Pictures are among my most treasured belongings.

I love seeing the faces of my ancestors, watching family members change over the years, reliving fun moments and rekindling forgotten memories.

Mystery newspaper photo of Daddy, Uncle Bob, Aunt Jan, Aunt Lois, Grandma Brenke, Uncle Al and Uncle Ernie. Where was it published?

Photographs and photo albums, slides and negatives, archival storage containers and digitized images consume space all around me. But not in the fun “Oooh, let’s look at pictures” way. More in the anxiety-producing “OMG I really need to get a better system for this stuff” way.

And this is the year that’s gonna happen!

In the past I sorted photos by date. As if I would remember the year Uncle Charlie wore that super funny hat! Now, as part of my 2016 plan to Preserve the Past, I’m organizing by subject’s name.

First I scan each photo as a TIFF and again as a JPG. The TIFF image goes into the subject(s) folder(s) on my computer, at Dropbox and at Snapfish. I can edit the JPG image if necessary without tampering with the original photo (i.e. the TIFF).

Next I order new prints from Snapfish if the original is in a size other than 4×6. Once the pictures arrive (usually about a week) I file one copy in each person’s archive box. That way everyone can have their own copies of all the pictures in which they appear.

Digitally, the photos are safe because they are filed on my computer, on Dropbox, and at Snapfish. Physically the photos are stored in archival-quality containers – one for each member of my family.

It’s a great plan, right?

But… we all know people who make great plans and do nothing else. I mean, I’ve heard of people like that, haven’t you?

That isn’t going to happen to me 🙂 because I’m going to share my photos here and on Twitter, so you can see how my project is coming along.

Wish me luck!