Have lots of old photos lying around the house? You find one every once in a while in a book or under the bed. Occasionally, you even find those old packets from the developing with a few pictures. Why not start organizing those photos on your way to making an unforgettable scrapbook?

Many people assume that the best way to organize photos is to put them in chronological order. However, if you have many photos that are unlabeled or dated, this may be difficult. Rather than dealing with this, try organizing by theme. There are countless organizational themes including: Christmases, Vacations, Family Reunions, Children's sports teams, an overseas trip, or a specific time period (college years). Try not to make them so broad that every photo will fit in, but also don't restrict them too much.

Making a scrapbook of each theme is a great idea because you can put them together fairly rapidly-each page doesn't have to be completely unique. In fact, you want to create unity between the pages. This will save money because you can use the same colors of background pages and mix and match accessories.

Do a 'cover page' for each year or event. If you choose a 'Sports' theme, have a section for soccer, one for basketball, etc. Keep the cover page bold and simple-maybe one photo and the date and location. Have a running continuity among the cover pages will bring a nice unity throughout the book.

Themed books are easy and enjoyable to look out and they show how children grow and styles change over the years. Even visitors to your home will enjoy flipping through albums like this, whereas a chronological album might bog them down.

To help yourself stay organized when it comes to all those photos, label a few envelopes with some possible themes. Whenever you develop film or print photos, try to divide them into the proper envelopes. That way whenever you are ready to start your next scrapbook, the photos you need will be ready to goand you won't have to search under the bed or in any books!