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"Whenever you open the closet, you see the same boxes of photos shoved onto the top shelf. You know you should do something with them, but what? Take a weekend (or two) and get them organized. You&amp;#039;ll be glad you did.   Sort and Toss   If you&amp;#039;re daunted by the sheer number of photos you have, follow these steps to pare them down.   Step 1: Gather all your print photos in one place and put them in chronological order, starting from the present and working backward.   Step 2: Sort them into three piles: keep, toss, give to someone else.   Step 3: Make digital copies of the keepers. If there&amp;#039;s ever a flood or fire, or a box gets lost during a move, you&amp;#039;ll have a copy, says photographer Scott Gerke.   Step 4: Now tackle the photos on your computer by downloading Google&amp;#039;s Picasa, a free program that searches your hard drive for all photo files. Once the window displays them as thumbnails, pick the ones you want to keep and upload them for free to Picasa or other photo-sharing websites like Shutterfly.com or Photobucket.com. Delete the rest.   Preserve Your Memories    If you&amp;#039;re wondering why the pictures in your magnetic photo albums now look old and faded, blame it on the acid in the glue (which causes photos to deteriorate) and the plastic sheets (which contribute to yellowing). Photo organizer Cathi Nelson gives a better way to store them:   1. Pry pictures from the sticky pages in one piece by slipping unwaxed dental floss under an edge of a photo, then slowly sliding it back and forth all the way under the photo to cut through the glue.   2. Now put the photos in acid-, lignin- and PVC-free archival-quality photo boxes or albums to protect them from further damage.   2 Ways to Scan   Do it yourself. If you have a multifunction, all-in-one printer, you should be able to use it to scan images onto your computer. If you don&amp;#039;t, most flatbed color scanners (like the basic-but-powerhorse Canon CanoScan LiDE 210, $87; at BestBuy.com) recognize photo shapes, so you can manually scan in four to six at once.   Go local. Have your neighborhood photo shop do the job and you&amp;#039;ll get a disk back with all your photos on it. The cost is usually 22\u00A2 to 90\u00A2 per photo\u2014less if you have more than 500 images to scan.   Your Photos are Organized\u2014 Now What?    If you don&amp;#039;t have time to make albums... Whatever you do, don&amp;#039;t toss the pictures back into that shoebox. Dirt, humidity and acids (as well as light) can cause them to deteriorate, so you need a storage solution with built-in protection. Three to try:   1.Iris Photo Keeper: You can pack a ton of pictures in this handy little box. Pop the lid and inside you&amp;#039;ll find six photo cases that each hold 100 prints. ($16.99; SpaceSavers.com)   2.Container Store Large Archival Photo Storage Box: Want to categorize your images by date, event or theme? The 12 protective envelopes that come with this box make it easy\u2014they&amp;#039;re specially designed for grouping and labeling sets of photos. ($21.99; ContainerStore.com)   3.Print File Drop-Front Metal Edge Box: Since it&amp;#039;s made for professional photographers, you know it&amp;#039;ll do the job. It comes in various sizes (the largest holds 450 photos), and the metal side pulls down flat for easy sorting and stacking. ($12\u2013$23; PrintFile.com) Photo: Len Lagrua/Woman&amp;#039;s Day      If You Want to Get Really Creative... Turn memories into things you can use. Just upload scanned pictures to these companies&amp;#039; sites and they will transform your photos into one-of-a-kind household items and decor.   Vistaprint Photo Wall Calendar: Keep track of appointments on a calendar featuring 12 of your favorite images\u2014one for each month. ($15.99; VistaPrint.com)   FotoBed Home Accessories: Dress your bed, bathroom or sofa with custom pillow cases, shower curtain or throw pillows. ($40\u2013$199; FotoBed.com)   Photowow Artwork: Hang a real work of art. This fun website takes your photo and creates an Andy Warhol\u2013style pop-art canvas as big or as small as you&amp;#039;d like. (From $138; Photowow.com) Photo: Len Lagrua/Woman&amp;#039;s Day   Arianne Cohen is a contributing editor to Woman&amp;#039;s Day, and author of Help, It&amp;#039;s Broken!: A Fix-It Bible for the Repair-Impaired. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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