Keepsake Organization Part III: Family Memory Boxes

Last on my list for organization projects to kick off 2024 (along with family yearbooks and file boxes for each child) was finding a good storage place for some of our most special family keepsakes. Our wedding memorabilia, mementos from our dating and newlywed years, and our family’s small keepsakes and loose photos all needed a home, and this set of archival storage boxes is perfect!

I got this idea from listening to Nancy Ray’s Work and Play podcast. She’s a former wedding photographer and a huge advocate for treating your family’s photos (professional photos, camera photos and iPhone photos alike) as what they truly are – your family’s legacy. Her approach inspired my giant personal photo overhaul, changing the way I approach, manage and store our family’s digital photos, but she also encourages safekeeping of printed photos and tangible memories. Her Legacy Photo System involves five boxes, but that was a little much for our family’s needs. Two is perfect for us now, and we can always get more if we need to.

These acid-free archival boxes with metal-reinforced sides prevent photos and papers from damage and from yellowing over time and while they’re obviously not fireproof or waterproof, they’re lightweight and an easy-to-access place to store things for generations.

As I was gathering photos from various places to put in these boxes, I realized that most of them have the file name and/or year they were printed in fine print on the back; however, that info isn’t really helpful if it doesn’t match up with when the photo was actually taken.

So I took a sharpie and wrote helpful information on the back of each one – date taken, ages, event if applicable. It made this project take a lot longer, but I know I’ll be glad I have those notes in many years when my memory gets fuzzy. You think you’ll remember, but I could barely remember things about photos that were taken 5 or 10 years ago, so I know it’ll only get harder!

In our wedding box, I put our save the date, stationery from our wedding, letters we wrote to each other, mementos from the day we got engaged, a handmade banner my then-7-year-old cousin sewed for us, the USB with our wedding photos, and all of our loose printed photos from our wedding. Essentially, anything pre-children goes in this box.

Our family box will house all of our printed family photos that aren’t in our yearbooks or in frames, along with any other small mementos from trips or events that we want to hang onto over the years.

The cut sides on these boxes are on purpose, in case you want to slide out something on the bottom out from the side instead of having to pick everything up. Shop these exact archival boxes HERE or via the widget below – I did the 2-pack, size 11”x15”x3”, which will hold years and years’ worth of photos for us, even 11x14 prints.

This was one more of those projects that allowed me to breathe a deep sigh of relief once I finished. The peace of mind from having these precious keepsakes organized, easy to access and in a safe place – it’s priceless!

Keepsake Organization Part II: Kids' File Boxes

Along with getting caught up on family yearbooks and photo boxes, one of my organization projects for the beginning of 2024 included getting a system in place for our kids’ papers. They’re still just in a Mother’s Day Out preschool program right now, so it’s mostly handprint crafts and coloring pages in our house. After they get their spotlight on the fridge, I don’t just want to toss them, but also don’t want them to pile up. I want to keep them in order and from getting damaged.

Enter: these file boxes. They’re the perfect solution for keeping school papers worthy of saving, along with other paper things like birthday cards, letters, photos and more, organized and contained all in one place. When they leave the nest some day, they’ll have this to take with them and everything will be so easy to access and revisit.

I have to give credit for this idea to Francie Outlaw and her Filing System for Childhood Memories – I followed her steps pretty closely, just tweaking and adding a few things along the way.

These boxes are really pretty simple. A clear file box for each child, one colored hanging folder per year (we color code pretty much everything in this house), with 2 manila folders in each. Starting with Pregnancy/Before You Were Born, First Year, 1 Year, 2 Years, 3 Years, 4 Years, 5 Years, and then Kindergarten all the way through 12th Grade – even a College folder if you want to include that.

The first manila folder for each year holds documents – things like report cards, certificates, notes from teachers, class photos, birthday cards and letters. The second manila folder holds classwork and artwork. For the pregnancy and first year sections, I put things like ultrasound photos, baby shower cards, birthday cards, and their baby book in those folders.

What I Used to Make Our Kids’ File Boxes

For each box you’ll need: one legal/letter file box, 21 colored hanging folders, 42 manila folders, 42 labels, and a name decal.

