When You Have Too Many Photos to Make a Photo Book

Welcome back to the monthly series, Personalized DIY Books. Books are a treasure, and when they are your own books, the value increases exponentially.

But what if you have too many photos to even make a personalized photo book? What then?

Not to worry. Even people with a million photos (which is most of us these days) can still get all the mental health benefits of photo books, now and for years to come–for both yourself and your loved ones!

Step #1: Cull

When photos first began in the 1800s, people were lucky to get a handful of photos of themselves and their loved ones during their lifetime. But, if I wanted to, I could sit down today and take 5,000 photos of someone or something. So one big help for too many photos is to cull. Culling is just a way to narrow things down and choose favorites. This cuts down on overwhelm and makes a personalized DIY book much more doable.

These ABCs of culling can help! Divide all your photos, printed or digital, into these four categories:

Don’t think you need to find 50 hours this week to cull your photos! This is my experience breaking down a photo project into 10 minutes a day–it was amazing, so I highly recommend the read.

If you’d rather set aside an hour a week and do it with a friend, that works, too! Learn about my Photo Circle idea here. I’ve seen a lot of people have success with that.

I suggest just starting with one year’s worth of photos and culling them, or even just a month at a time! The smaller the steps, the easier they are to accomplish.

Step #2: Organize, But Just a Little

You don’t have to have every photo you’ve ever taken organized before you can put it in a book! I suggest organizing just one year’s worth of photos. Often, organizing last year’s is the easiest because memories are fresher, but you can start anywhere you want. I’ve put together a variety of organizational helps for you–just choose the ones that seem they’d work best for you personally.

If organizing seems overwhelming, remember you’ve already culled! You won’t have as many photos to deal with if you cull first.

Once you’ve started with one year’s worth of photos, you’re ready to go on to Step #3, yes, but it will also be so much easier to organize and cull other years’ worth, too! Momentum is powerful.

I personally organize by month and year, both on my computer and in FOREVER Cloud Storage (including the app), but organize however your brain likes it. All you have to do is be able to find and see your photos.

Step #3: Make it Easy

Narrowing down all your photos to just favorites and then being able to find them are the two most important things to do when you’re trying to make a personalized DIY book.

But don’t get tripped up at the last step by making it too hard on yourself. Again, you don’t need a billion hours a day in order to make a photo book, even if you have a lot of photos. Set aside 10-15 minutes and pick a beautiful, high-quality template that has been already designed for you so that it’s as easy as clicking!

Something like this Life in Seven template is super easy. It’s designed for 52 weeks, 7 photos a week. (Plus, all the numbers you see are editable text boxes if you’d rather not number the photos or the weeks–just take them out.)

FYI: These are both free templates created using free software, and there are many more to choose from here. I’ve even made video tutorials for you that show how quickly the books come together, both from your phone and from a computer.

This Loved Every Day template is also super easy–just click to add a photo and click to enter text. Choose from a variety of page options.

You Can Do It!

Whatever you choose, however works best for you, you can do it! You can preserve photos and the important memories that go with them in the pages of books, even if you think you have too many photos. These three steps will help! You can find daily (weekdays) inspiration here, too, for more ideas and support.

Your phone is not an heirloom. If you want your photos to last longer than your phone, preserve them along with their stories in pages. (The links I’ve shared also include a digital, downloadable, shareable-with-a-link backup of your book, too).

You will not only love the finished product, but you’ll love the journey. I promise.