Sunday, June 14, 2009

Blitz-It Friday - Picture Organization Week #2


This was the first full week of my big summer project - the top shelf in our bedroom closet, full of pictures, photo albums, etc.

GOALS FOR LAST WEEK (JUNE 8 - 12):
  1. One hour sorting / purging.
  2. Research negatives-to-CD.

Although I technically met my goals for the week, but I am beginning to realize that this project is going to take more time than I originally expected.

I started my hour long blitz by pulling out all the memory boxes that were stacked on the shelf. This will be the first part of the closet shelf I will tackle. When I opened them, I was pleased to find that the boxes were fairly well organized.


The first three were full of letters from friends and family. I am so sentimental about cards and letters that people have given me. In addition to these boxes, almost a quarter of our file cabinet is filled with correspondence that needs to be cleared out. Although I need to tackle this, it is not a good place to start -- I would be overwhelmed by my project before I accomplished anything.


The next two boxes are filled with unsorted memorabilia and souvenirs -- more stuff to sort. Eeek! These boxes will also have to wait until later in my project.


The last three I opened were full of pictures and negatives. I was surprised at much film we have here. These are what I am hoping to preserve digitally on film. There are about 85 rolls worth negatives from the last 20 years. I was originally planning on having everything transferred to CD, however, because the film is already developed, that option may prove to be too expensive.

My hour was spent going through the pictures and negatives, putting them in order and becoming familiar with what we have.

I also started the research on converting these negatives to digital files. The best option I have found is Sam's Club. They charge $0.21 per picture -- I would have to sort through every single roll and choose every each picture that I wanted transferred. Now that sounds like a lot of work.

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK (JUNE 13 - 19):
  1. Spend at least one hour blitzing this project.
  2. Begin converting negatives to CD.
  3. Sort pictures that need to be scanned.
  4. Create a better plan and timeline for this project, so it is completed before our move.

Has anyone else transferred their negative to CD? Do you have any recommendations? I could really use a better option.

Stop by Organized Everyday for more projects that are being blitzed.

2 comments:

Sunshine Eyes said...

Oh my heavens - I'm so impressed you tackled this! I would SO LOVE to find a way to digitize our negatives (only went to a digital camera in late 2001 - I have much life to catch up on!) Let me know if you find a better solution than Sams Club.

And well done, you! for tackling all this before you move!!

Sarah Catherine

Jena Webber said...

Sorry I'm so late in commenting on this. This is a HUGE project!! My son, Jamie, is scanning my photos into the computer. It's probably not as techno as digitzing the negatives, but it has produced pretty good results. I'd like to hear how it goes for you. I have found that we are saving far too many photos for each event. You can probably eliminate a lot of photos by going through them and just saving the good ones. Good job.