Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 12:48     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:Never throw away old photos. Just because you may not find any value in them that doesn’t mean that someone else may not. I can’t tell you the number of important items that previous generations threw out because they thought that nobody would care. Well I wasn’t even alive yet when some of these decisions were made and it has cut me off from my own relatives and history because of their thoughtless actions.


That’s part of why I do it. I use the assumption that there may be someone down the line for whom these things are very meaningful as many of them have been to me. I love seeing my great grandfathers face in that of my son. I feel like I’m just one of many stewards in the history of our family. It’s truly only recent in human history where we can have pictures of places and people and things that are meaningful to us. What a shame that so many take it for granted.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 12:05     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
There is a market for old pictures and relatives called ephemera, never thought people were interested in my great Nan or letters/postcards from time passed.
Pretty picture frames are making a comeback too.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 11:59     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:I used to be an archivist, and I remember being taught that digital files have a lifespan of less than 7 years. The lifespan of a physical photograph is much longer: 100+ yrs?

Whether you actually want/need all your photos in the future is a different question but if you want to have a set of photos to give your kids in thirty years, you should have them printed. Putting them in an album will make them easier to keep (or have them printed into one of those books).

Scanning is great to share the photos or make a backup, but it's very unlikely those files will be accessible in 30 years unless you constantly put energy into migrating them to new file formats. Think about all the files on floppy disks or CD-ROMs that are really hard to access now.

If you keep all your photos into one centralized database, there is no energy involved. Now I admit it did take me some time to combine all old photos from discs, computers and cds into one but you have to spend as much time time organizing digital photos as you used to in making albums (probably more since we now take more photos). But I disagree that they will only last 7 years if you are keeping up with it! I have every digital photo starting from my kids birth in 2002.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 11:47     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:we do not use printed photo albums. This is what phones are for. Also, when you die, these end up in a dumpster.


Not so. They get distributed to family.


Yes so they end up in a dumpster. Ask me how I know!


How?
Did you dumped family photos?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 09:42     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:Never throw away old photos. Just because you may not find any value in them that doesn’t mean that someone else may not. I can’t tell you the number of important items that previous generations threw out because they thought that nobody would care. Well I wasn’t even alive yet when some of these decisions were made and it has cut me off from my own relatives and history because of their thoughtless actions.


Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 09:41     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:we do not use printed photo albums. This is what phones are for. Also, when you die, these end up in a dumpster.


Not so. They get distributed to family.


Yes so they end up in a dumpster. Ask me how I know!


So your sample of one is definitive?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 09:03     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Keep your photo albums and move on in your decluttering journey. Photos are almost never a main source of home clutter. I promise you have lower hanging fruit to declutter and are just procrastinating on the photo albums.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 09:02     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:we do not use printed photo albums. This is what phones are for. Also, when you die, these end up in a dumpster.


Not so. They get distributed to family.


Yes so they end up in a dumpster. Ask me how I know!


I don't need to because I just took all my mother's photo albums when she died.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 09:01     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
I also make annual photo books. It's nice to be able to look at a curated summary of the year. I also just made the grandparents a curated kid and grandparents for kid's tenth bday. They love them. I always enjoy looking through my grandma's photo albums when I visit (she's 98!). I hope I get some of them when she dies.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 08:56     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:I used to be an archivist, and I remember being taught that digital files have a lifespan of less than 7 years. The lifespan of a physical photograph is much longer: 100+ yrs?

Whether you actually want/need all your photos in the future is a different question but if you want to have a set of photos to give your kids in thirty years, you should have them printed. Putting them in an album will make them easier to keep (or have them printed into one of those books).

Scanning is great to share the photos or make a backup, but it's very unlikely those files will be accessible in 30 years unless you constantly put energy into migrating them to new file formats. Think about all the files on floppy disks or CD-ROMs that are really hard to access now.


On average, digital files, in general, might have a lifespan of seven years. That's not true of all digital files.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 08:38     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
I used to be an archivist, and I remember being taught that digital files have a lifespan of less than 7 years. The lifespan of a physical photograph is much longer: 100+ yrs?

Whether you actually want/need all your photos in the future is a different question but if you want to have a set of photos to give your kids in thirty years, you should have them printed. Putting them in an album will make them easier to keep (or have them printed into one of those books).

Scanning is great to share the photos or make a backup, but it's very unlikely those files will be accessible in 30 years unless you constantly put energy into migrating them to new file formats. Think about all the files on floppy disks or CD-ROMs that are really hard to access now.
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 08:05     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:we do not use printed photo albums. This is what phones are for. Also, when you die, these end up in a dumpster.


As opposed to your cloud drive with 130,000 non organized, non culled photos? What do you think is going to happen to these? You think your kids are going to pay for your cloud fees after you die or ever look at them again?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 06:49     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Never throw away old photos. Just because you may not find any value in them that doesn’t mean that someone else may not. I can’t tell you the number of important items that previous generations threw out because they thought that nobody would care. Well I wasn’t even alive yet when some of these decisions were made and it has cut me off from my own relatives and history because of their thoughtless actions.
Anonymous
Post 01/09/2026 21:44     Subject: Re:Are photo albums necessary?
We have rooms of junk I’d get rid of before I tossed photo albums
Anonymous
Post 01/09/2026 20:54     Subject: Are photo albums necessary?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:we do not use printed photo albums. This is what phones are for. Also, when you die, these end up in a dumpster.


Not so. They get distributed to family.


Yes so they end up in a dumpster. Ask me how I know!