1. Gather all your loose pictures
Get them out of boxes, drawers and off the fridge and find a place -- like the dining room table -- where you'll have room to spread them out. Photos already in albums can be left as they are. (For organizing digital pictures, see below.)
2. Decide how to sort them
A reliable approach is by decade, then event or milestone.
3. Figure out a time limit
Set a timer for 30 minutes or so. The idea is to stay focused on the task at hand and not be distracted by memories and remember-whens.
4. Sift and purge
As you group the photos into piles, toss any that are out of focus, off center, or don't evoke an immediate emotional response. "We have an expectation that we should do something meaningful with every picture we take. It's unrealistic," says Stacy Julian, of Big Picture Scrapbooking. If you have 50 photos of your sister's bridal shower, keep the best 10 (pick ones that hit different notes -- a few of her opening gifts, several with friends and family, some shots of the décor) and discard the rest.
5. Pick your favorites
Showcase a few images that are especially meaningful to you (see p. 176, Tips on Displaying Photos). Put surplus keepers into pretty photo boxes labeled by year or decade, and stack on a bookshelf or by a side table.
6. Update photos in frames
Every few months, sub in new images to keep your photo gallery fresh and fun to view. Place spacers ($14/10'; salinepictureframe.com) between the photo edge and the glass to prevent images from sticking.
Declutter and Display Digi-Pics
Sort and purge digi-pics as you would paper ones; then create online galleries. For safekeeping, put pics into desktop folders labeled by year, and next into subfolders by person or event. Back up digi-pics on an external hard drive or through a service, such as Mozy.com, that archives all your files on a secure remote server starting at $5/month for unlimited space.
To showcase: The Kodak Easy Share Wireless EX1011 digital frame (10", $130; kodak.com) syncs with your Kodakgallery.com account (create photo galleries for free). When you add new photos to the account, they're downloaded to the frame.
Turn your flat-screen into a larger digi-frame: Upload images to a Play Station 3 or Nintendo Wii; AppleTV users can stream shots stored on iPhoto or Flickr.
Tips on Displaying Photos
Place sorted pictures in batches of 20 to 30 (any more and guests won't look at them all) in decorative bowls or baskets, and divvy up among rooms. Be sure to write brief captions on the backs of the photos.
Look for albums that have a window or frame on the front cover where you can insert an ID note card or a photo that introduces your topic. For the binding, label a metal-rimmed circle tag (Avery tags, $8/50; staples.com), or cut a photo to fit, and glue to the spine.
Highlight black-and-white photos by framing them in white mats (of same or different sizes, your preference), which offer dramatic contrast to the image. Don't have any black-and-white snapshots that you love? Pick some color photos in which the color is off (or perhaps you don't like that picture of you in a fuchsia dress) and have them reproduced or reprinted as black-and-white. For color photos, skip the mats and look for silver or chrome frames to showcase the vibrancy of the image.
