Remember the days when you printed your photos and cataloged them in albums? Got away from you, didn’t it. Now you have boxes of old photos you plan to organize when you retire. That won’t happen. No matter how many cruises you take, those photos will be there when you get back. Not only that, they’ll be entertaining the boxes of photos you’ve inherited.

Don’t for one minute think your kids are going to accept a U-Haul truck-sized stash of unorganized photos. You raised them right; they will light a match to the legacy before your ashes are cold. Here are some ideas for how to free up the space this cache is taking up on the shelves in your closet and in your conscience.

• Be brutal. Throw away all duplicates, underexposed, overexposed and poorly composed photographs. Do not rethink. Do not recycle. Go directly to the garbage can.
• Be the family historian. Pick compelling images that recall family stories and legends. Pack them into ONE album for each member of your family, along with a timeline of identifiable ancestors and relatives (names and dates please). At the very least, your grandchildren will thank you when they have to complete their genealogy project in school, sometime after the California Missions project and before the Native American populations report.
• Be creative. Start an art journal and feature your favorite photos in collages. Tell the story you want to go down in history about that photo of you in a pencil skirt and beret staring into the camera with a “come hither” look.

Hope this helps.