Got a lot of photos? Do you want to be able to enjoy your pictures instead of having to search and search to find your favourites? Does the thought of tackling your photo collection seem so overwhelming that you keep putting it off? Me too!
That's why this month I'm hosting the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge! Each day I'll share tips to help you declutter your photo collection so you can really treasure and enjoy all the best ones. And I'll share my progress as I declutter my photos along with you :)
Today I'm sharing ideas of what you can do with all the printed photos you're decluttering this month.
Today's Photo Decluttering Tip - 7 Ways You Can Recycle Printed Photos
By now you've probably decluttered lots of printed photos (unless you're only focusing on digital photos of course). And you may be wondering what to do with your piles, besides just tossing them in the garbage, where they'll end up in a landfill.
Some areas will allow photographs to go in the recycling bin but check your local waste management guidelines. It also often depends on what kind of photos you have or how old they are. The process for printing digital photos uses less chemicals than developing pictures in the past. Here's a great explanation of why you can't always recycle photos and how you can tell if your photos are recyclable or not.
So what other options are there? Here's a helpful post from a fellow professional organizer with 7 tips for recycling printed photos.
I'm planning to give some photos to family and friends. I have at least one family member who lost most of their pictures so I'm sure they will appreciate some of the doubles or extra pics that I'm decluttering. If I have extra photos beyond that I will see if I can donate them somewhere for crafts and projects.
My Photo Decluttering Progress
I started tackling my next photo album. This one isn't a sticky album, but one with 4 pockets for 4x6 pictures on each page. It's a larger album and holds more pictures than the sticky albums I've been working through do. So I didn't make it through all the pictures today. I took all the photos out of the album and then decluttered 54 pics (about 59% of the ones I went through today).
I'll tackle the rest of the stack of pictures I took out of this album tomorrow. I only went through about 1/3 of them today.
Your Turn!
Today your task is to research whether printed photos are recyclable in your area. Check if your photos are the right type. If you can't recycle your photos, think about what you will do with your decluttered pictures. Do you have friends or family members who would appreciate some of them? Where else could you donate them? And of course, keep decluttering pictures today :)
If you'd like more decluttering ideas, you can check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
How are you doing in the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge so far? How do you think today's tip will help you? What photos are you decluttering today? What are you doing with your decluttered printed photos?
Happy decluttering and organizing!
Here are the rest of the posts in this challenge:
