Do you miss travelling? We sure do! While staying home and holding off on travel for now is necessary as we go through this pandemic, that doesn't mean we're not dreaming about our future adventures.
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But if anything, the current time we have at home is actually the perfect opportunity to look back on our past travel memories, be it through photos, souvenirs and mementos. What better time to undertake a project that will not only help us sort through our travel knick-knacks but also help us re-live some of our best travel memories? So if you're looking for a fun and creative way to dive into your travel memory lane, check out these suggestions!
1. Sort and organize your digital photos and videos
This is probably an obvious place to start - with cameras and our phones at our fingertips, travellers nowadays usually have an abundance of digital pictures and videos from their trips, which often requires some sort of sorting and organisation system! While technology has helped make it easier nowadays (for example, geotags on your photos makes it easy for apps like Google Photos to collate and group your photos according to a trip or destination), it's usually still helpful to make sure you have everything organised and stored in a way you're familiar with so it's easy to look up and you don't lose these precious photo records!
Backup everything
The basics of organising travel photos usually start with making sure your photos are backed up so you don't lose them. For those who take a lot of photos, it's often recommended to make sure your photos are saved to a Cloud service (like Dropbox or Google Drive). If you haven't yet, take the time to back-up your photos and videos from all your services (be it your phone, camera, GoPro, drone, etc.). To note, you can also configure your phone settings such that the photos on your phone are backed up automatically.
If you have a lot of photos and videos, you may need to purchase more storage space on your Cloud of choice. For those who love taking photos (even if it's just on your phone!), we highly recommend this as it's a great investment that will prevent you from having to worry about losing your photos, even if you change or lose your phone.
Have your photos sorted and filed in a way that's easy and accessible
Once everything is backed up, it's time to refine your filing system! This can range from something basic and simple like storing photos in folders according to the destination to something more detailed (such as having sub-categories according to the city, attraction or place where the picture was taken). This really depends on personal preference and how often you'd likely want to look-up a particular photo.
This is also a good time to sort through and delete photos that don't quite make the cut. If you have blurry photos or too many shots of a particular place, deleting the less than perfect ones can free up space for more photos and videos in the future!
Identify your favourite photos
This is often the best part about going through your travel photos - you get to identify your favourite ones! It makes sense to duplicate the ones you like the most into a separate folder so it's easy to find if you're planning to print them out, edit them further, or access the highlights of your trip more easily.
2. Make a scrapbook
Have a lot of pictures, ticket stubs, postcards and other paper collectables from your trip? Sounds like the perfect excuse for some scrapbooking! Let your creative juices flow as you piece together all your travel mementoes into an album and add your own flourishes. There's no right or wrong to scrapbooking, but there's plenty of online resources to help you get started on your journey. You can also easily find scrapbooking materials (such as albums, decorative stickers and tapes and other tools) online through places like Lazada and Shopee. Whether you choose to devote a scrapbook to one particular trip or to a whole year's worth of travel, you'll feel super accomplished once you're finished!
#HHWT Tip: Did you know you can purchase Instax printers that can print pictures directly from your phone? It's a really handy option as you can choose the best photos that you want to be printed out when you're back home (so you avoid wasting film) and you won't have to pack an Instax camera during your trip!
3. Create a display corner for your travel photos or souvenirs
They say your living space is a representation of who you are, and what better way to embody that than by having your house decorated with items from your travels? Not only do you get to display your souvenirs rather than having them just sitting in a dusty box somewhere, but it can also be a fun DIY project at home! Carve out an area where you can display your travel mementoes - it can be something as simple as a dedicated shelf on your bookcase, or wall space to hang your favourite photos. You can also invest a display cabinet, or alternatively fix some open shelves on a wall where you can put your items too. They make for a great focal point and conversation-starter when you have guests over in the future?
A great way to get some inspiration is to browse through Pinterest or on home furniture and design Instagram accounts (like Ikea's!) to get ideas for what you can do.
4. Write about your travels
Never had to the time to journal while you were travelling? That doesn't mean you still can't do it! Travel journalling is an excellent way to reflect on the trips you have taken. Not only does it let you think about the places you have visited, but it offers an opportunity for introspection and gratitude too.
Travel journalling is like any form of journalling - it can get as artistic or as minimalist as you want. And while travel journalling is often described as being in a written form, digital platforms work too! Nowadays there are dedicated digital travel journal platforms like Travel Diaries that make it super fun and easy to write about your trip. But whether you document your trip through a blog post, use a Google Doc to store your thoughts and photos, or simply post a throwback photo on your Instagram with a short caption, it's all good. So set aside some time with some coffee or tea, a cosy spot on your couch and your phone to scroll through your photos, and take a walk down memory lane.
5. Make a travel slideshow or video
Want to share your travel photos and videos with friends and family? Cue a travel slideshow! Now before you roll your eyes, we don't mean you have to resort to a Powerpoint presentation. There are now a lot of apps easily accessible right from your phone that you can use to piece together a short and sweet slideshow or video of your travel highlights. Some popular ones include PicPlayPost, MoShow and Scoompa, but you'll find plenty more apps when browsing your app store. These apps are designed to make it easy for you to share on your social media platforms, so it'll easy to take your friends and family through the best moments of your trip! It's great if you went on a group trip with your friends too, tag the people you travelled with and start reminiscing on the awesome time you had.
6. Make a travel memory box
If you have a lot of travel mementoes but don't feel like making a scrapbook or fashioning it into some sort of display, why not consider making a travel memory box or destination box? This simply means putting all your travel knick-knacks into a pretty keepsake box that you can store on your shelf without it being an eyesore. It elevates it from being stored in a nondescript storage container to something a little more special ?You can have one big box to store all your travel mementoes, or you can also sort by destination and have different boxes for different places. If you label your boxes with the names of the different cities or countries they represent, the boxes become a cool reminder of all the places you've visited too!
7. Make a photobook
Have your travel photos become your very own pictorial spread immortalised in a book you can flip through whenever you want! There are many photobook service providers that you can order from online (such as Photobook that's available in both Malaysia and Singapore, as well as Pixajoy) and they'll send the finished product straight to your doorstep. They make for awesome coffee table books to keep in your living room too.
#HHWT Tip: These printing services usually offer many products, including printing photos for home decoration, making personalised items like calendars or mugs, or gifts for loved ones!
8. Organise your fridge magnets
This may sound a bit silly, but don't knock it until you try it! Many of us collect magnets when we visit places around the world, come home, plonk them on our fridge and forget about them. Well, now's the time to take a look at them and re-arrange them according to your liking (if you wanted to go the extra mile, you could even take all the magnets off, wipe down your fridge, then put your magnets back on one-by-one). You'll be surprised at the memories that can come back to you as you look at your magnets from around the world.
And there you have it! 8 ways to organise and honour your travel mementos that will help you re-live some of your best travel memories. Travelling might not be on the cards right now, but looking through your past travels will not only help fill that travel void but also help keep your wanderlust alive and kicking until your next trip in the future ❤️
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