There are many ways for your photographs to be stored whilst waiting to place them into albums. Some of the most common ways are within boxes, photo sleeves or files similar to suspension filing. You may also have your photos stored on your computer. Whatever method you choose, your main concern is that your storage should be acid and lignin free. Photos will need to be preserved in order to assure longevity from general handling and wear-and-tear.

• When using a box for storage, make certain it is acid free, alot of old shoe boxes aren't safe for storage of photos.
• Once you have placed photographs within an album, always protect them with approved plastic sheeting or an approved page protector.
• An approved plastic protecter is non-vinyl and archival safe.
• Store your boxes and albums in a dark, dry, cool place. Heat, UV light and moisture can damage photos by fading, disintergration, mould and distortion.

Ok, so you've got at least 20 years of photos and memories - how best to organise them? Everyone is different and what you may find works for you, wont for others so here are a few ideas to help you get started. Remember to go through your photos and think about the memories or emotions that they may trigger within you. This is often the perfect place to start your scrapbooking.

• Time (chronological) - Organise your photos from newest first to oldest last. Start with the year, then go by month. Or you may find it easier to sort your photos oldest first and newest last. You can then scrapbook them in this order if you like.
• People - My personal favourite. Label a tab with each person's name and place all the photos of this person in their own section. The disadvantage to this is you may have a photo with mulitple people (hence mulitple categories) and only one place to be able to store it. When looking for a particular person I often go through other related people's categories in case there maybe a photo with my current subject.
• Events - Moments in time that will be remembered. This often tends to be a great way to sub categorise your photographs as there are often great photos which cannot be placed into a specific event.

Your photos can also be sub categorised. Your main category maybe time and then sub categorised with people or vise versa. Use index cards with tabs that are larger than the size of photo for determining each category.