Quote Originally Posted by UltraliteAngler View Post

Getting rid of the pics was not that hard. I went through them one last time before I tossed them. It was an intense trip down memory lane -- very emotional. Pics from when I was a teen, from my college days, from grad school, etc. Memories as stored in photos can really wear on a person and they don't even know the weight that is on them. But once those photos were gone I felt free. Now, after I rarely keep photos for more than a week or so. I rarely take any photos, except for commerce (like selling on eBay) or when others ask me to take pics of them.
They do weigh on you, I get that. I totally get getting rid photos taken during a bad time in your life or of an ex. But didn't you worry that you might want to see someday a very old pic of yourself or someone you loved who is gone?

I did keep the wedding album for the kids but it is so deeply packed, I don't think I will ever see it again. IDK why, but I feel like I should keep pics from when we were a happy family for the kids to see. I can't get rid of pics of the kids, that to me makes sense. Then I can't get rid of pics of family because they died or will die and I will have to have those pics. Then high school, college, single life photos, well, I liked those people, still see some of them, so I have to keep them and it's funny to see how you looked, especially the '80s. And since I was seven and got my first one, I have taken copious photos of every single dog I have had. And here I can be reasonable, keep 2 favs of each dog, dump the rest. But I know I won't, I'll keep them all, lol. The smartphone development was good, no one was using cameras anymore, my kids are older so took way fewer pics, and my phone is filled with my kids cuddling my dogs, or just my dogs. Oh, my, I am a photo hoarder! A dog photo hoarder, I think it's not good when you have 10x the number of photos of your dogs than your children!

someday, but so low on my list of things I desire to do, I will haul out the box and purge, give the kids the pics of their dad, throw away a bunch of meaningless ones, and put them in photo boxes, I hate making albums. I have to do the same with iPhoto. But this process feels like it would be awful, I don't want to see some of those pics again, so I may just leave it alone and the kids can take what they want when I'm dead. Plus, I somehow came to be the bearer of the collection of old, old photos from both sides of my family. So I cannot even imagine all those, then all my parents' and all mine. I did make photo books with some of the old old photos and gave them to family members. But it was a huge PITA, figuring out who was who, what events were the most meaningful, etc, scanning them into the computer and then making the books. So it's not so simple as my box, it's all the other peoples' photos, as well. They picked the most wrong person to be the archivist of the family. And yup, that stuff weighs on you, too just because of the huge amount, being the designated "person", etc.

major props that you could do this even though it was so emotional, especially that you looked at them before trashing. I get the urge to just throw it all away before I ever look at each one and make a decision.