Why not take the time this holiday season to organise some of your photographs so that you and your family can really enjoy them? Don’t forget that albums and photo books make perfect Christmas presents too.

First ask yourself some questions about your photos:

• What would you like to do with your photos?
• Who would you like to preserve your photo memories for?
• How would you like to display your photographs?
• What type of album would you prefer or would you like to make a photo book?
• Do you want to create gifts from your photographs?

Simple steps to organising your photos:

1)    If you don’t already have one, create a folder on your computer and add all your digital photos to it. Create a new folder and name it ‘Photos to be printed’ or similar. Go through all your digital photos and add any that you want to include in your albums to the ‘Photos to be printed’ folder.

2)    Shop around for photo printing deals, often there are some great specials available, especially if you are printing a large quantity at once.

3)    Next, gather all of your printed photos together (printed digital photos, boxes, plastic bags, loose photos and envelopes of photos from under the bed) to see what you have.

4)    Gather your supplies (choose photo safe quality) including boxes or containers, pens, notebook and albums.

5)    Spread photographs out over a table or other large surface where you can see them easily.

6)    Sort your photos by date using broad categories such as by year or by five years (fashions, hair styles and the ages of children are great hints as to when the photos were taken).

7)    Either make piles of each year or category of photographs, or sort them directly into a photo sorting box. You can use sticky notes to identify categories or dividers and label them clearly. Make sure you save reminiscing for later and just focus on sorting at this stage!

8)    Remove photos that are obviously not good enough to keep, for example where fingers obscure the lens, accidental shots or where photos are out of focus or marred by poor lighting. In some cases, photos may be saved with digital editing software if they are scanned, keep these photos aside in a labelled envelope for editing later. Duplicates can be put aside for friends and relatives.

9)    Use shoe boxes or envelopes to keep the years together if you need to work on these another day and clearly label these temporary boxes.

10) Store your negatives and digital copies separately from your photographs in case of loss or emergency. It might be a good idea to send copies of precious digital photographs to another family member for safe keeping just in case something happens to your hard drive.

11) Once you have your photographs sorted and ready to place in an album, do a rough layout first before committing to the permanent arrangement, this will help ensure you have enough room and the order is to your liking.

12) Position your photographs in your album and make notes next to each photo so you or your children will remember who is pictured in years to come. Store your albums away from sunlight, extreme heat, cold, damp or humid atmospheres.

And finally, enjoy your photos!