Blitz-It Friday - Picture Organization Week #4

This was a great week for blitzing. I was able to accomplish so much on this project. Here were my goals and what I got done...


GOALS FOR LAST WEEK (JUNE 20 - 26):

Goal 1: Spend at least two hours blitzing this project
I was on a roll several evenings in a row and spent about six hours blitzing this week.

Goal 2: Continue converting negatives to CD
I did not have any opportunities to get to the library for scanning this week. This part of the project is going to have to wait for some future occasion. Maybe a few years down the road the technology will be more available and affordable.

Goal 3: Finish sorting the pictures to be scanned
I have sorted through what seems like a million pictures this week, but still have not determined what needs to be scanned.

Below you can see the stack of albums that I pulled from the shelf.

I sorted through all these books to see if I really needed to keep everything. I was inspired by Organizing Mommy at Organized Everyday to keep only the pictures that are actually good. I cleared out doubles, blurry pictures, shots of the back of heads, those with weird looks, etc. It was very freeing.

I reduced the keepers to the stack you see in the picture below
(leaving 11 albums, down from 18).

Goal 4: Begin scanning pictures
I did not have a chance to start scanning pictures. This is going to take some time, but at least I can do it at home in the evenings.

Goal 5: Sort through remaining stuff in the closet
I am almost done sorting through everything on that closet shelf. There is still one box of unsorted pictures that needs to be organized. I left the biggest mess for last ... and the pile has grown as I sorted through the letters and cards in our file cabinet.



It was a great week, but I am out of time. This project has to be done by this Tuesday, so I can move on to the next project. Here are my goals for the last few days ...

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK (JUNE 27 - 30):

1. Spend at least two hours blitzing
   
2. Finish scanning pictures
3. Condense the storage space needed for negatives
   
4. Finish organizing the unsorted pictures
   
5. Pack up the albums and pictures for the move
   

Stay tuned for the announcement of my next summer blitzing project.

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

Blitz-It Friday - Picture Organization Week #3

I had a great week working on this project. But sorry, no pictures this week. Here were my goals and what I was able to get done.

GOALS FROM LAST WEEK (JUNE 13 - 19):

Goal 1: Spend at least one hour blitzing this project
This week I was able to spend three one-hour blitzing sessions. I spent two hours sorting letters, notes, souvenirs, etc. I decided to tackle all the letters and cards that have been waiting in my file cabinet at the same time. I was able to reduce everything down to one box of letters and one box of souvenirs.

Goal 2: Begin converting negatives to CD
Last week I was bemoaning the fact that it would cost over $650 at Sam's Club (the cheapest option) to convert our 85 rolls of film.

I was talking with my hubby about how much we could actually budget to spend on this. In the middle of our conversation, he paused, grabbed his computer, looked something up online, then smiled at me. The school has a negative scanner that I can use for FREE. WooHoo!

I spent one hour at the library this week, to learn how to use the scanner and to start actually scanning. Now I have a pretty good idea how long it would take to scan everything. TOO LONG! I do not have 80+ hours to scan every roll of film. I will need to prioritize the rolls to scan and just leave the rest for another time.

Goal 3: Sort the pictures that need to be scanned
I started sorting pictures that need to be scanned, but haven't gotten very far. First I need to determine which pictures that don't have negatives, but that are important enough to spend the time scanning. I will need to work on this more next week.

Goal 4: Create a more-detailed project plan
I was only planning on spending another 11 days on this project. That should be enough time to finish sorting all the remaining stuff on the top of the closet. However, that will probably not be enough time to complete all the scanning I was hoping to get done. Once I am done sorting, I will have a better idea how much time I need for scanning.


GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK (JUNE 20 - 26):

1. Spend at least two hours blitzing
   
2. Continue scanning negatives
3. Finish sorting the pictures to be scanned
4. Begin scanning pictures
5. Sort through remaining stuff in the top of the closet
6. Finalize the project plan and time line.

I am getting more aggressive with my goals for this week. I cannot afford to spend all summer on this project. There are too many other areas that need my attention.

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

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.

Cleaning Our Closets ... again!

This week I am focusing on cleaning out our closets ... again. We do this every spring and fall, as the seasons change. And I am inspired to get this done before the PTS community clothing exchange this coming weekend.

A few days ago, I spent several hours working on the kid's closet. We filled five garbage-size bags of clothes to donate to the clothing exchange. At least two of the bags are full of summer clothes from last year that I was saving for the spring exchange.

Sometimes I wonder how these kids end up with so many clothes. But it is not something I am going to complain about. I am so thankful for all the hand me downs from friends and family that keep my kids well clothed throughout the year!

I'm not sure if I will have time to clean out my own clothes by tomorrow, but that is my goal. Either way, I am very pleased with all that we got done this week.

Picture organization...

I was going to participate in Org Junkie's Monthly Organizing Round-Up this month, but couldn't seem to make enough progress. The project for the month of March was Picture Organization.

Digital photography is wonderful and horrible at the same time. I love being able to take a million pictures to capture that perfect look; and I love looking through the pictures before spending money to print them; and I love have the ability to fix red-eye and other picture issues; but I hate the additional effort this new technology requires to get to the final product.

