Earlier this year, I sent a pretty innocuous email to the people on my list and asked them one question:

Why aren’t you doing anything with your memories?

The two answers that dominated their responses were “overwhelm” and “lack of time.”

Honestly, same.

You’re busy, you’re making memories faster than you can “do anything” with them, and you feel behind. I get it. I’m right there with you.

A few years ago, as I began to consider what it might look like to “do” memory keeping for clients and not just myself, I dug deep into this practice and worked to identify my take on it - because, certainly, there are so many ways to manage, document, and display your memories.

But I knew after so many years of doing this for my own family, I had a particular approach to it and I called it “modern memory keeping.”

Modern memory keeping is

Simple
Sustainable
Beautiful
Meaningful
And Shareable

In this post, I’m expanding on that first element: simplicity.

I believe simplicity is the key to overcoming both of our biggest barriers to entry when it comes to our photos and memories.

Whether your biggest barrier is overwhelm (because perhaps you’re years behind) and/or a lack of time (because you just don’t have a lot of margin - welcome to parenthood!), keeping your memory keeping as simple as possible can help you get it done.

Simplicity touches so many aspects of modern memory keeping, but I’ll cover three in this post:

Quantity
Design
Medium

Let’s dig in.

Simple ideas for what to do with family photos

ONE

Less is more. Don’t include as many photos.

You know the feeling of walking into a beautiful hotel room? Or a model home? Or a museum?

There’s space, room to breathe, light, walls stretched out in front of you, horizontal spaces with few things on top of them, empty drawers, intentional furnishings, thoughtful details.

And there’s the most valuable element of them all: space.

When we lived in Europe, we ventured to Paris one week and took a quick trip through the Louvre.

It’s a massive place, filled to the brim with incredible art and historical artifacts. We had two little kids with us, so we hit the highlights, including the famous “Mona Lisa.”

I was struck by two things when we saw it.

First, the painting is small. There are huge paintings in the Louvre, but this isn’t one of them.

At just 2.5 feet tall, the Mona Lisa is dwarfed by the massive crowds that often surround it, elbowing each other to get a glimpse of the world’s most famous painting.

Second, it’s very much a focal point.

When we were there a few years ago, she hung on a gallery wall all alone, behind protective glass, behind a curved railing.

We could walk right up to so many other pieces of art, but this one was special - and you didn’t have to know the painting to tell it was important.

By highlighting the artwork on this one wall, all alone, with no distractions, the museum curators signaled her significance, and we couldn’t help but slow down for a few minutes to admire her.

We’d walked through so many galleries in Europe where the walls were filled with paintings from floor to ceiling.

But the really important pieces usually got a space of their own.

What does this have to do with your memories?

Think about flipping through a catalog or a yearbook, let’s say. We tend to breeze through pages with lots of small photos.

But the pages with one, maybe two, large photos beckon us to slow down.

Their simplicity makes those pages easier to savor, easier to digest.

Those pages signal to us “hey, these photos are important. Pay attention.”

If we clutter up our photo books or albums with too many memories, we risk devaluing them. There’s too much on the page to take in, so we simply move on.

Think about your camera roll.

If yours looks anything like mine, it’s filled with hundreds or thousands of photos, memes, screenshots, duplicates, little videos of your kids doing something funny or sweet.

Now imagine (and I’m not advocating this!) you only had 100 photos on your camera roll from the entire year.

Would it be easier to look through those photos? More pleasant? Less overwhelming and less time-consuming, perhaps?

I would argue that being highly selective when it comes to the quantity of photos we include in our projects keeps them simple - and that simplicity gives more significance to those memories.

I do love a collage in a photo book or a series of snapshots from one moment on a page. But I’m realistic. Those pages will get a quick glance.

The “reader” isn’t going to pore over each tiny photo. They’re going to pause when they get to the “big ones.”

And to make room for some of those simple pages, I’ve got to limit the quantity of photos I include in a project.

Further reading:

Simple modern photo book baby book how to

TWO

Keep the design simple and timeless.

When I started memory keeping ten years ago, I didn’t have a particular style or approach. I also worried about leaving things out or not including “enough” detail.

Needless to say, I feel really differently now.

For some people, memory keeping marries their creative itch with their desire to document family photos.

These memory keepers use stamps, scissors, even sewing machines to create incredibly detailed and beautiful projects that not only tell a story but serve as a creative outlet.

Full disclosure: I’m not this type of memory keeper!

While I’m often inspired by and can fully appreciate the talent and artistry of these folks - people like Tazhiana Gordon, Ali Edwards, and Azzari Jarrett - my approach to design is quite simple in comparison.

Perhaps like you, I find these days that I’m really short on time and I have to balance wanting a creative outlet with wanting to get these memories documented in some way.

So, once a year I indulge my creativity and do a few layouts for a December album that don’t have the pressure of being our primary memory keeping vehicle, but serve as a really fun creative outlet for me.

The good news is that if you like simple design, then you’re going to create projects that really can withstand the test of time.

Choosing classic fonts, keeping design elements and extra color and what-not to a minimum really helps your photos be the star of the show and ensures the longevity of your projects.

I also like to include plenty of white space in my photo books, which gives the eyes a place to rest and keeps the design details to a minimum.

When it comes to design, I include timeless elements: lines, blocks of color, even using words or quotations in ways that add to the design without adding unnecessary graphic elements that might not withstand the test of time.

I try to stay away from things that resemble “clip art” - like rattles or bows in a baby book. I’ve used that kind of thing in the past and to be honest haven’t loved the results a few years down the road.

You want to be able to pick up these books years from now and love them. Simple design helps those projects remain relevant.

So don’t fight the urge to either edit your designs or keep them really simple in the interest of time. You don’t have to be an artist to be a memory keeper.

Further reading:

THREE

Choose the simplest method for you.

If you’re trying to combat the twin barriers of overwhelm and lack of time, then you’ll need to choose a memory keeping method that’s as simple as possible.

And that totally depends on your preferences - what’s simple to me might not be simple to you.

I moved from Project Life to primarily photo books for our own family memories because I found that creating pocket page layouts just took too much time and I wasn’t “keeping up.”

Photo books allow me to create a book for a period of time in one fell swoop. I can choose my photos, upload them to the photo book creator, arrange them, and hit “publish.”

For me, that’s the simplest way to do our memory keeping (the bulk of it, anyway).

You might find that video or pocket page albums with printed photos works best for you.

My number one suggestion here is to keep the method as simple as possible.

If you’re doing Project Life, then decide on the layouts you like, gather your supplies in one place, establish a schedule or rhythm for when you select and print your photos and put together your layouts.

If you’re putting together a video, keep it simple. Use the video editing software that’s native to your computer (like iMovie for Mac). You don’t need anything fancier for family home movies!

And if you’re designing photo books, don’t overthink the process. Keep the method simple. Any photos you print will be wonderful additions to your family’s story. I promise you’ll enjoy them for years to come.

If you overcomplicate the method you use to get those memories documented, you just won’t do it.

You’ll fall “behind,” maybe get discouraged, and end up back in the “I can’t do this” camp.

You can do this - I promise. Just keep it all as simple as possible.

That’s the key to memory keeping projects that are fun to look at, beautifully timeless, done and in your hands.

The Key to Dealing with your Memories if You're Short on Time