You can shop everything I used to make these boxes on Amazon HERE or using the widget below. The only thing I purchased elsewhere were the name decals from Etsy. She has tons of font and color options. I ordered the 2.5” size for the front of each box.

I couldn’t find these exact file boxes in anything but a four pack, but just search for stackable letter/legal file boxes if you don’t need as many. Each box took me about an hour to put together, mostly because I used my label maker instead of the file label stickers (we don’t have a printer – if you do, this will go much quicker!). Little bit of a tedious project on the front end, but this will set us up for ease and success going forward.

Tips for Storing Kids’ School Papers and Memories

WHAT TO KEEP: Paring down these kinds of things is harder for me than paring down my own keepsakes. There’s a painted handprint for every holiday, things they colored, precious papers with their name in giant, carefully drawn letters. To each their own, but during these MDO/preschool years, I’m trying to keep 3-4 handprint things, 3-4 things they wrote/colored, and 3-4 other crafts per year.

For crafts when they’re small, I like to hang onto things that are actually their handiwork – not things you can tell the teacher mostly did for them. For cards and letters, I try to only hang onto ones that have more than just a name signed – any with sweet notes they’ll really love to go back and read later on! The goal is to keep the folders from being stuffed to the brim, so I’ll put things in there I think I might want to keep, and if/as they get full, I can go through and pare things down even more. We’ll see how things change as they get older and are bringing home different things, but this is working for us right now.

DATE. EVERYTHING: You think you’ll remember when something’s from, but it’s tough! As I started going through our kids’ storage bins and moving all the papers into these file boxes (they each also have a big bin where I put other keepsakes like clothes, memorabilia and bulkier things), I was finding so many cards, papers and pieces of artwork with zero way to know when they were from. I’ve made it a habit now to jot down the month/year/their age on the back of things as they come into our home and I know I’ll want to keep them.

If you’d rather not go the DIY route and would prefer to have one of these ready made for you, The Short Years company does just that! Their folders also come with an About Me template similar to the one above to fill out each year and attach a photo from their first day of school (I made my own and added a few more blanks). However, The Short Years boxes only come with one folder per year and only go from Preschool through 12th, so you won’t have the before you were born/first year/toddler section. They only release a set number of boxes every so often and they sell out quickly, so be sure to sign up for their email list.

Personally, I enjoyed putting the boxes together myself and being able to choose the colors of the folders, customize the name decals, and add the extra folders where it made sense. Again, HERE is the shoppable post with all of my supplies. And if you’d like to print my yearly About Me template, right click below to download.

If you’re overwhelmed by the influx of school papers and not sure what to do with it all, this is a great starting point. Happy filing!

Keepsake Organization Part I: Family Yearbooks

What a labor of love and a long time coming. Our family yearbooks are finally here! I set out to make these happen a few years ago after seeing my friend Melanie share hers, but I knew I needed to get caught up after doing a complete overhaul of my digital + iPhone photo organization, changing my mindset around taking photos of my children, and really getting serious about those photos being our family’s legacy – not just taking up space on my phone.

Twenty years from now, our kids won’t be scrolling through our phones to revisit their childhood memories. We NEED tangible memories – and to narrow it down so they’re not burdened with an overload of photos.

I cover all the details of how I manage and store my personal photos on this blog, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but part of my system includes copying my iPhone photos onto my external hard drive (and a backup drive and the cloud) at least once a month. As I’m doing that, I go ahead and pick some favorites from that set of photos to save for our annual yearbook. This makes it super easy at the end of the year because we already have our very favorites saved and ready to go.

Why I Chose mPix for Our Family Yearbooks

After lots of research and even starting an account to test things out on four different websites (Artifact Uprising, Milk Books, Blurb, and mPix), I ended up choosing mPix to create our yearbooks. Artifact Uprising’s products are gorgeous but a book the same size and same number of pages was more than twice the cost of mPix. I also very much preferred mPix’s layout options and the ease of their drag and drop features over any of the others.

