Organizing Photographs

I don't store much under my beds. I like the idea of hidden storage, but I have wicked asthma, so anything I drag out from under the bed tends to bring on a dusty, oxygen-deprived gasping for air episode. I've decided to reserve my under bed space for one purpose - pictures.

1. Go shopping for storage solutions.

I don't often recommend spending money to organize. But there is just no other way to deal with photographs, especially if you, like me, are too lazy to make nice photo albums.

I purchased two under bed containers on clearance. (They usually go on clearance around Christmas or right after and again at back-to-school time.) I also got a big plastic box and the small plastic basket pictured below. Finally, I got some photo boxes.

2. Clear out the area under the bed.

3. Sort the items into things that need to be in climate control (under the bed) and things that can go in outside, shed storage (like old yearbooks). Box them up.

4. Use photo boxes to keep loose photographs together.

5. Bring big boxes to outdoor shed.

6. Put flat boxes under bed.

And the most important step...

7. Keep a small basket somewhere to hold any new photos until you can process them into the appropriate box.

Mine goes right under my make-up table in the bedroom because it is near the photo boxes.

This basket is very important because you don't want to have to pull the photographs out from under the bed all the time. When the basket gets about half full, I pull out the photo boxes and file the pictures in the front of a photo box.

Etcetera.