Photos.  They are the bane of the unorganized person.  I know, I was there.

In spite of that, the other day I was going through some old photos, and it wasn't a horrible experience.  Here's what I've learned:

• Forget albums. 
• Use photo boxes, like these:

How cute are these?  I even took pictures out of my old crappy albums and put them in the boxes.  I like going through the boxes, and I can organize them different ways.  Or not.

• Take all your photos out of the processing envelopes and throw them, and the negatives away.  Unless you are a serious photographer, which I clearly am not.
• If you are not a serious photographer and are keeping your negatives "just in case", then put them in your safety deposit box.  That is the only place they are safe. 
• For you scrappers, pick out the pictures you want for your pages and put them with your scrapping stuff.  The rest of the photos go in the boxes for everyone else to enjoy.
• Keep your photo boxes in a spot handy to the whole family so anyone can take a look when the mood strikes.
• Make a photo rule, you take the photos out of the boxes, you put them back in the box and the box back where it belongs.
• Yes, you can enforce this rule!
• Keep a few photos out in a basket or bowl, in a place where they can be picked up and looked at.  Like this:

Of course, this only works for the pictures that are printed,   The mess of digital photos is another story entirely!

Life with recorded memories is bliss.

Tricky Duck Tip:  Photo albums ARE great for large prints you no longer want to display in frames.  If they photo is too large to fit in an album, take it to a copy store and have a reduced size color copy made.