I finished carefully reading the latest posts. Besides the numerous things that have been accomplished, the insights and thoughts that have been shared have been so amazing.

@nebslp ...I agree with @MadisonMolly2017, I think that it would be interesting and beneficial to continue to share ideas about what anyone is doing with their photos in this discussion. Even if someone isn't working on them now, the time will hopefully come! You both have already shared many insights and ideas. Thank you! I have been working on and off with our photos over the years. Your posts have been inspirational. Actually it is part of what has prompted me to do more than I expected to do in my Little Room .

@themedalist, I loved the extra baskets story! What a great example of how we can change/ declutter an area when we see things from a new perspective or with a different mindset. I'm not sure if those are two different things or one and the same :noway: . I really appreciated the Spring DeclutterFest and look forward to Summer's . Personally, I really liked it being for two weeks also. Long enough to get into the decluttering mood, but not so long as to become over whelming or feel like it was going on forever.

April 15: 5 1/2 hours yard clean up after the weekend storm / winds, also included extra work in the yard.
April 16: I decluttered and lightly organized the pantry/ storage closet (yay! as that area has surely been irritating me as of late) located in the laundry room
April 17: I cleared off the craft table in the "little room" and also took out the bins I "temporarily" stashed in there. Then I colored for a while
April 18: I took care of some papers and mail that had started to gather on the dining room table.
April 19: I decluttered and re-organized the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
April 20: Today I decluttered the back porch: The last 3 bags of mulch that were on the porch are now spread out in the garden. Then I blew off the back porch and straightened it up. The mulch job in the Back Fence Garden is finally finished!

April 21: Rest day!
April 22: I started decluttering/ reorganizing the storage cabinet near the back porch. I finished it later that evening!
April 23: I decided that I was going to take a grocery sack around the house to pick up obvious clutter, or out of place stuff, off of flat surfaces in the front part of the house. The dining room table was still clear!! It only took a few minutes!!
April 24: I began deep cleaning and decluttering the "little room" in earnest now that I had cleared that table off last week. I will continue later on this week.
April 25: I delcuttered the grand childen's craft box, then I decluttered more of my books, filling a paper-bag. Later on I dropped them off at Goodwill while out running various errands.
April 26: Back into the little room: Today I am decluttering and re-organizing the student drafting desk that two of my son's used back in the day.
April 27: Cleared off another flat surface. Getting rid of what I didn't want. This area became the catch all for a lot of paper that could be used in various ways. Plus cards received etc. I put them into several piles. Next week I will start to sort to keep or toss or put away.

April 28: Rest Day!
Yesterday my son asked to borrowed the long folding table that I have in the Little Room for my grand daughter's first B'day party today. Because it was cleared off back on April 17th I was able to say yes immediately with out concern about how to get it ready to transport! I folded it up and put it by the door to either bring, or for him to stop by to get it.

I'm going to continue to get the Little Room back in shape. I'll probably change some things up as I'm trying to look at the room differently now. I've already gotten some ideas of how to make it prettier and more inviting so that I will use it more. Later on this week I will go through the short paper piles and make quick decisions. Then ...

:flowerforyou:

@MadisonMolly2017, what a nice update. And how cool is that that you will soon have an organizational solution for your "organized memorabilia & Best Photos"!

On Monday through Thursday this week I completed my "Little Room" by finishing any cleaning and surface decluttering that was left to finish after the spring Declutterfest ended.
I had completely declutterd and re-organized the drawers and closet several years ago when I was rearranging the room and decluttering those back then, so there was no need to address the drawers/closet again at this time. They have remained pretty organized .
I bought an new house plant plant, and brought another plant from another area in the house into the room to put on the dresser. I want to change the curtains now as those are the same ones that I put up for my daughter way back when we redecorated/ repainted her room for her birthday gift when she was away at church camp one summer when she was a young teen! It is time to update the room a little. She is 30 years old :laugh: .

:flowerforyou:

I love how things are so woo-woo sometimes. I had just finished sorting photos a week ago and was struggling with how to organize them. I happened to stop by the library last Friday and saw an almost expired community college spring class catalog on the desk. The librarian said I could take it home. Most classes have already been held but there is one for next weekend entitled Digital Photo Storage and Management that will teach about scanning and managing physical and digital photos and organizing them. I am so excited!!! I just finished registering. It seems answers to our needs are all around us if we keep looking. It's really fun when they're so unexpected and timely.

@MadisonMolly2017 You will get the photos done! I’ll share what I learn at the class if it’s helpful. Good for you for finishing up. Getting started is hard, but finishing is even harder. So many decisions!