I don't have a problem downloading pictures, and I even have an okay file structure for all the pictures, but I never get around to getting prints of my pictures.

One thing I have decided this month while trying to tackle years worth of pictures ... I am going to start creating photo books that come to me already printed. That may seem horrible to those of you who are wonderful at creating albums, but I really think this will work best for me (plus, I don't have a hair's worth of talent at scrap booking).

Org Junkie shared her system on her latest post Six Steps to Picture Organization. The step that I really need to add is step 2 -- "Copy." I need to start using a "to Print" folder and fill it every time I download pictures. That way I don't have to go back through hundreds of pictures to find the few that I want to print.

How do you organize your photos? And how to you get those digital pictures into albums?

On a side note, do any of you have a good recommendation for printed photo books (without paying an arm and a leg)?

Art Display

When Joshua started creating his masterpieces, I made this great system for displaying the art in our hallway (inspired by our previous downstairs neighbors). However, this poor area has been neglected lately.

I keep adding things, but never taking down the old. It became overly crowded and would no longer "show off" his creations properly. It just looked and felt messy. There were also a few places where the clothes pins had been torn off by an overly excited kid.

Yesterday, I finally tackled the art work....

Here is the display half-way through the project (I forgot to take a before picture). I had already sorted several layers of art by this point.

And here is the after shot!

I filed a few of my favorites from the old artwork (the turkey from thanksgiving that was made using his own hand print, the foot print he made with finger paints, etc.) and recycled the rest (I had to assume that there will be plenty more masterpieces in the future).

I also replaced the missing clothes pins, so now there is maximum display space again. And I spread out his current creations to properly enjoy them before they are replaced by new ones.

For more of this week's tackles, check out Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. Yes, once again I am posting this a day late, but at least the work was done on Tuesday.

Hats & Scarves

Since the tackling all my paper problems last month, I have been neglecting my "problem areas." I was overwhelmed by the size of my projects and couldn't get up the motivation to start something I knew there wasn't time to finish.

Our entry closet is the next big problem area that I need to tackle. I would love to just pull everything out, sort it all (PURGE) and put it all back in an organized fashion. But in reality, I would get it all pulled out and barely start the sorting when something (children) would need my immediate and extended attention. The end of the day would come, my hubby would come home and I (along with a kid or two) would be surrounded by piles of stuff from the closet and ready to cry.

What I really need to do is think smaller, break the projects down into manageable pieces. So, today I had a few minutes (about 20) to spend on a project before my daughter woke up from her nap. What project could I complete in just a few minutes? I decided to tackle the winter wear that has been piling up in the top of our closet. It has been a source of frustration for months now, never being able to find that matching glove, or grabbing three hats out before finding one that still fits the kids.

Here is how I was storing the hats, gloves and scarves before --
in a big box on the top of the closet.

And here is my solution to this disaster.
I used a shoe sorter that is designed to hang on the back of the door.

Now everyone can find their winter accessories quickly. The kids can even reach their own, making them feel important and helping us get out the door little bit faster!

For more great "tackles", check out Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. (yes, I know it is Wednesday... but better late than never, right?)

Going Paperless

A few days ago, I posted some of our Green Goals for 2009. In our effort to go paperless, I am working on a new system for dealing with all our digital documentation. Here are a few ideas that have helped me.


~DIGITAL STATEMENTS~

Download bank statements, bills, credit card statements, etc. and keep them on your computer. At the end of the year (or after you finish your taxes), burn the files onto a data CD and store them with your paper files. If you are limited on digital storage space, just keep a few months at time.

Don't be too concerned if you lose something, or didn't save it locally. Most places have access to past files on their web sites. If they don't have what you need, you can always call them requesting a paper copy be sent to you (I had to do this last year for an old cell phone statement). Some places also have year-end statements that can replace all the monthly files.


~ORGANIZATION~
(How long to keep files)

You can burn files onto different CD's based on how long they need to be kept (so eventually you can destroy the old CD's). For example, digital copies of taxes should to be kept forever (I keep these on my computer even after I burn a CD, for easy access). But most bank statements and bills only need to be kept for one to three years.

For more information about how long to keep things, check out the IRS document Record Keeping for the Individual.


~ONLINE CONFIRMATIONS ~
(Making your own digital files)

Whenever you complete financial transactions online, they often have a confirmation page they suggest you print for your records. There are two ways to do this without creating more paper.

1. Copy and paste the info into an email and send it to yourself.
2. Create a PDF containing the information.

If it is something that you need short-term (until it shows up on your credit card statement, or until a product arrives, etc) the email method is great - you can delete it when you no longer need it. If it is something you need long-term, create a PDF and file with everything else important.

MAC's create PDF's easily, but on a PC you need specific software. I use PDF995 to create all my PDF's. They have a free version that does a great job. It works like a printer -- you just select PDF995 as your printer and it will pop up a window asking where to save the file (then you have to look at their ad for 30 seconds - the price of "free").


What strategies do you use to organize your digital files? Please share your questions and ideas!