I want to know how fellow unclutterers feel about getting rid of old photographs.
I have photos from college that include friends that I no longer speak to due to the fact that they are now horrible people. Should I just toss the photos? I don't ever plan on being friends with them again as they have been too cruel to me in the past for me to ever want them as friends. The only downside is that I like to have all of my photos in albums so it would involve some rearranging!
I would toss them you shouldn't feel like you have to keep photos of people you don't even like. you could always toss the pictures and then rearrange them in the albums later.
Here's what I did with pictures of people from college or other stages of my life that I had difficulties with; I put the photos in envelopes and stuck them away in a photobox. It's been over 25 years for high school, and about 20 for college. If I still feel repulsed by these people, I throw away the *majority* of the photographs that don't have me in them (that would be most of them...I'm the Picture Taker) but I DO keep one or two of them because, like it or not, I DID have *some* good times with these people. I'll write those memories down, if I feel like it. They had some part in my development.
I had an experience of a lifetime overseas trip, and it turned out one of my friends was a narcisstic...I won't go there. So when I put together my scrapbook album, I left her in there, but *minimally*. She was part of the experience. I might hate her now, but it's been almost 20 years now, and now she's part of the ambience of that experience. There was good and bad. Who knows. Maybe I'll toss out those pages eventually. But for now...
There is one abusive ex from college that I did destroy all pictures of, however. Fortunately, he wasn't in many photos, and I can't find all my pictures from that time period.
I think one of the tenets of Unclutterer is that if an item such as a photograph does not make you feel good when you look at it, there is no reason to keep it.
I had no problem ditching the old cards and letters from a disasterous relationship because all they did was remind me of the bad times. At the time the letters were sent, it was a good experience, but the end result negated any of the nice parts. To the CURB!
I just found some of the photos of travels with this person and I am going to keep the pictures I am in for scrapbooking. All the efforts to make a scrapbook page will go into my own happy memories. I am not obligated to keep a record of the other person's experiences.
That's exactly it, Another Deb: if you're keeping photos and/or making a scrapbook, you don't have to record the other person's experiences in your own memories. I guess that's what I was trying to get across. You put it much more elegantly!
I was ruthless with my old photos earlier this summer. I was worried I might miss some, but as I scan and put them back in the albums(this part is going VERY slowly)I am finding that I am super happy with what I kept. I kept a few photos of people that are no longer in our lives- it wasn't hard to get rid of most of them. People are in our lives for reasons we may not understand, but just because you don't keep their photo, doesn't mean you'll never think of them again.
Thank you all of you! I feel much better and plan on going through my photos tonight after work. I will remove the photos I don't want, then re-arrange them in the albums later, just like charmed suggested. Of course, to make things more difficult, I wrote next to a lot of the photos in the spaces provided in the album so I will have to use Wite Out to get rid of captions that don't match. But these photos do not remind me of good times, and I look forward to having them out of my life!
You could put postcards in the empty slots - or photos you download from the web of the locations - eg. a photo of the city skyline.
Or you could just insert a petty card with a note to yourself - like 'Photo out to preserve Integrity'- just something to remind yourself that you mentally uncluttered.
Rearranging the photo books, creating more captions you'd have to change seems to go against uncluttering too.
Good luck.
simple_chi - Those are great ideas! I know, rearranging the photo books sounds tedious. I only have a couple, so it may not be as bad as I think but it won't be easy. I like the post card idea a whole lot!
considering I take a lot of photos (or, maybe, BECAUSE I take a lot of photos), I am brutally insensitive about them. If anyone is not flattered in a photo I discard it. If there is blur, I discard it. If it is not interesting artistically, I discard it.
Keeping photos is not some sort of God-given commandment. Sometimes I think people treat photos as holy relics. Preserving unflattering moments in history just because there was a camera at hand does not make the photo worth keeping. And certainly if there is someone in it who reminds you of something unhappy, toss the photo!
we are no longer in the day of precious daguerreotypes. Not every photo is professional. Keep only very few. If you wouldn't proudly display it to Martha Stewart or Lynda Reeves strolling through your house (as one does...LOL), why are you keeping it? Toss, toss, toss. And of the people you love? keep only flattering pictures of them. It is an act of love.
Great post djk. I will keep your words in mind and do a second sort of my photos. I especially like the part about only keeping flattering photos of the people you love.
thanks JuliaJayne!
Thank you, djk. You are right. I have many unflattering photos of MYSELF in those books as well. Why? So I can feel depressed when I look at them? Those are going in the shredder as well!
oh, the unflattering ones of ME were most certainly the first to go! No way I wanted those. Or for others to see them!
djk, me too. I pretty much hate how I look in photos at the best of times, so my threshold for keeping pictures of myself is extremely high.
Even photographs I hid under others as I preferred better mean so much to me now- like my darling Ms. Kitty.
Photos are so dear to me and never do I consider them clutter- except maybe the duplicates.
I looked considerably better than I ever thought I did. LOL
I use my photos as memories. I have a horrible memory for faces and names and when things happened.
At some point we all have to declutter our photos or they begin to consume too much space. I tossed any that were blurred or I didn't know who the people were. Also photos of objects and places without people in them. I love my photos and enjoy looking through my albums now that it isn't so overwhelming.
It did take quite a while to achieve this....
If you must keep them, label them! Names, dates, locations. My gram, who left behind an entire closet full of albums, was sporadic in her documentation. Whole albums got tossed because I don't have any idea who the people in the pics were. If I'd had any names at all, I could have sent lots of fun pics to kids and grandkids. (Sorting and labeling mine has gotten added to my to-do list.)
Javamonster, I have that problem, too. That's why I have so many photos. Sigh!
Hi Sky! :) I still need to declutter more photos myself. It's something I have been putting off.
You are so right, Jbeany! I have been labeling some that I didn't earlier. I wish I'd kept up better as I went along!
Message to all of you young people! Keep your photos organized and labeled starting now. It will save you consternation and irritation down the line!
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