Is It Worth Developing Old 35mm Film You Find In Or Out Of Camera

Recently, I have been going through lots of closets and things and getting rid of the things that none of my girls would want eventually. I have a large home and with four unmarried children that don't live at home, my place is somewhat a storage unit until they marry or buy homes of their own. 

I don't mind so much keeping things that they may eventually want to keep. I feel like I am keeping stuff that no one will eventually want and wonder if I could ever move due to the amount of things I have. I am buying things that I would want in my home but am not able to get rid of things I don't want in my home now that my kids are raised because most of them are not in a place to take anything as they all live in student housing and most things are furnished other than their personal items. 

I know that eventually, some will want dressers, bookcases, tables and other things and so I hoard those items along with their personal stuff and due to how I was raised, I believe in being prepared for emergencies and having a food storage among other things so that also fills the garage and storage rooms. 

Before Princess Five left for her mission, we were able to go through and get rid of lots of decorations, coats, gloves, and hats, among other things so that my house would be a bit less crowded while she was gone. Here is a link to a post about that.  

When we went through the coats, I found a camera in the closet that still had film in it but was at the end of the roll. I put fresh batteries in it and it rewound the film. I didn't know if it would still be good as we hadn't used regular 35 mm film in over ten years since we all had cell phones and digital cameras. So, I thought I didn't want to spend money on developing the film but really wanted to know what was on the camera. 

I decided to investigate further and took the film to Walmart a few months back. I asked the workers if I sent it in for developing and it didn't have anything on it, would I have to pay for it? She told me I could refuse the film if the pictures weren't good, so I went ahead and dropped it off. I forgot about it in the crazy of life and found the drop off slip a few weeks later and when I remembered and picked it up, I couldn't believe that the pictures were of an Easter Camping trip we took when Princess Five was about 8 years old. It was 2008 so 11 years old. 

I took LOTS of pictures of the extended family for the fact that my nieces and nephews would come up and ask me to take pictures of them as I was taking pictures of my children. Many of my siblings had MANY children, I am tied for having the least amount of children in my family and I have five children so you can image, some of those parents that have more children and much more close in age than mine didn't have the time to think about taking pictures. 

I felt sorry for them as they wanted someone to take pictures of them like I was taking of my children so I would just take pictures for everyone. I have several back up drives of pictures and that isn't counting the thousands I have that haven't been digitized yet so it wasn't a surprise to me that only two of the pictures in the entire roll had any of my children in them and only Princess Five was in any of the pictures. 

There was one of me from the neck down hugging one of my nephews after giving them gifts after the egg hunt. The entire rest of the roll was my adorable nephews and nieces who I love. I will give them the copies of the pictures and for some of them, many of the pictures I took of them as kids are all they have for those family events. 

I pulled out the plastic drawers that held all the gloves and hats etc. since we didn't need it anymore and behind that, I found another camera with film in it. It had a few pictures left on it so I took it with me to visit the grandchildren and I took some pictures of the grandkids and since it has been so many years since I have used that type of camera, it was really frustrating as the kids would move just as I took the pictures and I had to take several to get a good one and I gave gratitude for our new way of doing things! 

A few weeks back, I took it in to get developed as well and they cost the same amount and they told me I didn't have to buy it if I didn't like the way the pictures came out. I was happy to see some pictures of our trip to Peru in 2007, It was the trip where I took only three of the girls, the next year, we took all the girls! 

There were a few discolorations on the pictures due to some light seeping in over that amount of time but I was shocked to see 12 year old pictures. They aren't the best quality but it wasn't the best camera and in reality, the pictures were taken by kids as I gave them each a camera to use so lots of shots are of buildings with no people or far away from the group so the people are small but the pictures I got of my grandchildren were wonderful and it was fun to see that it is worth developing old film sometimes.

For 24 pictures it cost $10.62 including tax. I got the pictures because they also give you a digital record of the pictures they developed so I can upload them directly for my extended family as both cameras had more pictures of them than of my children but it was fun to get them and visit memory lane. 

Have a Blessed and Memory filled day!