I’ve done a lot with my photos but haven’t quite seen the light! Maybe a small glimmer... Several murky areas yet😏 I’m pretty satisfied with most groups but I have one called “multiple kids” that needs to be put in subgroups. I was putting that off but Saturday my SIL asked for pics of my daughter. Now I will have to go through that box to find photos of her with one or more of her 3 siblings so I might as well finish that category. It is an exhausting project but very fun. I have trouble finishing things, so many times I’ll take a break 1/2 way through a project and say it’s good enough for now as a way of procrastinating. I guess it’s that old OK plateau again!!!

I’m trying to attach a picture to show how I’m sorting multiple kids groups. Each group will get a separate envelope and I’ll have to make copies of the good ones for the various kids. Looks like this could take awhile!

@nebslp thank you!
I did a pretty thorough search for photo organization ideas this AM - and began writing down categories, and then realized...

One think computers excel at are allowing us to assign multiple tags to a photo & then being able to search by that tag.

The obvious answer struck me like a “I could have had a V8 commercial!” LOL

I have to scan (or use a service) & tag the photos.

SO, I’m concentrating on weeding out duplicates, bad pics, etc. to cut down on the scanning time/cost. I’m being pretty ruthless. Just too many photos.

I told myself to work 15 mins today on the actual photos. Probably ended up doing 45-60 mins.

Now, the question is: save, scan, or toss the negatives?!

I went to my digital photo storage class on Sat. It was good and I learned a lot so I'll just share a few tidbits of info. The instructor said Google Photo is a good storage place to keep all of your photos. You get 15GB storage free and can buy more if you need it. You can upload all of the photos already on your computer. Once you've scanned your physical photos you can upload them to Google Photo and retrieve them any time to work on them in an editing program or if you want to put them on CDs. Scanning was easy but it does take time. Scan at 300 dpi for regular prints. For better quality you can scan them at a higher dpi, then print them at 300. If scanning tiny prints, slides, or negatives use 1200 dpi. Flashdrives are unreliable and should not be your primary means of storage. According to the instructor you don't even need to use external hard drive or anything other than Google Photo but I don't have as much faith in things I can't see as she does. There are several ways of organizing photos on Google Photo such as albums and you can move things around. It will download all your photos automatically from your phone or device that syncs with it. You can delete unwanted photos later. My daughter-in-law uses this for everything and loves it. Hope that helps.

@nebslp thank u so much

Did yournTractor think that Google photos was better than iPhoto on the Apple devices

Can iPhoto
Library be transferred to google photos?

Thank you @nebslp !

MadisonMolly2017 wrote: »

I put all the photos away. Will work again on them at next Declutterfest. Mother’s Say surprisingly triggered a lot for me.

Self-care ♥️

This sounds like a wise choice. Your decluttering sounds like it has come to the end of a session.

@77tes & @nebslp

I love the Quarterly Declutterfests. Perhaps at this stage, it’s best to do in 2-week “bursts.” That’s feeling good to me

Grandkids!!!!💕💕I don’t have any so I tend to idealize that, but my friends also find them quite fatiguing 🍀🍀🍀

I also enjoyed binge watching Marie Kondo on Netflix earlier this year. It was very bingeable .

After DeclutterFest ended, and I finished up what was left to do in the the 'Little Room', I had heard on several podcasts about various declutter challenges people had done, or were were doing. That gave me the idea of doing one of my own, tapping into what was already accomplished during this DeclutterFest, in order to keep my momentum going in a smaller, sustained manner.

I decided to continue decluttering at least several days a week for just a few minutes (or more) in any area of my house that I wanted to that struck my fancy, such as a drawer or shelf, or a room that would keep my motivation going. I keep a notebook so that I could see the progress myself, and so I can revisit an area easily. I have found over the years that when I revisit an area at a later time I see that space with a new perspective.

As time went on I decided to add in a "paper" challenge, as that is my true clutter nemesis that I need to tackle. And after my computer problems in May I decided to add a "digital" challenge because I just cannot bear to add all the digital data clutter that my son recovered onto the new computer. How many "favorites" on my browser are really a "favorite" ... for instance 🤔 🤩. And how many picture bloopers or doubles do I need to leave on my phone?

Depending on the day, I can do a few minutes in any challenge(s) that work well for me, or my mood 🧐.

As of today I've done 45 physical clutter sessions, 14 paper sessions (this one is the most difficult for me to want to do ), and 7 digital sessions. (I have included my sessions from our DeclutterFest here in the count of my physical decluttering sessions to date.)

I thought I'd share this because when I was looking around today to discover what space I would declutter in for a bit (not paper 😅), I really was amazed how doing something on most days, has already made a difference.

:flowerforyou: 🌼

@texasgardnr That makes me want to get at it when I get home! Thanks for sharing! I'm still cringing at the thought of the digital declutterfest.