Sharing Photos with Family and Friends

by Susan McCarthy

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Everyday practice: Share special photographs. 

If you’re used to posting and storing photos on social media, then you’re already in the habit of sharing photos with those you know.

Nowadays, you can turn photos into everything from greeting cards to calendars and put images on mugs or blankets. If you’ve worked at decluttering your home, be mindful of giving these types of items to others who may be contemplating decluttering their own possessions.

Be Considerate when Giving Photo Gifts

Photo Gifts – Many people feel compelled to keep photo holiday cards – even of their boss’s kids – because they see a photo that you’ve shared as opposed to looking at it as a greeting card. An entire calendar of photos or a mug with a photo of someone special? Give these types of gifts only to individuals who won’t feel burdened with more stuff that they can’t discard.

Photo Books – Photo books can highlight the best of the best and can be a fun way to share kids’ artwork with grandparents or to give teens going off to college a way to look back on birthday parties, holidays, and vacations.

Digital Picture Frame – A digital picture frame can help a parent or grandparent view favorite images if they’ve downsized into a smaller apartment or assisted living and don’t have space for bins of albums. (And creating this for a loved one, helping them sort through their photos, is an incredible gift.)

And, let’s not forget the regular picture frame that allows you to gift images that will be special to the recipient.

Photo Sharing Services

You can also use a photo storage service that allows you to share the images with others you’ve given the password to. Or, you could post photos to a family website.

The Gift of Your Time

Of course, if you have the time to sit with your parent or grandparent, you can go through photos with them, have them identify people and places, and start backing up images so they don’t get lost.

In professional organizer Tracy McCubbin’s book, Making Space, Clutter Free she told the story of snagging a box of photos from her grandmother’s house and then carting the box around, through two moves. Before a third move, she contacted her father and asked him to go through the pictures with her so she would know the names of the relatives in the pictures.

Well, her dad started flipping through the photos – his confusion growing. It turns out this box of photos that had been carted through multiple moves weren’t even of her family! Her grandmother was holding the photos for a former neighbor who had passed away years ago.

Remember, sharing photos with others is likely one of the reasons you took the pictures at that event, vacation or gathering, so make a habit of sharing those photos. ​

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Other helpful articles:

• How to Sort through Photos
• Organizing Digital Photos
• How to Organize a Lifetime of Photos
• Why Are You Keeping that Photo? The Good, the Bad, and the Embarrassing
• The ABC’S of Storing and Displaying Photos
• Toss these Family Photos
• Sharing Photos with Family and Friends
• Scanning Old Print Photos