Photo Album organizing

Today's blessing and curse is that we can take too many pictures too easily. A blessing because then we're sure to get a good picture. A curse because there's a high potential that i'll find a reason to need to keep all of them, therefore leading to photo chaos... piles of priceless photos stacked everywhere... despite the lack of quality in a great majority of them.

Up until this week, it was my intention to scrapbook all of them in 8x10 binders or a 12x12 scrapbook. However, since i have about a small shoebox's worth (600 photos) of printed photos to scrapbook and about two or three more shoeboxes worth unprinted... I'm considering photo albums. On top of that, some of the pages i did only 4 years ago, are already becoming un-glued. They're not going to last.

The problem with the photo album is i can't put anything except photos in them... and i have a crate full of programs from talent shows and performances i participated in, letters, cards, love notes, and movie tickets. Plus there's the occasional picture printed in a larger size than 4x6. What do i do with those? My second problem is that i've randomly scrap-booked all parts of my life; so to keep these photo albums and scrapbooks in order, i would have to take apart some of my hard-labor scrapbook pages. . . or fill in all the missing pages (ie hundreds of photos) andthen start doing photo albums.

My Best solution so far, is to

1- scrapbook the missing pages here or there

2- scan the several pages that i may end up taking apart

3- print and organize all photos

4- put excess or bad pictures in a 'giveaway' box

5- insert any knick-knacks that can fit into a photo album

6- select sections of photos to scrapbook in an album, accounting for the size of the album

7- create binders of all other material that cannot be added into a photo album and scrapbook them in a "no-photo scrapbook" as outlined on google sites.

I'm still frustrated though. partly because i can't pay for prints right now... and partly because i'm not sure how well this system will actually work. The system i really want... scrapbooking everything on 8x10 or 12x12 ... is unrealistic, unfortunately... since most pictures register as 'important.'

How does one know when a picture is a keeper or a 'giveaway?' Google has a list...

1- a decent and rare picture of a family member or loved one

2- it touches an emotion of a viewer and impacts their life [for good]

3- a picture of a life-changing event in one's life

4- it shows beauty and/or truth. Shows my point of view

5- it's proof of an event

6- no particular picture is the best, but the collection together in a series

i could fit most of my thousands of pictures under these 6 reasons... but perhaps knowing the reasons can help me determine better what's worth keeping to me. The last thing i consider when trying to decide whether to scrapbook or trash a picture is asking myself these three questions:

1- Does the picture make you feel happy? or otherwise? Is this something you want to remember forever?

2- Is this something you want to share with your children or friends? Will they see it if it is scrap-booked?

3- Is this picture worth the cost of (A) saving on the computer's memory, (B) printing, (C) putting into one of 200 slots in a $15 photo album, or (D) the cost of the scrapbook paper, stickers and glue on the page?

Lastly... i have a lot of random pictures in the middle... should i make an exception to chronological order for topical order... family photos verses college life... and how do i do that?

Any additional insights?