TIP: If you do an mPix book and want the most easily customizable pages, choose “Empty Page” as you’re building out your spreads, then drag and drop the photos you want onto that page, then change the layout if needed. Way faster!

Product Information for our MPix Family yearbooks

I went with the 11x8.5” Premium Linen Hardcover photo book, in the color Sand, with silver foil debossing on the front cover, and a dust jacket. I really would’ve preferred our last name and year foil stamped on the spine itself, but that option was super hard to find on any website in my price range. I ended up loving the dust jackets anyway! I chose a photo from the beginning-ish and end-ish of each year.

Doing a landscape layout meant I could fit more portrait-oriented photos on each page, plenty big but still with plenty of white space so it’s not too overwhelming. I did 3-6 photos per page for the most part.

These books come with 20 pages – ours ended up with 35-45 pages each (about 250 photos per year), so the extra pages, plus debossing and dust jackets made them about $120 a piece. I think these are WELL worth the cost. The quality is incredible – the cover is gorgeous and sturdy, the matte pages are beautifully printed and THICK – almost like cardstock. Plus, mPix usually runs a 40% off sale every first week of January, or you can get 25% off your first order any time.

Helpful tips for creating family yearbooks

Double check that whichever website you’re using has an auto-save feature and if not, save your work after each page – mPix does not have auto-save and I learned that the hard way, unfortunately!

Beware of issues with HEIC images (what your iPhone probably defaults to). None of the websites I tried accept HEIC photos, so you’ll have to convert to JPEG (use this website to convert several at once, or you can open one in Preview on a Mac and Export it as a JPEG). HOWEVER – when you convert from HEIC to JPEG, the image loses its original date taken info, so keeping things in chronological order was a complete mess. From now on, I’ve changed my phone settings to capture everything in JPEG (Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible).

Another tip – make a Shared Album with your spouse to house your favorites/best of the best, so their favorites from their phone get included. I’d been keeping track of my favorites all along but getting caught up on five years’ worth of books meant Andrew had to go back and look through five years of photos on his phone and pick out his favorites, too. Having him put them in our Shared Album will make things easier from now on.

We’ll also do a Shared Album for videos that’ll make our yearly family movies even easier, too. For these, I just drag and drop all of our videos from each year into iMovie and it automatically puts them in the right order and makes a compilation. No transitions, no fancy editing, just all of our favorite videos from the year strung together to make one 30-45 minute movie. It’s so easy but such a treasure!

Thoughts on Quality over Quantity

Honestly, I haven’t been taking as many photos of my kids these days. They’re little busybodies, and while I want to remember these days, I also want to cherish them as they’re happening and not have my phone or my big camera in their face constantly. I took about 650 total photos and videos on my phone in 2023 – there’s no magic number, but narrowing down 250 favorites from those was tough enough, and we still ended up with beautiful yearbooks full of photos that make us smile.

No Matter What – Print your Photos

These yearbooks are incredibly special to us and I know will be cherished for a lifetime, and hopefully beyond. Whatever you do, no matter how you choose to do it, whether it’s monthly Chatbooks, big yearly albums, a combination of both, or even just regularly printing 4x6s of your favorite iPhone photos and putting them in an old-school album – print your photos. It’s so worth it!

How I Organize Our Important Family Documents

If you know me or you’ve followed along for a while, you know how deep my love runs for all things organization. Today I’m sharing how I organize our most important family documents – things like legal documents, taxes, insurance, and medical bills. Everyone has their own system for this – just sharing what’s worked for us and what’s helped keep the paperwork under control over the years.

My Filing Rules

When it comes to important papers, I have two rules. One: do something about it NOW. Whether that’s paying the bill (when feasible of course), calling customer service, filing away a paper where it actually should go – don’t put it off. Deal with it as soon as possible as things come in.

And two: if there's also an email/online copy (utility bills, most receipts, etc., something I could print if I needed to) I don't keep a paper copy. Sign up for e-statements and auto-pay, auto-archive those bills to an email folder so they never even hit your inbox, and read/toss the papers that come in the mail. There are rare instances where I do like to have paper copies, or multiple copies, of things, but for the most part, I want these things on auto-pilot so I’m NOT wasting time messing with actual papers.

