How will you relive your family memories in the years to come?
One of my favourite features on Facebook is where I’m reminded about photos I posted years ago. I just love seeing photos of my much littler children and being taken back to times I’ve long forgetten about. And based on my friends' posts, it seems to be a favourite feature of many other people as well. We are prompted to remember times that were so cherished we wanted to share them with our social circles. It’s so convenient and normal now that it’s quite easy to rely on. But what about when Facebook and Instagram go the way of MySpace? When USB drives get stored in a dusty drawer with floppy discs and our parents slide projector? Where will you and your children go to pull out your treasured family memories to relive and share? Here’s just a couple of ways to help make sure you’ll be enjoying your favourite family memories long into the future…..
Get your photos off your phone
It's so convenient having photos on our phones. We can enjoy them and show them to friends and family so easily. But the phone is too vulnerable to be our primary method of storing precious memories. Phones get lost, stolen, broken, outdated and dropped in the toilet (don’t ask!). Save your favourite photos to your computer or external hard drive as well as a cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Print your photos
There are so many convenient and easy to use photobook printers. My favourites are Chatbooks and Blurb. They are a quick and easy way to upload my holiday snaps and favourite daily memories so we can enjoy those memories over and over again.
Another way to enjoy photos is to print out a bunch of 4x6" prints and keep them in a collection of photo storage boxes such as these. You can have a box for each year so you can easily keep track of your growing family.
Our holiday snaps courtesy of Chatbooks
Create a wall gallery in your home
My 'grow with my galleries' are becoming quite popular with my clients lately. By designing a display of 5-7 frames of various sizes, it's easy to keep adding to the gallery as your family grows. There is such a happy comfort to adorning the walls of your home with pictures of the people you treasure most. It is a magical way of incorporating pictures of your family journey into your everyday life.
Life moves so fast, our kids grow before our eyes. Being intentional in capturing and preserving each phase of life is something that will never be regretted, not by yourself, your children or your grandchildren. So however your family likes to enjoy memories, make sure you create something for your you all to enjoy in the months and years to come. Who knows? You may be sitting down and sharing the memories you create today with your grandchildren! And I'm fairly confident that Facebook as we know it today, won't be around by then.