Arrangement of Photos

Picture This: How To Arrange Your Photos

Put a method to the madness when it comes to arranging photos in your photo albums. If you're faced with a stack of pictures and several empty albums and don't know where to start, don't panic. There are plenty of options for how to arrange those photos.

Arranging pictures in a photo album can be a daunting task. If you've ever decided to reorganize your photo collection, you know that tons of photos and lots of empty albums does not equal an easy job! The key to making this task simple is to choose an organizational method for your pictures that can be used all the way through. This will not only make the storage process easier- it'll also make the pictures more fun to look at later on. Let's get started.

Option One: Arranging by Theme
If you have plenty of pictures taken at special events like weddings and birthdays, you might want to consider themed photo albums. Devote one album to each special event, and organize the pictures inside accordingly- either chronologically, or in an artistic way that creates a sort of scrapbook of memories. Creating themed photo albums tends to take up more time than the other methods of organization, since many people like to decorate the albums and add other items that remind them of the event, like ticket stubs or postcards. If you don't mind devoting many hours to this project and you love the idea of themed photo albums, then it's a fun and rewarding thing to do. Best of all, a themed photo album makes a great gift for the wedding couple or the person whose birthday celebration the album commemorates.

Option Two: Arranging by Date
Depending on the age of your photos, this one can be tricky. Many people have old family pictures that are undated, or that include people whose age at the time of the shot is not immediately obvious. Unless your relatives were given to writing the date on the back of the pictures, you might have a very big job ahead of you. But you can also consider this a major service to future generations. If you want to create a truly chronological album of your pictures, get on the phone to great Aunt Mildred and do whatever research necessary to arrange and date those old photos. Remember not to write directly on the photos; rather, stack them in order as you find out the dates, and then label the pages of the album with the date and event.

Of course, there's no rule that says a chronological album has to be perfectly exact right down to the month. If you have a basic idea of where the pictures fall in the timeline, you can arrange the photos in general order, which will be plenty fine for storage purposes. It really depends on how far you want to go. Either way, make sure to document whatever dates you do remember. When the photo album becomes full, move on to the next one, and keep them stored together so that they create a family timeline. Eventually you'll have a stack of photo albums that run in order from the very oldest shots to the newest. And then buy another blank album in preparation for the photos to come.