The Fun of Making a “Day in the Life” Photo Book

My toddler loves to look at photo books. I make an annual album showcasing the fun of the last year. We’ve gotten photo albums from school (such a treasured labor of love from the teachers!). And I’m planning to make a vacation-specific album to help keep our trip memories alive. But my favorite album to look back at is my annual “day in the life” album.

Gretchen Rubin’s Album of Now

I’m pretty sure I got the idea to make a “day in the life” album from author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin. I love Rubin’s books The Happiness Project and Happier at Home and her weekly podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. One happiness-boosting idea she recommends is making what she calls an “album of now.”

An “album of now” contains everyday scenes from your life as it is now. Take a picture of your home. Your kids’ (messy) bedrooms. The carpool line. Your grocery store. The mailbox. You get the idea. These scenes are mundane, but over time, they become precious memories. We think we’ll always remember what the nursery looked like before the big-girl bed. But the fact is, we won’t.

The next time you flip through a photo album of your childhood, pay attention to what catches your eye. I bet you’re just as nostalgic about the wallpaper on your parents’ dining room walls as you are about the birthday candles you’re blowing out. Wouldn’t it be great to have a photo of what the whole room looked like? Our kids will probably have more pictures with their childhood rooms in the background than we did. But how often do we take a picture just of the room?

Remembering the Routines

I tend to be a very routine-oriented person. (Enneagram Ones like to figure out the “right” thing and stick with it.) I like doing the same thing day after day. With young kids, any routine I establish typically works well for about three months. Then we’re on to a new stage of naps, school, activities, and so on. But for a season, I can keep our daily routines fairly consistent. And that means that if I document them in pictures, a whole season of life can come flooding back. So at least once a year, I like to create what I call a “day in the life” photo book. This helps me capture what we’re doing and what life looks like at the time.

I’ve only been doing this for a few years, but my kids have grown so much and our lives have changed enormously in that time. (We have another member of the family for starters!) I love getting to look back and see what life was like when my girls were toddlers (and remember that I survived that season). I can get a marker of whether we’d made a particular transition yet or not. And I can remind myself that I have made progress on my home decorating goals, even if that progress feels slow! Here’s how I make the album happen every year.

Choose a Day

I try to pick a different season of the year each year to do my day in the life book so I get some extra variety (swim lessons! catching the bus! winter coats!). It would also be fun to try to do the same day every year. If you really want to be an overachiever, you could pick the same day every quarter. (I need to resist that challenge I just threw out.) I look at my calendar and try to pick a fairly “normal” day, keeping in mind that there really is no such thing. But I try not to pick a vacation day or a day my kids will be gone longer than usual.

Once I’ve identified my day, the hardest part is remembering to get started in the morning! I’ve definitely forgotten until mid-morning and had to pick a different day. You can try setting an alarm or reminder on your phone so that you start taking pictures right away. You can even screenshot the alarm and include it in your album!

Give your family members a heads up too. My kids LOVE day in the life day. My husband is not a fan. But he goes along with it because he values the memories. I’m sure when my girls are teenagers they will resist, but hopefully by then we’ll have done it enough times that they’ll be used to mom’s weird habit.

Take Pictures

This is not the day to hire a professional photographer. Just grab your phone and take pictures as you move throughout your day. I like to take a picture of the clock when I get up. I snap pictures of meals. I take pictures of the kids as they move through the various stages of their routines. You can set an alarm to remind you to check in every 30 minutes or so if it’s helpful.

Don’t forget about the “background” stuff of your day. Take a screenshot of your current playlist. Snap a picture of the playroom before it’s been picked up. Open up the fridge and take a picture of the contents. Capture the stuff of life that’s not usually considered a Kodak moment. (My kid asked me what that was recently, and I felt like I was a million years old.) Take a couple pictures of the backyard or the playset. The swings won’t always be there.

And don’t forget proof of mom! Take selfies with your kids. Ask friends or family members to take some pictures with and of you. You and your kids will want those memories someday. You can even go meta and have someone take a picture of you taking pictures!

Make an Album

Once you’ve taken your pictures, get them printed in an album. I’m partial to Chatbooks, but you can use whatever works for you. I recommend creating the album as soon as possible after your picture day and adding captions. You might think you’ll remember why you took each picture, but the memories will fade quickly. Write them down!

Include the name of the neighbor who came over to play. Note which kid was really into Barbies at the time. Whose shoes are on the floor in the picture of your kitchen? What was the after-school snack of choice? The mundane now will be memories later.

Repeat!

I always include my “day in the life” album on my annual goals list. It’s not a huge time commitment; I just need to remember to do it. Since I try to mix up the time of year I do it, I like to try to identify at least the season I’ll do it when the year starts. I can then jot it down in my Playbook so I don’t forget!

I’m really trying to break my habit of having my phone in my hand all day every day. But at least on “day in the life” day, I can put it to good use!

How do you keep memories of now alive? What aspects of your childhood do you wish you had pictures of? What’s your go-to album strategy? Let me know in the comments—I love hearing from you!

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