Our Fireproof File Boxes

I keep our important family documents in a fireproof file box like the ones below (scroll through the widget below to see options - our heavy duty one is from Walmart, another great fireproof option with extra pockets is on Amazon), with colored hanging folders and tri-cut manila folders. We actually have two boxes – one is not quite enough room to hold everything for our family, but the peace of mind from having these things safely tucked away is worth it.

How I Color Code Our Files

A pack of hanging file folders with FIVE colors (like these!) makes it so easy to color-code these things. Here’s how I handle ours!

BLUE = LEGAL

This section includes things like passports, birth certificates, immunization records, social security cards, wills, powers of attorney, advanced directives, and business formation documents. This may sound morbid, but having an attorney for a husband and a funeral director for a father-in-law (they’ve seen some drama when it comes to these things), I cannot emphasize to you enough the importance of having an estate plan, which includes things like wills, powers of attorney, and advance directives in place – especially if you are married and ESPECIALLY if you have children. The complications your family members will have to deal with (or fight over) if you don’t have specific plans in place… just not something you want to burden your loved ones with. You do not have to have a large or complicated “estate” to be worthy of having an estate plan – these things are for EVERYONE.

Texas friends – if you do not have these things in place, Andrew and I highly recommend our attorney friend Marley Elliott! She’s helped us with all sorts of things, from estate documents to business formations. She’s super great at explaining things in an easy-to-understand way, very fairly priced, and can do everything remotely.

GREEN = FINANCIAL

This is where I file anything credit card-related (disputes/payoff records, but not statements – opt for e-statements, always), retirement/investment account documents, 3 years of tax returns, and any loan/line of credit documents.

YELLOW = HOME

The yellow folders house anything related to our home, including property taxes (these could also go in Green but since these are more “active” tax documents, I put them here), lease/purchase/refinance documents and anything real estate-related. I save home repair invoices here and receipts for major purchases (furniture/appliances). I also keep a couple of copies of a recent utility bill, as these are needed occasionally. Otherwise, all utilities are handled online!

RED = INSURANCE

All things home/life/auto/health insurance go here! I have a separate file for each family member's medical bills and explanations of benefits (EOBs) for the last 3 years. Definitely keep your EOBs for a while (this is one thing I do prefer to keep hard copies of, in addition to online copies) – I’ve learned hard and expensive lessons there.

Always, always compare your medical bills to what the EOBs said would be covered, and do not be afraid to call and advocate for yourself. Doctors’ offices make billing mistakes (intentionally or not, at the expense of patients who aren’t paying close attention) ALL. THE. TIME.

If any family member has a significant medical procedure, I keep all documents and bills related to that in a separate file. And on that note, I keep all pregnancy/delivery-related bills and EOBs in a separate file for each baby.

I only keep the current and one most recent previous car and home insurance policy – if our coverage changes, I like to have one previous record to compare it to, but that’s about it. No need to keep years’ worth of those things.

ORANGE = OTHER

This is where I keep things like job records (offer letters, contracts), vehicle purchase and maintenance records, charitable giving records, veterinarian records, and hobby-related things like membership documents and large purchase receipts. School records (report cards, transcripts, etc.) are kept in our kids’ personal keepsake file boxes. Read more about those HERE!

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If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending influx of paperwork, I hope this was helpful! Obviously every family’s will look a little different. Just having a specific place for things to GO makes a difference in keeping clutter under control so it doesn’t pile up, on the counter or on your to-do list. If you’re on a decluttering mission this year, taking care of tasks related to these things and safeguarding this kind of documentation would be my number one place to start.

Shop all of our important document organization items, all in one place, HERE.

Favorite Buys of 2023

Recapping my favorite buys throughout the year – I had some specific items and categories I wanted to focus my shopping efforts on in 2023, and some unexpected wins too. Here’s what I loved the most!

