Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

30 x 30 wrap up: July 2025

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It’s the end of July and the end of another 30 x 30 challenge. I hope it was a productive month for everyone! It sounded like things were going really well for the folks who checked in mid-month.

I didn’t participate in the challenge this month…genealogy has been moved to the back burner for now. But I did have a very productive month in my personal life and with my organizing business!

I’d love to hear how your July went: Were you able to put in 30 minutes a day on your genealogy work? Or perhaps the equivalent? Please let us know in the comments!

30x 30 mid-month check-in

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The middle of the month has passed. How is your 30 x 30 challenge going? If you’re participating, please drop a comment and let us know how it’s going! Have you been able to put in 30 minutes a day on your project? If not, that’s okay. I’m curious, though: did you put in more work than you might otherwise have put in if you hadn’t signed on for the challenge?

We still have half a month to go. Even if you’re not in the swing of it yet, it’s not too late to get going. Any effort is better than no effort!

I’m looking forward to reading your updates!

It’s (past) time for a 30 x 30 challenge!

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Who’s up for a July 2025 30 x 30 challenge? I haven’t done one since January so it feels overdue. If you’re interested in committing to doing 30 minutes of genealogy research or genealogy organizing (or anything else, really) every day for 30 days, let everyone know in the comments. Sometimes the accountability of the commitment can jump start your research. I’ll have a check in post mid-month and a wrap-up post at the end of July.

As I’ve blogged about before, daily research is a great way to stay in touch with your research, keep your momentum going, and eliminate the “what should I work on today” paralysis that sometimes happens when we have large gaps between our research sessions.

I just looked back on the blog and saw that my first 30 x 30 challenge was in August 2015. That one I did alone and just blogged about the experience. After that, I opened it up to everyone. So we’re looking at ten years of these challenges! In that time, we’ve averaged three or four a year. I’ve always been gratified by the participation and the fact that it’s been so helpful for people.

If you’re up for the challenge, just comment here and, if you feel like it, let us know what you’re going to be working on.

The challenges of downsizing inherited items

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As I mentioned, I moved last summer, downsizing from a 3200-square-foot house to a 1700-square-foot apartment. It’s a spacious apartment but it certainly lacks the storage that our house had. (In addition to 3200 square feet the house had a full unfinished basement.) I let go of a lot in the moving process, but I did move of the family photos I’ve accumulated and never really done anything with. These are photos passed down to me, as well as photos from my lifetime (and my husband’s).

I felt the pain of my limited storage space again this week when I moved some furniture around in my office and took the photo boxes off the bookshelves they were on so I could move the shelves. Before returning them to the shelves, I glanced through the boxes to see if I could consolidate any of them to save space. Nope. There’s a treasure trove in there but it’s going to take some time to go through. I have nine photo boxes of varying sizes to deal with. I need to formulate a plan to do that!

This morning, in the midst of thinking about my photos, I received genealogist Amy Johnson Crow’s email newsletter and was delighted to see that it was all about downsizing and family history. It features a link to the interview she and I did in 2019 for her podcast, Generations Cafe.

The interview touches on some strategies for downsizing your own belongings as well as helping family members downsize, which can be an even larger challenge.

Amy’s email prompted me to see if I had written here before about this interview, and I have. This post from 2022 reminded me how overwhelmed I was by the items I inherited when my father died and when my aunt (his sister) moved to a nursing home, all within the space of a few months in 2022. The fact that I was able to whittle the stuff down before my husband and I moved in June 2024  and now just have nine photos boxes actually makes me feel good.

At the end of the interview, I made a statement that really hit home for me today. I said, “Right now I’m thinking of these photos I need to go through as a chore. But it’s really not a chore, it’s a privilege.” That’s true isn’t it?

It’s more pleasant to go through these treasured photos and ephemera when you’re not under a lot of time pressure. If you have inherited items calling to you for attention, please consider working on them sooner rather than later when you have a better chance of enjoying the process.

Here’s a link to the podcast episode if you’re interested in listening to the interview.