It seems like in this day and age, the average family moves a lot. In fact, I am about to have my third child, and all three kids will have been born in three different states. Gone are the days (for most people anyway) where you live in one home for 30 years and your kids never have to change neighborhoods, or friends. It can be depressing when you think about it, or you can embrace the fact that change is sometimes good, and do a layout of all the places you’ve lived.
Hopefully, you will have a picture of either the outside or inside of each home you’ve lived in. If it’s just a photo of you in the kitchen and that is the only one you have, use it anyway. The picture will most likely help jog your memory of the rest of that home. Depending on how many homes you have lived in, you may want to approach this a few different ways. Or, think about scrapbooking a layout about every town you’ve lived in if you were not great about taking pictures of your homes.
First, start by making a list. If possible, include the dates you moved in and out of that place. It can be just the month and year, of if you don’t know that much detail, include just the years. Then, go on a hunt for pictures of your past abodes. The final step is compiling a layout with all of that information together. If you or your spouse was in the military, then consider doing an entire album made up of all your cities and houses. Your children will love remembering this one day when it all becomes a little fuzzy in their memories.
Let’s say for arguments sake that there were just a handful. I’ve been married almost 10 years though, and we’ve lived in just about as many places during that time! Hopefully that will settle down as we are married longer. But, for now, I could easily do a two-page layout about all the places we’ve lived in our marriage.
You could line all the pictures up overlapping slightly on one side of the page, and simply list the places, and dates next to the photo. Consider creating a paper strip for each place with the written information on it. Place the strips on the opposite side of the page, but corresponding with each photo. If possible, include journaling tags to journal about what you remember about that house. Every house has it’s quirks, and it might be fun to list the thing you loved most about the house, and the thing you hated most!
This kind of project can be ongoing too. You might see many more moves in your future. Start now by keeping track of the information you’ll need to add to your layout or album. Remembering all the homes you’ve lived in with a scrapbook layout will be a treasure for years to come.
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here. < Return To Scrapbooking