The words "attic" and "old photos" are enemies! Temperature and humidity control are essential for archiving. You will need acid-free boxes for photo storage. Then, everything you put in the box with the photos (like dividers) must be acid-free. Haven't looked into this lately, but when I did, said to only use pencil to write on the backs of photos - no ballpoint pen or ink of any kind. Wear clean, white gloves when handling the photos. Avoid touching the "picture". Pick up by edges.

Sorting actual photos is very difficult for a large collection. A photo data base is the place to sort them. Each should have a unique number that is written with pencil on the back of the photo and entered into the scanned copy in the data base. Also, with a big collection, you don't try to sort. That is what the data base does for you. If you try to sort, you will be overwhelmed. (Do you sort by person, date, family, decade, location. etc.? Depends on what you want to see at any given moment or who you are and your relationship to people in the photos.) Data base will sort all these different categories for you or someone else.

If you have old letters, I would scan them, then copy on to acid-free paper for storage. Store originals separately from those now acid-free.

Finally, if you have ended up with generations of photos, be generous, either giving them to other family members, at least scanned coupies, if not the actual photos. Find out if there are genealogy hobbyists in the family. They will treasure the photos!

There is an awesome program made by Cloud9. It's called "FolderMagic." You use it to change your desktop folders into picture folders. You can also pick up an image converting software (free) called "TotalImageConverter' that allows you to take any image and then make it an icon you can then use in Folder Magic. So, if I haven't lost you, you scan grandma's photo and then turn her into the icon she deserves to be and put all her relevant info into her very own pictured folder. Gosh, it just occurred to me that this process must sound extreme to an outsider . . . but my genealogical database is about 350,000 strong, so I really had to learn how to organize.

As I take and label photos for my school, I include three essential pieces of information--when, what, and who. I figure that anyone doing a computer search for photos would usually use one of those three criteria. I write the date 20131228 for Dec. 28, 2013, so these digital files line up chronologically within a school year. As I am scanning my personal family photos (a multi-year process!), I am using the same categorization system. For example, 20131227-kendrashower indicates my daughter's shower yesterday. 1985-kendrabirth is an earlier label. I use iPhoto on a Mac, and I like the organizing features that program offers. The Faces feature in iPhoto '11 is a facial recognition program that is amazing and helps you find and sort all photos of one particular person. The Faces feature may also yield some interesting results showing that little Lou has similar looks as his great grandfather After scanning photos and labeling them appropriately, I am sorting the digital photos into different relatives' personal file folders, then I am planning on giving relatives usb's of those personal files. The person who archived the school photos before me, put a sticky label on the back of photos and wrote pertinent info on that label so she wouldn't harm the photo. I would echo advice previously mentioned, have two, preferably three back ups of your info, and keep one copy in a different location, a safe deposit box or online.

Lovely room.
Personally, I scanned about 1500 slides. It took a long time but so worth it.
Also learned my father, bless his 86 year old heart, might be the worst photographer in the northern hemisphere. It was easy to toss those.
The best part was going through and getting prints made for various family members and sending them mini albums - just the ones they were in or would mean something to that branch of the family.
Now if someone wants them, I can burn them on a disc or file share easily.
Frame the ones that make you smile.

Though not something everyone would be interested in doing, I post old family letters and photos to a family blog. It is a daunting daily task, but well worth it in the long run. Having encountered many people who have no family photos but who long for them, I have come to view storing and organizing our own as a responsibility and privilege. Most important is to label and date the photos to the best of your ability, as well as indicate who did the labeling and when. That box of old photos one finds in basements and attics is likely to become a meaningful social history if preserved wisely.

I am almost done. I have one photo box left to sort through. I sound like I'm in the minority here, but I threw away about three quarters of our photos. I kept the best, placing them in chronological order to the best of my ability. It's not that difficult. If I had eight pictures of one event or person, I kept the best one or two. I discarded ones such as pictures from my Mom and Dad's collection of people they knew. When I go, my children will not know these people. I know some of them, but have no contact. I kept one picture from my university days to remind me that I went and I pitched the album. Did the same with a few other albums of mine. I have about six three ring binders now with the photos placed in plastic pockets so they are like books. I get 6 or 12 photos per page depending on the album style. I feel better and have no desire to scan what is left. They lasted this long and are just fine. This can be very emotional but I just kept the best and kept thinking about my kids having to sort through all this in addition to our house full of stuff. I'm working on getting rid of things there too. It actually feels lighter.

About 10 years ago our then college student daughter took all of our photos to her apartment and sorted them by year into albums. They sit on an open shelf in our living room. Starting at that time we then saved all photos digitally and after my mother died we set up a family album online and sent out the link to all family members including cousins.

