Honest Simplicity

I enjoy flipping through photo albums.  I like having tangible photos around when I feel like reminiscing.  That said, I had too many.  Every time I glanced at the shelf of albums, I thought to myself I should really get rid of some photos.  Then, I’d distract myself with an unrelated task.  Logically, I know that delaying a task will only add stress.  Well, I decided to roll up my sleeves and take on the photo challenge.

pile of albums to deal with

It took me an entire day, but I persevered!  I decided to start with the oldest photos first and began taking photos out of the album to sort.  If I thought someone else might enjoy the photo more than me, I put it in a pile for that person.  If I wanted to keep the photo, I put it back in the album.  I then threw photos away which were either blurry, of a generic tree or bird from a childhood vacation (seemed like a good subject to shoot at the time), very unflattering close-ups of people, etc.

like I say “sometimes you have to make a mess to clean a mess”

I ended up with a large pile of photos to mail to friends and family (“thank you” to the kind patient postal worker who helped me…you know who you are).

ready to mail or hand-deliver

I filled one trash bag full of photos.

goodbye photos. nobody will miss you.

I emptied 6 albums in all.  I have plenty photo albums left, but they are the keepers.  Now, when I look at my photo shelf I can relax.

my photo shelf after the purge.