How to Declutter (and Store) Old Photos Without the Guilt, According to a Pro Organizer

As a professional organizer, I work with many people who own tons of physical photographs and struggle to part with them. I get it. Growing up, my dad dabbled in photography and currently keeps hundreds, if not thousands, of photos in shoe boxes in his basement. The reason I think it’s difficult to declutter and sort through photos is twofold. For one, it’s an emotional process. Looking at them can stir up everything from joy to nostalgia to sadness. Secondly, the volume that many people own is usually massive, so between that and the feelings they evoke, it can feel overwhelming fast.

If you’re looking to lighten the load of your household and organize the photos that you love so they can be enjoyed for generations to come, it’s an important one to tackle. I’ve compiled a no-nonsense list of how to declutter your photos, along with a quick guide on the best ways to organize the ones you want to keep.

Here are a few tips to make the process go easier for you before you even start.

• If you’re currently in the midst of a whole-home organizing project, I would advise waiting until that’s complete before addressing the photos. As you’re going through the rest of the home, have a box readily available to collect any pictures that you find.
• Make sure you have all of the photographs you found together in one place before looking through them. This will greatly help with decision-making as you can see the full picture (pun intended). Have a clear space to sort everything, like a large table, so you can stay organized.
• Recruit help if you can — especially if the photos are also meaningful to someone else.
• Be prepared to have an organizational system as you sort, whether by location, year, name, event, or theme. Use index cards or other labels to help keep everything in place.

When you’re ready to start purging photos, here are the ones you can consider tossing guilt-free. If you’re not going to give them away, you can donate or sell them if they may have any historical significance, or you can shred or put them directly into the trash.

When I help clients declutter their homes and they’re wrestling with decisions, I start with no-brainer items like food or medicine that have gone bad. I suggest doing the same with photographs. If you can’t make out who is even in the picture, toss it.

Along the same lines, get rid of the oddly cropped shots that are hard to read. You know, the ones where the subject barely even makes it into the image.

The option to print a duplicate set of pictures must have seemed like a good idea back in the day, but you don’t need two of every shot anymore. Get rid of the second photo, or send it to a loved one who might want it.

While you’re at it, you might as well get rid of ones that are almost identical to the photo you want. Quality over quantity is the goal!

If you have no idea what the photo is of or who the people are posing in it, it’s a sign to ditch it. You might want to check with a relative if you’re going through family pictures, as they can put names to faces.

In a similar vein, consider getting rid of any images that don’t exactly show you or others in the best light. It could be someone blinking, making an unintentionally funny face, bending over at the wrong time, or holding questionable items. On the other hand, if it’s a photo that everyone — including the person in question — thinks is funny, it’s worth keeping if only for future laughs.

You know these when you see them. For many people, it’s photos of their exes. If it’s a good memory, albeit bittersweet, and you want to keep it in a personal memory box, I permit you. But it shouldn’t be mixed in with current family photos.

The same goes for photos of since-ended friendships. If you want to hold onto an image from someone important to you for a period in your life, save one or two. But the rest? Let them go.

If you have piles of photos featuring, say, your cousins when they were young, they might like to have them for their collection. The same goes for others’ kids, parents, or even pets.

As an example, I inherited a stack of pictures from my maternal grandfather’s childhood. Quite a few of them featured his brother, my great-uncle, so I asked his son if he’d like those. That part is key: Always ask first before dumping photos onto someone else for them to sort through.

Now, with the remaining photographs, these are the best ways to organize them.

This method is best if you want to readily take a walk down memory lane. The photos are easy to pull out and flip through, as well as entertaining for guests to do the same. Make sure to choose an album with slip-in pockets, or acid-free, lignin-free traditional scrapbooks with page protectors.

Organizing a photo album does require a lot of time, organization skills, and space to be stored. If none of that is an issue for you, I recommend either investing in a matching set of albums so they look tidy on display or placing them in a closed cabinet.

You can choose to store all of your photos in boxes or just the ones that didn’t make it into an album. This condenses the amount of storage space — especially because you can stack the photo boxes on a shelf. Most include dividers that allow you to label dates, events, or people. You can also opt for a plastic version that comes with individual latched boxes to keep pictures sorted.

Whether you organize your photos in albums, boxes, or a combination of both, make sure they’re stored in a spot that is temperature-controlled and ideally dark so they stay preserved.

In this day and age, it’s a good idea to create a digital footprint of your photo collection even if you still hold onto the originals. This ensures they survive in case of an emergency, and are easier to share and hold onto in one place. There are apps, photo scanners, and even professional services that can do this for you, and you can learn more about how to digitize photos yourself here.

My paternal grandmother recently passed and has dozens of meticulously organized photo albums dating back to the 1930s that I plan on digitizing for the entire family — I’ll have to report back on how the process goes.

If you’ve decluttered and digitized a ton of photos and only have a few left, create a photo gallery wall (or a few) around your home so you can actually see and enjoy them in your space.

Consider clusters of matching frames, collage frames, or hinged photo frames to add sentimental flair to any room in your home.

One of the most thoughtful gifts to give (and receive!) is a digital photo frame that cycles through photos that you can upload online and sort.

Frames like the FRAMEO, Skylight, and Aura typically rely on an app or website where you can upload, update, and manage the digitized photos. (If you’re looking for another sentimental gift, consider getting a photo locket made so you can take the photos with you everywhere.)

On the topic of gifts, getting a printed photo book made is another great way to store photos, whether you also keep the original copies or not.

There are several publishers, like Artifact Uprising, that can help personalize and decorate books to keep your photos pristine forever, whether it’s for Mother’s Day, Christmas, or just to remember a specific year or trip.