Make sure your children are interested in the photos. I spent some time putting old photos into individual albums--one for each adult child--a few years back. Kids had no interest in them. Told me to keep them. I agree with the person who did major editing. Less really is more in this circumstance. Future generations will be more interested if each picture is interesting and propels you forward into looking at other pics. With that mind-set, it will be easier to edit more ruthlessly, increasing the probability that the collections will be viewed by future generations rather than being of interest only to yourself and others of your own generation.

Great ideas and I can see that I'm in for a long, long ride! I came across a great find the other day while sorting. I found a picture of my parent's first house - the house I grew up in and it looks just the tiny cottage I bought for myself six years ago and am renovating. I told everyone then that it reminded me of my childhood home but now I have the photo to actually show them. I'm putting it into the book I've started for renovations. Now, I'm encouraged to keep going. Sorting is first and then I'll decide which digital way to go. But I'm saving all the originals, preserved in the proper boxes too. Thanks for the great ideas.

Readbetter (found you again)-this sounds like a daunting task for you. Take it slow. Sort by date or person or place as others have said. Take out the best ones for an event and frame them. You have some areas that could support some pictures upstairs in the attic and also in that back room you have. If all the frames are relatively similar you can move them around occasionally. Scanning IS the way to go though. Again, save them in a folder or to a disk by date, event, person...whatever feels right. ((hugs)) Hope your holiday was happy btw.

I put photos on flickr by Sets; families, Christmas (Christmas letters), Vacations, homes; included newspaper clippings. (I grouped related pictures to scan in). Then e-mailed link to family members, to download or request copy from me.
Each sibiling is given the hardcopy pictures of themselves to pass down to their children.
Mailing historic city building, scenes to city historical groups.
Found practically all photos had no description, you can date using clothing style clues, or even by photographer biz name; match people by hairlines, shape of head. Then researched genealogy sites to add a family trees, & info, highlights of their lives, where they lived. It took several months.

I sorted our photos out years ago into attractime leatherette photo boxes with dividers inside. I have 3 boxes--1 for people, 1 for places and 1 for events. Within those I divide into names/families for people, states/countries for places, and weddings, various holidays, graduations, etc. for events. I have an over-size box for larger photos--5x7s, 8x10s and panoramics. This seems to work for me and makes them easy to find when I want them. Doesn't take up much space. As I organized, I got rid of duplicates and blurry ones.

Can anyone recommend a commercial service that will scan slides? It is too big a job for me to do myself. Thank you.

There are so many good suggestions here and I will add a couple ...... NEVER hang the original photos up on the wall ... florescent light, sunlight , even indirect, can all damage those precious memories ...... scan or rephotograph, then print copies to hang ...... store the originals in archival safe boxes or photo albums .... for the over-sized ones, sandwich between archival safe storage papers, and if available into large archival safe boxes or drawers. The key is to avoid damaging chemicals that can leach onto or atomize into the photo ......

The 1960-70's saw the influx of many "sticky" photo albums that have destroyed whole generations of photos ..... If you come across any of these, post haste remove the photos and store safely and then digitize ASAP ... even an old shoebox or suitcase is safer than those old photo albums ....

I store mine in cardboard photo boxes sorted by years. Some boxes only have a year or two, some may contain a decade. In my hallway I have a large wire grid where photos we especially love are clipped. (Some are old, some are very recent.) It is an interior hallway with no sunlight so I have clipped the original photos.

I have used shutterfly. I made my daughter a book from birth to high school graduation. She cried when she received it. I had to scan every photo and had the slides put on a disc. The hardest part was deciding which pictures to use. Some photos from the 70's were worthless because of the way they were developed, I believe, from the paper they used then. I also didn't make a book for myself (like my daughter's) because when I'm gone she would then have two albums. So many pictures I gave to my mother have come back to me after she passed. Of course you have to give your parents pics of the grandkids! A lot of my pics are in old albums and also in a photo box by year's. Don't forget to put date and name on back of photos. Big mistake I made!

Wal-Mart, Costco, Scancafe.com and many more will scan slides.

Thank you, beview. I have read that Scancafe sends the slides and photos to India, and that they are sometimes lost in transit. I am looking for a service that someone has had a good experience with - I don't care about the turnaround time, but I do care about the quality of the scanned items, as well as the reliability of the service, and the cost. Thanks.