JEWELRY

Monica Vinader oval pendant + Amazon adjustable gold chain | after getting rid of a LOT of old/outdated jewelry (looking at you, Kendra Scott earrings), I was on the hunt for a few gold jewelry staples. This engraved oval necklace is my new everyday necklace and after searching high and low for a gold pendant I could do 3 lines of engraving on, I love how this one turned out. They include 2 sides of engraving, so I did our wedding year + the kids’ birth years in roman numerals on the front and home team on the back in script – it’s so special to me! With the 14-24” adjustable chain I can move it so the pendant hangs at just the right spot no matter what I’m wearing.

Brinker + Eliza heart necklace | I’ve loved this statement piece (stacks well too) – it would also be a great piece to engrave!

Julie Vos Savoy hoops | Became a big Julie Vos fan this past year. I’m eyeing more of her pieces but wide gold hoops like these had been on my wish list for a while and these fit the bill. Lightweight and good backings so they stay tight against your earlobe.

clothing

Joyspun t-shirt bra | A $13 Walmart find — no wires or seams but makes ‘em look alive without being a push-up. A winner!

Banana Republic wide-leg jeans | If you have wider hips/bigger thighs like me, these are worth a try. Not too tight, not too baggy. I got the black wash and this dark wash denim pair – love the raw hem and the pocket placement is perfect. (BR does come in Petite and Tall but I’m 5’10” and their talls are too long on me, FYI).

BEAUTY + FACE

Revision Brightening face wash | Magic. It truly does brighten your complexion immediately! A little goes a long way – it took me several months to finish a bottle using this every single morning.

Alpyn BHA Liquid Exfoliator | Added this to my routine in the spring (a bottle will last you 6+ months) after reading the insanely good reviews and have zero regrets. It’s helped with texture and tone so much! I rotate between this and my beloved Luna Oil.

Merit makeup | I’d been wanting to try a cream based makeup routine and liked that Merit had cleaner ingredients, but I was impressed by how smoothly it glides on and how glowy it makes my skin look. I got the Minimalist (complexion corrector) in Bisque, Flush Balm (blush) in both Stockholm and Beverly Hills, Day Glow (highlighter) in Cava, Bronze Balm in Clay, Tinted Lip Oil in both Au Naturel and Jeté, and their brush. I wouldn’t put it in the longwear category, but for a daytime routine that looks incredible natural or a glowy, pigmented nighttime look, it’s worth a try!

THE tortoise sunglasses | These are all over Instagram but dangit, they’re a classic look and for $30, feel really nice. I got rid of every pair of sunglasses I owned except these and my favorite aviators from two years ago – they’re all I wear!

HOME

Let’s Love to Cook | I could not stop talking about Larson’s resources all year long because they truly have changed my life. Sounds dramatic but really, using her cookbooks has helped me to ENJOY cooking with confidence and not be intimidated by the process of making from-scratch, hearty, healthy meals for my family. Cooking with my kids became a regular thing in 2023 thanks to LLTC. And the pre-made meal plans and grocery lists are just a no-brainer. Can’t say enough good things!

Silpat reusable baking sheet | Eliminates the need for cooking spray, parchment paper, etc. With all the things I’ve been making and baking (see above) this was a must.

Label maker | A tiny but mighty winner for my home organization efforts in 2023. Works with an easy-to-use phone app.

Locket frame | As soon as I opened this frame, I immediately bought another one for another room. Gorgeous! Comes in antique gold too if that’s more your vibe.

KIDS

Karaoke set | This thing is so fun! Has bluetooth so you can play any song from your phone, and it’ll turn down the artist’s voice so you can sing karaoke, or you can just play it like normal and sing along (comes with 2 mics). Our kids have loved it but it would make an awesome gift for any age or great to have if you’re throwing a party.

Tangle teezer brush | So good I bought two to have on hand. Frizzy + fine little girl hair has met its match.

Personalized dry erase board | I bet Steele wrote her name 487 times this past year thanks to this. Bought a few for gifting, too!

Raising Emotionally Strong Boys | One I’ll read again and again as the boys get older. So much wisdom and practical advice for all age groups (lots of validation and answers for moms of toddlers) but especially relevant for mamas of elementary-age boys. I really enjoyed this one.

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Still loving everything on my 2022 list, too – there’s some good ones on there. I’d love to hear if you have any of these and love them as much as I do!