How to Organize Photographs and MemorabiliaThere are several ways to preserve, organize, and display photographs and memorabilia. Since this site is about organizing and a great deal of it pertains to organizing one’s house it will entail the idea of freeing up drawer space and shelves for the storage of other items in your home. Naturally when sorting through rooms and organizing them one way to make extra space is to take those unseen photos out of their shoebox and other memory tokens that are stashed away and display them in cases or in other ways within your home or office for other’s to view. When sorting through your photographs and memorabilia you may decide to trash some. No point in keeping those photos where your finger obscures part of the image unless it is a shot of Yeti captured forever in silver halide or some other rare moment. You can always crop out the finger. You may even want to keep damaged photos of cherished loved ones or moments. Today’s software and techniques are capable of restoring many images. Photographs may be framed, matted with a border, and wall or desk mounted. You may want to place others in albums, scrapbooks, or even on compact disks (CD’s) for playback on your computer or TV screen as slideshows. Today the digital photo displays where you can electronically store several photos for playback are very popular. There are even compact ones for key chains you can easily carry with you and instantly share images of your kids, grandbaby, or your beloved pet companion Zeke. Memorabilia other than photos can also be kept in scrapbooks. Perhaps you have saved a personal letter from the President of the United States, a campaign flyer of your son who ran for governor, graduation notices or diplomas, wedding or shower invitations you wish to keep. A scrapbook is a great place to organize and display them all together in one place and it can be stored on your bookshelf. Another idea would be to scan these scrapbook items and store them on a CD or DVD which would really free up space. Some ideas of the type of memorabilia you may want to display are: thimble collections, spoon or shot glass souvenirs, medals and military honors, autographed baseballs or other sports collectibles, sea shells, or various knick-knacks. See the pictures that follow for a glimpse of some display samples including the use of shadow boxes. 
You may want to keep and store some of your collections when you have finished deciding on what to display. Some of the issues to consider when storing or displaying your items involve humidity, heat, and light. This section of the website will discuss organizing and display methods for photographs and memorabilia in further detail in articles to follow. Note: This website is currently under construction, so please return frequently to view new material. authored by Lon Britton
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