DVD. The photo restoration techniques I use are:
- Red eye removal
- Scratch removal
- Color / Contrast / Brightness balancing
- Sharpen image

I also produce photo and video montages as well; an idea for a neat way to "display" your old photos.

I agree with the other women who recommend storing your photos in an archival-quality container (I love the Power Sort Box from Creative Memories) or an archival-quality album.

And if you have the capability to scan the photos yourself, then you should do that as well. Or give me a call and I will scan and enhance your old photos for you. Even if you just need advice on scanning your photos, feel free to email or call me.

Take care,
A.
____@____.com
###-###-####

My mother runs a business through Heritage Book Makers. It is a great way to scan all your old pics and make them into one simple memory book. Please contact her at ###-###-####. She will be able to provide you with her website that you can view lots of great project ideas.

Might be a bit of work; however, you could scan them to store them on a hard drive or cd (although the cd will ruin over time). Good luck!

someone probbly already said this but I didn't take time to read all the replies. I'd just take all the photos out of those old frames, toss them (donate would be good if they are in nice condition)and then put the photos in an album. Now, i'm not talking about going all out with a fancy scrapbook--unless you wanted to--which it didn't really sounds like you would...but rather just get a quality archival quality book and mount the photos one per page (i figure if they are framed they could possibly all be at least 5x7 or larger...)or a few perpage if they are smaller and that's it. The painting i'd display if you like it or store it in a safe manner if you aren't nuts about it. the photos in the album would be easy...just get photo corners rather than using adhesive so that the photos are still removeable.

they sell a photo frame that hangs on your wall which you put one photo to displat and then you open it and it has slides for a flip through album type thing. It was designed or your children so you can display the newest picture but have the others right at hand. On the oil painting if it is on hard board you will just have to hang it somewhere if it is on a soft canvas then you can have it removed from the backing and rolled and sealed to store in a tube. If you do not want to display it in your home you can hang it behind like a china cabnet, dresser,entertainment center anything so it stays in the same climate as your home. I have original photos of my 4x great grandmother that I did not want to display but did want to show the picture so I took it to a professional and had it reproduce and they sealed the original for storage and I bought an underbed storage box and put it in there along with all my other photos. I bought a photo printer that will scan photos to disc and will even scan negatives to the disk and am packing all these away in that box. See if there is a local scrap booking club in your area and call them they will be a wealth of information on storing and displaying photos.

If you are interested in storybooking these pictures, please check out my website: www.MyPhotobookStory.com. I am a consultant with Heritage Makers.

The templates are 100% customizable, it's all online, and there are webinars and youtube videos to help you.

Watch this 5min video to give you an idea of what we are about! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irdqtq7mF6Y

Please contact me at ____@____.com for more information.

J.,
I highly recommend the Creative Memories Power Sort Box. It organizes up to 2400 photos....up to 5 x 7 size and then on the lid there is a spot for large photos up to 11 x 14 photos. I have 3, for my family photos. In addition, for your daughter, if you put every photo in there as she grows up, instead of like I did...they were everywhere around the house, her whole life will be in chronological order in photos! Your family photos will be completely organized!

You can view it as www.mycmsite.com/marycluley then "shop products" then "tradional scrapbooking" then "organizers." It is probably our most popular product.

I hope I have helped you in some way. Have a great Saturday!

Hi J.!
I used a 3-ring binder and clear sheet protectors to store all my odd sized photos. My little "redneck" photo album LOL!
~A.

Whatever you do, do not get rid of these priceless photos! Even if they don't mean that much to him now, they will later, and will also be special for your children. I would suggest buying a few of the under-the-bed storage boxes, and putting them in those under beds. I would leave them framed, but if that won't work, you could store them carefully without the frames. I promise you'll be glad you kept them!