Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas and New Year’s usher in the end of 2024 and set the stage for a new year and you might wonder if you’ll ever organize your old holiday photos, videos, cards and other files.
The months rush by and you might feel hassled and harried in these final weeks of the year. If you’re traveling, getting ready for guests, or decorating you’re probably wondering if you’ll ever clean up your cluttered memories.
I know you can do it because I’m approaching my 30th business anniversary as a photo coach and I’ve helped families for years with an easy-to-follow strategy.
I launched my business in March 1995 and my passion and mission remains the same now as it was when I started: helping families safeguard their most meaningful memories so they can safely pass along their family’s stories to future generations.
Read on to learn how I use FOREVER® to declutter and digitize memories from many decades ago and safeguard them in the same, safe place as my newest files.
And get to know my services: digitization; storage; family research; and printed photo books and gifts.
Declutter and Digitize Easily with FOREVER®
I like to emphasize our need to declutter the many photos, videos, along with audio tapes, slide shows and many other files. The memories are scattered and finding them to enjoy them for many families is a tough challenge.
The other issue is that if your files are scattered in boxes that are stored in closets, the garage, or in storage units you simply can’t enjoy them. And trying to pass them along to your children, grandchildren, and their grandchildren is going to be nearly impossible.
To share your older files with multiple family members you have to digitize.
This holiday season, what memories should you turn into a digital format?
- Family recipes. Food is such an important part of our holiday celebrations and observances and favorite recipes are often unique to our families. These are typically written on notecards so check your cookbooks.
- Some families store Christmas cards and Hanukah cards. These can be digitized, too, and uploaded as digital files.
- Photos and videos of holidays past and present.
- Special places your family has traveled for vacation and to go sledding or skiing.
When I help my clients develop a plan to declutter and digitize, I let them know they can do it in 3 easy steps.
- Gather all of your memories and bring them to a dedicated space.
- Keep the photos and other files that grab your heart and delete duplicates and fuzzy photos. Take inventory of how many photos you have of certain children or relatives. Do you have more of a younger child than an older one? Are you missing photos of certain cousins or aunts and uncles you thought for sure that you had?
Now you’ll begin feeling in control as you see what’s available.
- Once you have those files together, digitizing is easy. FOREVER® offers boxes in different sizes. Choose the size that’s best for the memories you want to send in to digitize. I recommend small or medium if this is your first box.
- The box has step by step instructions on what to do and is easy to ship to FOREVER®’s digitization facility just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. If you have any questions, it’s easy to contact me.
They’ll process the files and return your originals so you’ll have your hard copies available, but now you’ll have the ability to easily share your files.
Imagine a descendant more than a century from now accessing your files. That’s entirely likely thanks to FOREVER®’s storage capabilities.
FOREVER® is Designed for User Control and Permanent Storage
If you’re shopping for companies that digitize older media files like photos and VHS tapes, then I want you to know how FOREVER® is different.
Yes, FOREVER® has high ratings on Trust Pilot and the digitization team stays in communication with clients. But the company also offers more unique benefits that are unmatched.
Permanent storage.
FOREVER® is designed for permanent storage and guaranteed to last for a user’s lifetime plus 100 years, and with the goal of keeping files safe beyond that time frame. This means you can pass your account along to future generations.
Contact me and I’ll share more of how that’s achieved and how older files are migrated to newer technologies.
Ownership.
You own your FOREVER® account to create digital albums and store your content.
This means the Terms of Service are favorable for you, you won’t get locked out of your account, and your files won’t be used for advertising or data mining the way they’re used on free sites or sites where you pay a monthly fee to rent.
Your files aren’t compressed and they’re stored in their original size.
Family history research.
If you want to dig into your family’s history, you can consult with FOREVER®’s genealogists to go back centuries and to locate hard-to-find records and come up with a plan.
Printed photo books and gifts.
Easily transfer your digital files to create attractive printed keepsake photobooks and gifts that are meaningful to give all year round.
Ready to Declutter?
If you get frustrated trying to declutter on your own, give me a call and let’s come up with a plan that works for you. Cleaning up photos, videos and other meaningful memories can tug on you emotionally and you might feel alone.
I’m here for you because your family’s memories are important to safeguard for now and for many decades into the future.
Contact me and let’s chat to get you started decluttering and digitizing and enjoying your family’s memories.