How I Make Annual Photo Albums

You say you’ll do it someday, when you ‘get around to it’… we’re talking those phone snaps and attic boxes full of photo treasures. Here’s how I’ve cut through the photo overwhelm by curating annual family albums that give a snapshot of the year. Once you pick a theme and a deadline, I promise you, you’ll be off on a joyful adventure down memory lane.

Now I say this while fully acknowledging that out of the last 6 years of our marriage, I’ve only made two albums… and have still to print a wedding album. But now I’m re-invigorated to get into it again. Decluttering is hard.

We’re in this together!

(Just so you know: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click on them and buy something I get a small percentage. Thank you for supporting my small business in this way!)

My Annual Photo Album Process

1. I Give Myself a Deadline

Like many decluttering tasks, photo projects are not urgent and therefore easy to put on the back burner. But putting them off keeps you from the peace of mind that your most precious photos are safe, searchable and ready to enjoy.

I use special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays to get photos into frames and into an annual album. You can choose to go for calendar years, school term years or in our case, start each year at our wedding date.

2. I Map out the Events of the Year

Ok, you’ve decided to make an album but you are suddenly overwhelmed with your choices! I decide what is and isn’t in scope for the album, by its theme. That means that if it’s an annual album, I will dedicate just 2-4 pages to each topic or event rather than put every photo from each trip into the book.

It helps me to write out a timeline of events that year for each month (check your old calendars, Instagram and Facebook for reminders). These usually include:

Holidays & Trips
Special events like big birthdays, weddings, new babies
Christmas
Big Achievements e.g. passing my driving test!

I also like to give a snapshot of that time with collections of photos from everyday like, such as:

Where you were working & work events
Times with Friends
Dates and occasions
Pets
Silly stuff (like Halloween costumes)

What’s nice is that you can follow the same formula again the next year.

3. I Gather the Photos

At this point I have a good idea of what photos I want to gather onto my laptop from phones, social media and cameras (you’ll often picture them in your mind as you remember things).

I ask my husband to send me photos via email or connect his phone directly to my laptop
If you need to gather photos from many people add them to a folder on Google Drive
Sometimes I grab professional pics from internet of scenic areas, menus, logos etc. from places we visited

Tip: Feel free to scan or photograph tickets, menus and any other memorabilia you want to add too so you can just keep the album and not the scraps and objects afterwards.

4. I Design Photo Spreads

I like to get photo books printed as the quality is usually great (even from our phones) and we can keep consistent slim dimensions for storing. Photobox (Affiate) offer beautiful books and I’ve also heard great things about Snapfish. I’ve made my albums using iPhoto/Mac Photos and their partner company that always come very quickly in the post.

To make the album-making process more enjoyable I usually stick on a movie in the background, get snacks and drinks to keep me going.

To avoid getting bogged down I start with pre-formatted pages of photo collages, add simple descriptions (a few words and the date), choose some full-page pictures and stick to the 2-4 pages rule per topic.

Tip: If you want a free and quick way to enjoy your photos, once you have them named and ordered in a computer file folder fire them into software like iMovie (Mac only) or Canva (online) to make a simple video slideshow

Add royalty-free music from in the Youtube Music Library.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

5. I Write a Mini Summary

Once I know what events I will include, I write a two-line summary for the year with the biggest highlights so I can get situated from the start of the album. E.g. Suzy & R had a big year - we changed jobs, bought a house and survived Storm Ophelia!

6. I Store it to be Picked Up

We got the idea of annual photo albums from from our friends who kept theirs on their coffee table and we browsed it while they finished making our dinner. This is a great spot! Also on your bookshelf or in a keepsake box - think about when you’ll look through it and where you’d search for it first.

7. Ongoing: I Gather as I Go

When the photo album backlog continues to grow, my motivation to sift through photos diminishes. I try to save the best photos to a special album on my phone to keep the process moving throughout the year and help out future Suzy.

Small, consistent actions make any big project do-able - you can do it!