Apartment Safety

Displaying and Storing Photographs
Enjoying and Displaying Photos around the Home
© Susan Whelan
May 4, 2008

There are many ways to display photos without increasing clutter. Take the time to display and enjoy some favourite family memories.
Whether digital or film, photos are a great way to remember holidays, special family moments and other events and activities. Unfortunately, most photos end up either hidden away in boxes or photo albums or stored on a computer hard drive rarely, if ever, to be seen again.
Using Photo Albums or Photo Boxes
With large numbers of photos, a photo album or photo box is the most practical way to store and organise photos. Make sure that albums have acid-free pages to increase the longevity of the prints. Avoid storing albums in areas of high heat, damp or humidity.
Choose an album that has room for comments so that a date and a brief explanation of the people, place and/or event in the photos can be recorded. If using film photos, don’t make the mistake of putting all the photos from each film roll into the album just because they have been printed. Remove any that are out of focus and choose the best photo to display if there are multiples of a particular shot.
Photo boxes are great for those who want to minimise fuss with photos. Available at most department or discount stores, these boxes can store standard sized photos. Make sure that a date is written on the back of each photo. Many boxes have divider cards included and this is a good way to provide some order. Group chronologically or by event or location.
Keep a photo album or photo box on the coffee table so that family and guests can browse. Change the album regularly so that all photos can be viewed and shared.
Scrapbook to Record Special Memories
Scrapbooking is a popular hobby that allows people to create collages and display pages for photos.
Scrapbooking albums can easily take up as much room as a standard photo album, but only use a small number of photos. Scrapbooking pages aim to record the personality of an individual or group of people and the significance of a moment or event as much as simply being a way of displaying snapshots.
There are numerous scrapbooking how to books or computer programs to assist beginner scrapbookers. Scrapbooks make great coffee table books or gifts for special occasions. Photos can also be scrapbooked into framed pages or calendars for display.
Photo Frames
Frames are an easy way to display photos about the home, but they can result in clutter that distracts from the actual photo. Try to purchase frames with simple designs to reduce the appearance of clutter. Purchasing multiple frames in a similar style but different sizes will also help to keep collections of photo frames looking tidy.
Digital photo frames are a fantastic way of displaying a large number of photos without creating a messy, untidy home. Photos can be loaded onto the frame or a memory card and will cycle through to display each photo in turn in a continuous cycle. Frames can be purchased for as little as $60, which is significantly less than buying individual frames for each of the photos that need to be displayed.
Digital photo keyrings are also available and these make wonderful Christmas or birthday gifts as well as being ideal for Mothers’ Day or Fathers’ Day gifts.
Print Photos on Household Items
Many print and copy businesses as well as websites such as cafepress.com have facilities for printing photos onto T-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse mats, calendars and a variety of other household items. Family or holiday photos also make great computer screensavers or desktop images.
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