Many of us “sort” our photographs by dumping them into shoeboxes or shopping bags anticipating the lazy, rainy afternoon we’ll spend leisurely catching up on our photo albums. The fact is, it would take a rain of biblical proportions—forty days and forty nights—to make the time for this project and the longer you await the perfect day, the more jumbled those boxes and bags become. Stop waiting: get those photos organized now and then go out and take some more—rain or shine!

1. Weed ruthlessly. Wouldn’t it be nice if all your pictures turned out perfectly every time? You save yourself a lot of storage space by pretending they did, and getting rid of pictures you don’t like. If Uncle Charlie’s elbow covered the baby’s face, toss the picture! If the photo is nearly perfect, except that it’s overexposed, throw it away! If you hate that picture snapped while you were chewing steak, out it goes!

2. Don’t save duplicates. If you order duplicates so you can send photos to grandparents, or to pass along to friends who are in the shot, by all means, share them. Then throw the rest away.

3. Make your negatives positive. Throw away negatives except those for photos you may want to duplicate. Place them in a plain white envelope and write the date and a brief description on the outside. Attach the envelope to the inside of the album where the pictures are displayed or file it in the back of the appropriate photo storage box.

4. Decide how to sort.

• Chronological order—This is the way most photo albums are organized. But if you’ve kept pictures in shopping bags or shoeboxes for any length of time, reconstructing a full chronology could scare you off forever.
• By occasion—Christmases, birthday celebrations, etc.
• By year—This is a broad category, but it begins to impose some order.
• By trip—Regardless of the system you use for the rest of your photos, you may find it rewarding to put major trips (for example, “France 1995,” “Costa Rica 1982”) in special albums.

5. Album alternatives. Not every photo worth saving must be placed in an album. Consider purchasing photo filing boxes, which are less demanding of your arranging skills and deliver faster results. They’re sturdier and more attractive than shoeboxes and have tabbed dividers and plastic photo protection sleeves inside. Their most winning feature is that they don’t ask much of you and will enable you to find a particular photo whenever you’re looking for it.