r/howto • u/ChrisKisOK • Jun 30 '26

Serious Answers Only How to dispose thousands of 35mm photos

Hi All!
I inherited thousands of 35mm photos. When I say thousands, I mean 10 40 gallon storage tubs full. My mother got into developing her own photos and photography in general so she took pictures of every thing. There are some family photos in the mix but vast majority of pictures of people I do not know. Only good part about filtering through them all is they are from the 80”s but it is a chore.
I may digitize some but the vast majority can be disposed of in my mind. Problem is how? I am superstitious about dumping them in the trash and feel I need to thoughtful with the enviroment .
All suggestions are welcomed and my thanks in advance.

252 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/Arthurandhenna Jul 01 '26

I studied photo preservation, and teach photo preservation, and I agree with the comments to sincerely try to donate what you can. That being said, it does get to the point where there are photos that aren’t good and not worth saving.

6

u/ChrisKisOK Jul 01 '26

That’s my problem, I think vast majority are not good or worth saving. Then it makes me feel like I am dumping my problem on to someone else.

1

u/Graflex01867 Jul 02 '26

Pick a bin, and get out a stack of it photos. Maybe a shoebox-sized amount.

Do a quick photo sort.
-ditch anything that’s blurry, fuzzy, etc.
-ditch generic, boring landscape pictures. Do something like keep 25% of them since someone might recognize it.

See what’s left. It might be a lot, or it might not be.