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You have tons of photos, but as you review them there are some that are more important than others. What makes a signature image worth keeping when you’re trying to cut down the clutter? Today, we explore the top three qualities you want for your truly keep-worthy photos.

I’ve dived into organizing some photos, as a result of organizing my office, here at home this past week. Working on the photo project reinforced how hard it can be to organize and discard photos that feel so inherently precious. I understand that it’s an issue for clients when it feels like we’re throwing away gems that will then disappear into nothingness.

As a person well into my 50s, I’m of a generation where we collected a lot of hard copy photos through the years. Every time we completed a roll of film, we went to have them developed and came home with packets of pictures. Some were good while many were terrible. But since we paid for the packet, we often kept more than just the important ones.

In my situation, my husband David is the photographer and takes a lot of photos. This was great when the kids were small, because we have a lot of documented images of our past. But it also means we have more photos to sift through that should never have made the cut. Plus, David came from a large family and inherited boxes of photos from previous generations. We’re pretty inundated.

Today, we have stacks of decaying albums filled with pictures as well as boxes of older photos, too. And to compound the issue, we have the deluge of digital images on hard drives and many devices whose contents we rarely access after each new photo is added.

If you can relate, then you get how difficult it can be to winnow down the collection of pictures to those truly worth keeping. To help you enjoy your collection and not stress out about the discombobulation of so many photos in so many places, let me share the three qualities which will help you identify the signature images worth holding onto for the long haul.

1.       Ask: Is this image representative of a specific time in your life (or that of someone important to you) that you want to remember? When you sort the childhood photos, of your own kids or of yourself, consider if the picture captures an important phase. Ideally, you want to keep pictures which track the changes of you or your child through marked phases.

If you have multiples which represent a single age, now might be the time to consider which ones you like best and go ahead and delete or toss those which are not the best representation of that chapter.

2.       Ask: Is the image key because of the subjects in the photo? And can you identify, date and place the image? Photos easily become trash when you don’t know the people in the picture. If you can identify everyone in an image and their relationship to you (or to others important to you), AND you have a date and place of the picture, that raises the value of the photo.

If you have LOADS of photos of Aunt Bertha who, for reasons you don’t know, sent her portrait picture to your family every year at Christmas, you might decide to toss most of those now. But if you have Aunt Bertha with several other relatives in an old image, and all are identifiable, it becomes an important documented image of your family.

3.       Ask: Does the photo feature an important event or value that is meaningful to you and your family? By far the most essential quality of any photo are the details and stories you associate with it.

An example I share here is of a picture of our son Oliver. This picture shows him wearing an oversized, bright red sweatshirt and holding an umbrella. He is standing in the rain in Central Park in New York City.

Our resident photographer David took the picture, which captured Oliver swinging around a lamppost with the umbrella. It was his ode to Gene Kelly and the movie “Singing in the Rain.”

David went on to submit the photo to Life Magazine and it was accepted for print on their “Pictures to The Editor” page. We were thrilled, most especially because Life was such a treasured and wonderful publication. Plus, this recognition assured that the image would be forever housed in libraries all over the country—not to mention a smattering of households.

Since publication, we have had both the image and the page from Life framed and displayed on the walls in our home, now for well over two decades. 

The picture is significant not only because it captures our son and a special trip to New York, but because the photo is a symbol for the value we placed in traveling with both our children. Our daughter Alexandra was on that trip as well, and we all four had a wonderful adventure visiting David’s sister there. We loved taking our children on vacations and considered our life as parents more fulfilling whenever we were able to take them on trips.

The bonus here, of course, is that the photo also made it into Life. We were thrilled because we appreciated the publication, and David hails from a family of writers and photographers who celebrated the photo having made it onto the editor’s page.

In our family, this photo is iconic, not only for the backstory but for the fact that it has remained on our walls all these years.

Of course, sorting through photos—particularly old ones which you inherited or kept for so long you no longer remember their importance—can make the task of sifting pictures seem daunting. But as you find the gems, the ones that feature people and stories important to you, it can be such a happy walk through memories.

For the basics of sorting old photos, this post by Andi Willis over at Life Storage Blog titled “Need To Organize Your Photos? Get Started Here” provides a quick rundown of the steps to get you started. One of the first tips is to bring all your images together so you know what you’re dealing with. This alone can be eye-opening.

I also include a post I wrote about another major way to sort a large quantity of images: referencing people as the category. Categorizing by people and then going through and creating subcategories such as dates can help you quickly organize so you can efficiently get to the point when you decide which ones are “signature.”

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed with the task of whittling down photos, so take your time and remember that what you’re working toward is finding your gems. Once you identify those that are most significant to you, you can spend time sharing them and telling the stories with those who matter most to you.

You know how momentum of one project can lead to working on another. I highly recommend checking out Get Organized Gal’s courses as a helping hand to get you motivated and in action to work on your organizing projects. I used her course to organize my office and found it invaluable to stay on track.

Journal prompt: Right at this moment can you think and list some of the most iconic photos you have in your collection?

Sherry is the founder of Storied Gifts a personal publishing service of family and company histories. She and her team help clients curate and craft their stories into books. When not writing or interviewing, Sherry spends loads of time with her grandchildren and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

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