Foolproof ways to organize your vacation photos

(RealSimple.com) -- It's easy to take a lot of vacation pictures; organizing them is something else. Here, how to chronicle your favorite shots for future posterity.

Edit yourself

The key to scaling down your photo stockpiles: edit, edit, edit. It's all right if every shot is not a winner -- not even the pros bat 1,000 -- but it's not all right to cling to every frame as if it were an Ansel Adams original.

Toss or delete poor-quality photos

As soon as you get your pictures back, immediately throw out any shots that are too dark, out of focus, or unflattering (or delete them from your digital camera). Many photo labs allow you to inspect photos before you pay and to chuck any shots that have technical problems, with those prints deducted from the bill.

Get rid of dupes

The harder task is to eliminate redundant shots. There you were, at Walt Disney World, when Junior had a close encounter with Mickey Mouse. You were at the ready with the camera and it was all so exciting that you couldn't help yourself -- you shot half a roll. Now you have the pictures back and they all look basically the same: Junior grinning; Junior grinning and waving; Junior grinning and waving with eyes closed; Junior grinning and waving with Mickey's head cut off.

Pick just a few that sum up the thrill of the moment. Toss the rest. You still have the negatives, if, at any point, you want to go back and view the moment-by-moment unfolding of the event.

Label your images

While your memory is still fresh, it's a good idea to write a note on the back of the photo -- at the bottom edge, and only using a photo-safe, nonacidic pen, such as a Sharpie -- about where the picture was taken and what people were doing or saying at the time.

"Maybe you have a picture of Aunt Mary and Uncle Harry, and it was on this trip that Uncle Harry dropped the cake," says Ronni Eisenberg, author of "Organize Your Home!: Simple Routines for Managing Your Household." "Write that on the photo, because otherwise in 10 years you won't remember the story, and pictures are the story of your life."

File your vacation photos in boxes

The simplest containment policy for pictures that have made it through the first cut is putting them into special photo cartons about the size of shoe boxes, only a little sturdier. Most of these come with envelopes for storing negatives and photos; or at the very least, you can leave them in the envelopes they come in from the lab. Always write the date and the event on the outside of the envelope, for quick retrieval.

Most boxes come with dividers and tabs for all the pertinent information. If you're going tab-less, Eisenberg suggests numbering the envelopes as you put them in, so that if you need to take one out you know exactly where to put it back.

These boxes, which normally store 1,000 photos, come dressed up in leather or with wrapping-paper-pretty designs so they don't look shoddy.

Preserve your photos with proper storage

If you want photos to last, make sure to store them correctly. Extreme temperatures and humidity can dramatically shorten the life span of your photos. "A good rule of thumb is if you're comfortable, your photos are comfortable," says Daniel Burge, an assistant scientist at the Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

That means forget about stashing them in the attic, basement, or garage. Burge also cautions against storing photos near the kitchen or bathroom, where humidity is high, or in closets that back up to pipes, which could leak.

Put your vacation photos in albums

Now that your photos are tucked away in their boxes, you can pull only your favorites, maybe 10 or 20, to put in a mini-album for easy and repeated viewings. Consider making an album devoted only to one trip, using books slightly larger than the photos themselves; this will keep the project more manageable, and mini-albums are more portable for those eat-your-heart-out showings at the office.

Sketchbooks with ring bindings, available at art-supply stores, make ideal mini-albums. Simply paste photos down with an acid-free glue stick and then remove any pages you haven't filled.

Store and share your images online

The Internet makes it even easier to share photos. You don't need to have a digital camera to take part in the electronic exchange or be techno-literate. Many laboratories will scan your conventional photographs onto a CD-ROM, so that you can download images on your computer and send them via e-mail or post them on a Web site.

When you get your Kodak film processed, in addition to conventional photographs, you can request a picture CD, which allows you to touch up (goodbye red eye) and crop pictures on your computer or to make a "slide show" presentation of the entire roll (it's a more advanced way to bore friends than with your parents' carousels of vacation slides). Or at the lab, request that Kodak put the pictures directly online at www.picturecenter.kodak.com, where friends can view the shots and even order prints directly, preventing you from getting stuck with the dreary errand and the expense. E-mail to a friend

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