Oh the joys of trying to get back into scrapbooking. :/

I totally feel your pain. I'm right there with ya!! I think I FINALLY may have all my 2015 pics printed. It's been a struggle thou. That's my goal for 2016, to stay current on printing photos.

I try to pull my photos and stories together once per month. I used to collate at shuttercal.com, but they went under this year. I have the same issue - photos are on several devices and cameras, photos/stories are on facebook or other social media, or in email or IM or text ... it's all so overwhelming.

Last year I got behind by several months and had to catch up. I did it by going backwards. I started with December, and then did November, etc. until I was caught up. December was easiest because it was recent, and my success there spurred me on. By the time I got to July I was happy that I had loads of things from the year and didn't care as much if I was missing things, I just needed to be finished. Maybe that would work for you.

Are you doing traditional scrapping or PL? I can't imagine facing a year of photos for layouts! Good on you, if that's your goal!

If it's PL, then I might be able to offer advice. I started PL mid-2015 and was so pleased with it that I decided to go back and do 2014 but my digital photos were a mess. I downloaded all my instagram photos because those represented big moments for us or particularly cute pictures of my dog and put them in dropbox organized by month. I also added 2 or 3 photos that weren't on instagram that I knew I wanted to include. Then I started using the PL app* and worked from January to December, grouping photos as it made sense. I finished in about a week of working during downtime on my phone- at work, in the car, watching tv, etc. I still need to print out the pages, but the they are done!

*this is not a paid advertisement! And I don't use PL app for 2015 or 2016, I only found it really useful to catch up on old stuff when printing individual photos was overwhelming.

It also kind of sounds like you're not getting much joy out of this process any more. Maybe changing it up would be welcome?

Hope this helps! Please let us know how your back-scrap goes

I was in the same spot last year. I only had one friend left that scrapbooked (and she did very occassionally), scrapbooked for over 20 years, but just got burnt out. 

My son is only 14 so I didn't want to stop, so I sold all of it and switched to digital. It got my creative juices flowing again, and I'm actually in the process of changing all his scrapbooks to digital because I like the look a lot better (and want easy extra copies) I just did over a dozen pages this weekend, and should be finished sometime this year, then I can just do photos as they come up. It's nice not having to print anything until I'm ready.

I would love to have scrapbooks from my childhood, but not 15, 20, etc of them. I do think there comes a point when it's just to much. I'm not a prolific scrapbooker, but did have 6 very thick, heavy 12x12 albums for my son by the time he was 12. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I'm in the process of converting them to digital, but another reason for it is I can make much thinner photobooks. When I'm done I'm going to print a set out in 10x10 for myself in hardcover, then one for my son when he is an adult. I just found the 12x12 books to bulky to comfortably look at (though I still digiscrap in 12x12) 

As I've been redoing/converting them I also realized I scrapped things I didn't really care about just to have something to scrapbooks (photos of eating out at restuarants, pics of my kid trying out skates, on a trampoline). As I've been doing this, any pages I don't love the pics I just remove, I'm not bother doing them at all, and also I'm going from a lot of 2 pagers down to single pages for events, because how many pics of the same kids in different poses at birthday parties does he need?

I've been trying to seriously downsize my life and those heavy thick books just weren't working for me. After inheriting 5 large totes of pictures when my mom passed, I'm determined to leave my son with a reasonable and enjoyable amount of pictures/books. 

I do wonder if a lot of the people creating these big books, and in such large amount expect their kids to take them someday? I have friends who had bookcases full of scrapbooks for their kids (of course none of them actually even scrapbook now, so they have lots books of their younger years.)

I no longer try to "keep up". I also don't scrap chronologically anymore. I scrap what I feel like, when I feel like it. The pages or books are for me. I do believe my kids enjoy them as well. What they do with them when I'm gone is totally up to them. I scrap because I enjoy the process. It is my hobby and meant to be enjoyable so it's nothing I feel I have to stress over. 

Start small. I've been scrapping for 13 years, but life evolves and my free time is much less.
I currently work on a monthly project life spread, and try and make at least one layout from Ali E's story kit. I struggle some months to do this. Don't pressure yourself. Enjoy the hobby once again, and remember each piece you create is a piece you wouldn't have if you were still on your break.

thanks for this, I've been wanting to do an online backup, and have prime, no idea they had that!

I do expect my kids to take my albums. They joke about it now, but I think they will mean a lot to them when that time comes.

Dd #2 is moving far away from me in the near future and I haven't told her yet, but I am preparing to pack hers in labled boxes and take them to her in time for the movers to put them on the truck.

I decided to do this because it would be a problem for her to transport them that far in the future. There are a lot of them, mostly her 4 kids. I think they should be able to keep them in their rooms with no problem. We'll see.

I hear ya, OP!  I will not even go into how many years of photos are on my computer and not developed.  To give you an idea, however, I can tell you that when I went to empty my memory card before the holidays this year, I discovered last year's Christmas photos were still on it!  The bad news of course, is that I haven't developed any photos in a very long time.  The good news is that I have discovered that as my boys get older (they are 16 & 19), I take far fewer photos, so there's less hanging over me.  

Of course, I also haven't developed the FB photos from other people (like you said) or the ones from my tablet or phone or emails for the past few years.  Is there anything beyond a black hole?  Because if there is, that's where I am.

Yes I have, and it makes me smile that you noticed, myboysnme!  Thank you!

Right before Halloween I slipped in a parking lot.  Pulled my hamstring & sprained my thumb.  While my tablet was w/me during my time healing up in bed (it was like 4 weeks where I couldn't drive or hold a pen and I'm still not back to normal now!), it was too hard keeping the laptop there.  My replies on Peas can get lengthy and I'm not very quick when tapping things out (much quicker typing) on the tablet, so I just sorta slipped away for awhile.  

But I'm feeling better, so you gals are stuck with me again!    

Organizing, editing, and ordering pictures are what can sometimes make scrapping a chore for me. I'm nearing the point in time in my chronological scrapping where my pictures will be in multiple places and I'm dreading it. Add to that the fact that I'll have to upload hundreds of pictures from two cameras to a really slow computer and I'm dreading it even more. Not to mention the phones and Instagram! I'm hoping it's worse in my imagination than it will be in reality.

I'm another that gets bogged down by the editing and printing. I'm way, way, way behind with it and don't have a prayer of ever getting caught up. Oh well.  So I just flip through and look for something that inspires me, try to edit and print those and roll with it. I would like to do a better job of setting aside time to work on my pages at least once a month this year. If it's on the calendar, I do a lot better with following through. Once I'm actually working on my stuff it's fun.