Being an Interior Designer and a Genealogist - I would never throw away original photo's! But, when I inherited 1600 family slides, my sister gave me permission to edit - we scanned the slides that had people, or houses we'd lived in or vacations that we identified, etc...... any photos of scenery only, business trips my dad took and recorded - with salesmen we didn't know we tossed. Wish I could say it made the job easier, but it didn't reduce the scope by much.
I learned scanning lessons I wish I'd known before I started - resolution, file format, how much opening and editing a .jpeg file reduces the quality - I now save important photos as .tifs and always, always make a copy before I edit any photo! I learned to save the original scanned photos in their own folder - so opening photos wouldn't take my computer so long..... and I still have a pile/ box of photos I pull out at holidays for help dating/ identifying them.
I have submitted photos of my dad's WWII service buddies to deadfred.com a website that posts old photos of people not identified, or identified, but not important to the holder anymore...... those I felt I could throw after scanning.

And - my aunt with 5 kids - filled a box each year with mementos of that year and tucked them away til she could sort through them - brilliant I thought - because I discovered that sorting my photos by date made more sense when I tried to merge those inherited photos into the mix. You could also store archival boxes by decades - so the job is broken into smaller parts.

Even when you pay to scan photos - you'll need to have a system and label the photos....
It is a big job - but I know you're descendants will thank you - I wish I'd had more photos of my ancestors!

holly, hugs back at you and happy holidays too.

I have several thousand photos, slides and negatives from three generations of my family that I am in the process of scanning onto memory cards. I'm also back them up on a portable hard drive. When they're all scanned, I intend to give each branch of the family its own copy of everything and they can share, print or discard as they see fit.

I should add that some of the older slides and prints are beginning to deteriorate, and I've bought editing software to clean them up as much as possible. This is turning out to be a HUGE job, but very rewarding.

My suggestion to anyone who has unidentified photos, please dont throw them away, they might be my ancestors!! Put them up on DeadFred.com. I like to buy photos at antique shops and rescue them!

Use your digital camera in good light, (maybe outdoors) and take a picture of the picture, it's fast. You can use a tripod or just take your time and be steady. I've done this when I needed on-the-spot copies of existing photos, downloaded to my computer with excellent results.

This is a daunting task, any way you approach it. My suggestion is the same as the answer to "how do you eat an entire ox?" One bite at a time.
First, before anything else, get yourself an archive-safe pen with a soft tip. You can get them at any scrapbook store, and both Michaels and Hobby Lobby carry them as well. Then, whenever you have a minute, sit down and write on the back of the photos what each one is. (I cannot tell you how many photos I have from my deceased relatives that no one can identify because no one bothered to write something on the back.) DO NOT USE PENCIL OR BALLPOINT!! Pencil and ballpoint both will leave an indentation that will be visible on the front of the photo.
As you identify the photos, you will begin to see patterns that you can use to archive them. Whether you decide to scan them or not, you will probably still want to keep the originals, and you can use photo boxes and dividers to store them according to those patterns. Maybe it'll be photos of grandma and grandpa. Or photos of family vacations. Or photos of grandkids. But patterns will emerge. And you can get archival photo boxes for as little as $1 each on sale at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Watch for the sales.
And don't let the project discourage you. This should be something that you enjoy, not a chore. Get your children involved. Call in cousins. Make it an occasion for a family get-together, give everyone a pen, and start identifying photos. You'd be surprised what stories will come up. And don't forget to assign someone to write down those stories too -- they'll be jewels in conversations 50 years from now. ("Remember when Grandma Great dropped the bucket of apples and had to make applesauce instead of apple pie?")

Today my father received a machine which converts 35mm slides into digital files. He only processed about a dozen, but he has thousands. He also has a magic lantern.

On to real photographs, our family has so many; I haven't seen half of them!! But the ones I have seen are in old photo albums. Some of the views taken back in the 30s haven't changed at all - for example, Clovelly in Cornwall (UK).

I use clear tupperware type boxes, labelled by years (in 5 - 10 yr segments). While you are sorting them, take the time to write who is who on an address label and put it on the back. Generations to come will thank you.

Albums are key for us! I have albums of each of my kids' 1st year, but then switch to family albums arranged chronologically by school year after that (ie: September2000-August2001 is much more effective since kids think 'when I was in 2nd grade...'). Face it - kids will run if you drag out boxes, but they themselves will pull out an album on a shelf. After many a birthday party (even my boys in their teens!), I'd find albums on the table and realize they'd spent part of their party sharing 'their story' with friends. Albums are also valuable for future spouses, who may want to know about your family but don't know what to ask. Pictures & coffee - a great combination for getting to know each other! Yes, I digitally back up, but the magic of albums just can't be beat!

