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On her podcast, Hillary Frank described parenthood as “the longest, shortest time,” and I think she nailed it. This phase of life is exhausting and moves fast, and the idea of preserving family memories feels both vital and overwhelming.
When it comes to capturing memories — especially during this wild period — important questions arise. Am I keeping the right things? Am I missing important moments? While I can’t answer those questions for you, I can suggest a variety of clever ways to capture those special moments.
Write it down
Journaling every day (or every week) can feel like a lot of work for busy parents. Thankfully, there are plenty of other ways to jot down those precious memories.
- “This Life of Mine” is a user-friendly journal complete with writing prompts and beautiful art created by a local Seattle author and yoga instructor. This book is a great way to capture memories and would make a wonderful gift for a loved one.
- “Letters to Me, When I Grow Up” is a neat book containing 12 letters with writing prompts and space for your kids to write letters to their future selves. Stickers are included to seal each letter. Put them away in a time capsule to be opened when they are older, or pull them out on a rainy day — the timing is up to you.
Get cooking
Cooking can be a deeply meaningful tradition. From time spent in the kitchen together, to tastes and smells that can invoke childhood in an instant, food holds a major place in family memories. Luckily, there are many options for creating a personalized cookbook so recipes and traditions can be passed down.
- Heritage Cookbook lets you add recipes and images and then invite others to contribute to your personalized cookbook. There are free and paid memberships, as well as a large selection of options to make your cookbook truly your own. Some of the options are a bit pricey, but there is enough flexibility to keep costs reasonable.
- Looking for an option to preserve family recipe cards? Recipe Card Cookbook allows you to upload images of your recipe cards and create a simple cookbook.
Snap away
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you are like me, you probably have hundreds (maybe thousands) of digital photos. Here are some great ways to make sure you actually look at all those pictures!
- Timeshel is a great tool to print a few of images from your phone each month to share with family and friends. You can choose either 10 or 30 prints per month, and it’s easy to change your option from month to month. You select photos straight from your phone, and high-quality prints come in the mail.
- If you would rather have your prints in a scrapbook format, Chatbooks is an easy and inexpensive solution. You can print a 30-page photo book (60 pictures), straight from your phone.
- Recently also pulls images directly from your phone (from a preselected album or folder) and mails a printed magazine monthly, quarterly, or one at a time. Each issue contains between 25–150 photos.
- Maybe you have an old school challenge — boxes of photographs or VHS tapes sitting around collecting dust. Scan My Photos will digitize your photos, videos, slides and negatives. You can choose to have individual photos scanned, or send them in a big box and have them all scanned.
Capture moments in a movie
There is something about video that brings back moments and preserves memories in such a powerful way. Thanks to cell phones, video is easier than ever to capture. But, as with photos, those videos are often forgotten and rarely rewatched. Want to make great compilation videos that you will actually want to watch again? Here’s an easy option:
- 1 Second Everyday is a popular app that puts together one second of video each day and then creates a chronological compilation. (Relive a whole year in just six minutes!) Features include a calendar and a notification to remind you to take a video each day, as well as a useful editing tool. This app twice won the “Best Use of a Mobile Camera” Webby Award. There are paid and free membership options.
Record family memories
Audio recording of family members or special events can be a magical way to preserve memories. Interviewing family members can be a great way to capture history and stories, and here are a few tools that can help:
- StoryCorps was founded nearly 20 years ago with a mission “to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.” Using the StoryCorps mobile app, anyone, anywhere can record an interview and upload it to the Library of Congress. Talk about preserving memories!
- If the thought of conducting your own interview makes you nervous, Artifact has you covered. A professional interviewer will conduct a virtual 30-minute interview, which will then be edited (with music added), resulting in a professional quality 20-minute audio piece. This option is kind of pricey, so you might want to save it for a special occasion or milestone birthday.
More family organization and storage ideas: |
Editor’s note: This article was first published in 2022 and was updated most recently on June 6, 2025, by ParentMap’s managing editor, Allison Sutcliffe, with a thorough fact and link-check. All information was verified and updated to reflect current offerings.
