Raise your hand if you have a stash of miscellaneous pictures thrown in a box somewhere. I did!.. up until a couple of weeks ago.

Before my Mom died (13 years ago) and Dad (6 years ago), I’m thankful that my sister, Barb, helped to organize the last of our old family pictures and some heirlooms. She wrote names on the original photos of people we didn’t know or recognize as Dad shared the information.

My home housed the last of our family treasures. With us moving, I suggested we split the final batch between all 5 siblings. God forbid if something would happen to this memorabilia, it shouldn’t be together in one spot. 

One afternoon last month, Barb, my brother Tim, and I got to work. We divided, conquered, and made 5 piles. With a couple more boxes to go, one more get-together will bring this project to a close. We have a pile of pictures that need to be copied and split up the other photos so each of us can have some originals to keep. I marked all that are now in my possession and have them in a safe storage place. 

I invested in a Picture Keeper. It’s a thumb drive attached to an app that lets you scan or take pictures of photos. It also has great features that can enhance a picture, erase unwanted images in the background, or change black-and-white photos to color. It’s a handy little gadget. I took pictures of most of the shared photos, just in case. 

Preserving family heirlooms and pictures is so important to the future generations of our family. Hopefully, my kids and their cousins will appreciate all the work we did to ensure they know who’s in the photos and how they’re related to our family.

 We are finding out quickly that unless the stories are written down and pictures marked, the people who know aren’t here anymore to tell us. Sad but true. 

If you have physical photos stored in a closet, take them out, dust them off, and document them properly. If you have a large number, don’t be overwhelmed. Make it a priority and take out a small handful once a week then store them properly. Your family will thank you! 

Picture Keeper does not endorse me. I think it’s a great investment for saving photos and I’m glad I bought one!