As Dea noted, please use only an archive-safe pen when writing on the back of photos. The pens are inexpensive. Also use only archive safe storage boxes. I recently found Poloroid photos, probably 45-50 years old, in good condition because they were stored properly. I will scan them ASAP. I have boxes of photos to go thru and will start by sorting into date order, tossing the misprints, etc. At our next cousins get-together, the plan is to find help in identifying people in some of the older photos. This is clearly a reminder to at least date photos if keeping hard copies. I love scrapbooks and love scrapbooking, but there is not time to really scrapbook the volume. I am beginning to use Project Life, a system developed by Becky Higgins. It's simply a 3-ring binder scrapbook with protective pages to slip in photos and journaling. If interested, check it out at Michael's or other scrapbooking stores. I will continue to scrapbook special events and insert them in the 3-ring binder.

I think of my life by era. I'm an ancestry nut, so I like putting everything in chronological order for future generations. Love keeping albums and date them. Some photos I do regroup by family: cousins etc. Multi generational grouping are favorite to show who resembles whom. I applaud your work. History repeats itself in family too.

Agree with Franklin36. My albums are all simply 3-ring binders (in beautiful colors!). I arrange my pictures on Microsoft Publisher and just run off a sheet(s) to put in sheet protectors. Often, by the end of the night of the event, my pictures are already done. Doesn't help with the oldies, but prevents problems in the future.

If scanning is the way you want to go. I would pay a high school/college age student to do it.

I scanned all my old photos and binned the originals, a lot of which were damaged from tropical humidity. Now that they're on the computer, I look at them and appreciate them a lot more than I used to. I also display some as a slideshow on a digital photo frame. Very happy with what I've done, but it did take a time commitment to get them all scanned. I tried to do some each day so it wasn't just one huge chore.

Keeping photos safe for future generations is tricky. Archival conditions require light, temperature, and humidity control as well as limited exposure to plastics which can give off damaging gases. Also, the suggestion of wearing white cotton gloves when handling them is a good one. If you need to write on the backs of the photos, be very careful what you use to write with. Try to get an archival quality pen. Archival quality boxes can be purchased but can be expensive. High quality digital scanning will help ensure your photos are around for a long time to come. The more you can share copies, hard or digital, the less worried you will be about any potential loss in the future. There have been many good ways mentioned already of where and how to share your photo collection. It will be a long process, but a rewarding one.

My grandmother kept pictures in those cookie tins that you see in walmart each christmas. The pictures were over 50 years old and still in mint condition when she died.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/indepth/
This company's website is filled with information on the correct products for photo storage, scanning, etc. There are tutorials too. If you can still get their catalog, have one mailed to your home. My daughter has a BFA in photography from The Univ. of Georgia. The catalog was a regular in my mailbox until she moved to her own home.

Scan them on the computer. Try creating a collage type thing to showcase memories

Vicki--B&H Photo is a good resource. As a professional image librarian, that is a source pros use for equipment. Likewise Red River Paper is a good resource for learning about making digital prints (and crafts such as cards)--printers, ink, paper, etc. http://www.redrivercatalog.com/

There is an equal amount of good and not so good advice in this string. Unfortunately digitizing (and storing analog) photos is not a 100 word answer. More references:
General:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/brochure/Family%20Photos%20Text%2001.pdf
(a little out of date but not bad)

Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Preserving-Family-Photographs-Maureen-Taylor/dp/0578048000
She also has a website and a book on using photos with genealogical research. Those with tintypes, daguerreotypes and older photos will probably want to reference this.

How to frame for protection correctly:
https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/webfm_send/312

A few points--1) CDs and DVDs are OK storage for the moment, but they will be phased out fairly soon. You will have to migrate to the cloud. Redundant storage is good, with one of the backups outside your home (e.g. one copy at home on a hard drive, one in the cloud, etc). 2) when you upload to some services like Flickr they may resize (downsize) or compress your photo. 3) you can embed information in digital files--captions, keywords (like people's names), that make them searchable, you don't have to rely only on trying to put info in file names. iPhoto, Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, Flickr and other programs let you do this. However in the "nothing is ever easy" category be aware that sometimes all programs do not read all the info equally. Use "IPTC" or "XMP" as the format to enter information (the program should say if the fields are "IPTC"). 4) Your local library, college or university library may have public scanners and may have how-to courses. 5) you can outsource scanning to reputable companies, but try to educate yourself in file sizes and formats so you know what you are getting (and what you can and can't do with the various sizes). Some services offer pretty small scans. If you are interested in having the full "archival" size of a 35 mm slide, that will be about 18-20 MB each, or 2048 x 3072 pixels viewed on a monitor at @72 ppi. That adds up pretty fast, so you may want to be selective. Having books (like iBooks) printed is not a bad preservation idea. Talk to parents and older relatives (Now!) and try to capture info--engage the whole family so you don't get stuck doing everything yourself. Info can be written on enclosures for the photos, or on the back--see the Cornell pdf under labeling. Despite what was said above, most archivists use pencil--carefully.
Good luck!

I have recently gone through this, and used an A3 (Australian paper size) flatbed scanner to scan eight photos at a time. I separated the 1,000 or so photos into approximate relationships - family, professional, theme related, and the scanned the 6x4s 8 at a time. I haven't kept the originals, but family and friends can skip through the electronic archive whenever they like, My plan will be to re-assemble these into large posters, print them and hang them on commercial poster display racks like a giant photo album to flip through whenever.
When my Dad passed away, we celebrated his life with a photomontage by decades so friends and relatives could "revisit" him when they knew him. These we then photographed and are now in an album for anyone to visit.

Photos are like books. Nothing compares to holding an original photo (or books as opposed to the kindle). Throw away photos that mean nothing to you like landscapes scenes that you have no idea where it is. Put the photos chronologically in a simple small file box. But, on the back of the photo write the names and year of the photo. If there are duplicate or very similar photos just toss! Our kids don't care much. :) I did this project a few years ago and have just boxes of photos aligned chronologically.

I've gotten through three boxes of photos and thrown out blurry or people I don't know pics. I have two small old night tables in the closet with four drawers full to tackle next. I really liked the idea above of giving photos back to the people in them. I have tons of my children with their friends as they were growing up that don't mean as much to me as they will to them. I'm giving them back to them and my sister and then they can decide what to do with them. That leaves the special ones to me - and, of course, all the ancestors which I'll never let go. They need to be preserved and labeled for the grandkids. I am going to make some digital books as well but, as stated above, I too love the feel of the originals.

eclecticedwardian -- thank you for mentioning that the CDs are on their way out. When I was reading earlier comments about storing photos this way, I was reminded of our old VRC and how we purchased all the Disney movies for our not-yet-born grandchildren. No innovention lasts for long in our new world of constant change. The Cloud is a wonderful recommendation. I'll be copying your reply and saving it for future reference. Again, thank you for excellent advice! -v

I would suggest donating photos of scenery, buildings, dams etc to either a State or Local Museum. I would love to be able to have old photos of where my grandparents lived!

Again Please consider putting unknown photos of people on Dead Fred, Ancestry or donate to a local historical, or genealogical society! We are always looking for pictures of our ancestors!

I have everything on iPhoto, such a great organizing tool! First I had to scan photos or download CD's of photos. Once I had 12,000 + on my computer, they were all put into appropriately named albums. Some were placed in several albums, depending on who else was in the photo and/or any interest in it for other reasons. All persons important to me are tagged by name so that I can call up every photo with "Mom" in it, for example. I have separate albums for persons, events, trips, topics, eras, etc. Now, whenever I take photos on my iPhone 5, they goes straight to my computer. I sort and name them routinely. Same with downloads from emails or Facebook. One of my favorite things is using one of the albums, or all of them as wallpaper. I never looked at photos this much when they weren't digital. All the hard copies were put into albums and distributed to family and friends. Life is simple.

P.S. Everything is on the cloud AND on time machine, so I feel secure. Love taking my laptop with me on visits and putting up slideshows for the different families. Now I just have to manage some old negatives I want to digitize and save - expensive!

I also use iPhoto and find it very good, I'm not a computer whiz and only know what I know. Sometimes I have gone into iPhoto to see certain photos and they have disappeared. I also have iCloud and back up with a external hard drive ... it scares me.

I have three large plastic boxes of slides, some fifty years old, taken by my late husband. No idea what to do with them... they have been sealed, with silica gel to keep them dry, till somebody (probably me) finds time to scan them. They were already going strange colours ten years ago, so I am hoping that there is a program that will correct them. As for photos, I have lots of people I don't know, so have offered them round the family in case there is someone who wants them. Photos too are mostly in sealed boxes with silica gel.... I am so thankful most of MY photos are on CDs. They take up less space. However, my son says even they will deteriorate unless kept in the dark. UV can get into the tightest cover, so pack them in black boxes and put them in a really dark cupboard.

Great advice. Thanks

Lifetile.me is launching in a couple weeks. It is a place where you can build, organise and share the story of your life - all for free! It allows you to upload photos, videos, documents etc. and then shows it visually on your 'lifeline' - essentially a timeline of your life.
we recently had all out parents photos scanned and are excited that when our kids are older, our legacy will be theirs to keep and view time and time again.