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This week’s organizing challenge is PICTURES and I’m going to challenge you to do just one thing to put a little order in your photo storage – organize or establish your system. (September’s cleaning and organizing calendar is here). If you struggle with photo storage like I do, this week’s challenge will be a good one. Taking a couple minutes to add a little organization will be helpful and productive. The problem for me with photo storage is that it is constantly changing – print vs. digital, scrapbook vs. digital scrapbook. But in the end, what I really want is a photo album for my kids to go through whenever they want to to look at pictures of themselves growing up and in different stages of their life. It’s fun to document the big and little moments because if it’s not documented we’ll most likely forget those little details (that turn into the big details). If you don’t have a ‘system’ for organizing your photographs, take a little time this week to put something into place and get it started. If you already have a system, take a little time to organize your photos so you’re caught up or catching up. My personal struggle? I find that I don’t print photos like I used to and that’s upsetting to me – I have months on my camera and computer and I have to make the time to print them and put them in albums.
Narrowing down all the options, there are three basic ways to organize your photographs:
- LOOSE PICTURES
- PHOTO ALBUMS
- DIGITALLY
I use all three of these methods – photos are on my computer, camera card, and phone, then the best pictures make the photo albums and frames, and the other pictures are stored in a photo box by date. Don’t you think this is complicated? So many places to keep essentially the same thing? And if I needed a specific photo from 2009, there’s no way I could find it. So this week I’m coming up with a system – want to come up with your own system? Hopefully this week is a good one to get you started on this complicated but important thing that is documenting our life!
Here’s what I’m doing:
LOOSE PICTURES: First off, I ordered a few of these from The Container Store – the larger boxes have 12 small boxes in them so I’ll use one for every year or two to keep important photographs in order by month (direct product link is under the picture). You could use photo boxes, or archival envelopes in photo boxes or just not print any extra loose pictures and only print what you’re going to put in albums and frames. That’s probably the method I’ll be heading toward once I get what I have already printed organized.
PHOTO ALBUMS: I’m going to go through the boxes of photos still in the photo envelopes and put them in albums – I have Project Life and I have simple albums – I’m going to just get caught up by doing the photos in the photo albums for now. I know that I’ll just get overwhelmed if I try to get all creative as I’m getting caught up. Maybe that will be something I tackle in 2015. Put the best pictures in photo albums – I have 2 years to get caught up on (anyone else with me?). I’m going to get my older kids involved – they’ll love looking at the old pictures and they can always remember the details too. I also like the idea of printing up a photo book at the end of the year in lieu of printing photos – I think that’s a great way to keep the prints down and have a beautiful keepsake for each year.
DIGITALLY: This is my last priority for this week but I plan to go through the photos on the computer and print any pictures that haven’t been printed for 2014 (I use Shutterfly and have it sent to my house). If I get time, I’ll delete duplicate or not print-worthy pictures and clean up folders so folders for each month are in folders for each year. Then I’ll send these files to my cloud storage so I have it all backed up. I know that there are apps out there too – but I love using my camera and am not going to give that up for my iPhone (yet!).
How about you? Do you organize your pictures three ways too? Or do you have it down to a simpler system? Tell us in the comments! Motivated to get some memories organized? Me too!
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Evelina Snell Says...
I wish I was only 2 years behind! I’m going on 8 years 🙁 But, I know eventually I’ll get caught up and so far all of my pictures are organized by month and year (on snapfish, my computer and in the envelopes in their year boxes). One thing your readers should remember to do is once your pictures are on your computer, BACK UP YOUR FILES! There is nothing worse than having your computer crash and losing your precious photo memories. I upload to snapfish and then I use an external hard drive – protection times 2. I also make it a point to download pictures off of my camera and iPhone once a month – don’t take a chance that you may lose either of those items with all of your pictures that you wish you had downloaded. I also print up the ones I want once a month so I’m not trying to do that with hundreds of pictures! Thanks for your help today – loved the post!!!
Elishia Says...
feel better lol I am over a decade behind 🙂
Kitty Manganiello Says...
My son is 27 years old so I had hundreds of pictures. I made him a scrap book from the time I was pregnant with him. I used so many pictures on each page by cutting them into shapes. I embellished each page along with the day or holiday. It came out so nice and my son loves it. The rest I put in photo albums for the bookshelf. Ladies, the scrapbooks for your children make wonder Christmas gifts or baby shower gift ????
Kelly Baty Says...
While your system sounds great, keep in mind that photo cards do fail. I highly recommend to customers they should never rely on these cards for storage. Burn everything to cds or dvds and then properly label those. The same is true for digitally storing photos in your computer only. I have heard too many times that someones hard drive failed, and they lost everything. I do believe that we need to back everything up 3 times, (cd, print and the cloud). I do only print the ones I want to display, and have gone to printing books for special occasions and I love your idea of end of the year.
For cost purposes, you may consider having your prints sent through Shutterfly to Walgreens or whatever retailer is close to you, and save yourself money on the shipping. You can order them to be ready to pick up at the same time you are picking up prescriptions, or doing your grocery shopping, so no need to make an extra trip.
Wendi Says...
i use an app called groove book for my photos on my phone … It’s awesome! Then I have my little photo albums already made up … And for 2.99 a month is well worth it to me!
Tallia Says...
I have a similar system like yours. I backup all my photos on my external hard-drive, Google Photos, and Snapfish. I have been using Snapfish for years to print all my photos. They have a penny prints sale a few times a year. So I wait until then to print all my important photos. As of right now I also use their mobile app. They are offering a deal for customers. If you use their app they give you 100 free prints each month and you just pay for the shipping. Perfect for me. I store all my printed photos in a photo box. But the one that you got from the Container Store looks better. So I will be ordering a few. To keep them more organized. Better than using the envelopes that the prints come in and labeling them.
Carole Sutherland Says...
Is using plastic containers an acid-free medium for storing photos? I thought that was the big thing now to keep the photos from fading etc.?
Becky Says...
Post authorAs long as it says acid-free and/or for photo use 🙂
Kelli Says...
When you back-up to the cloud, what program do you use? iCloud drops them after a few months. I have been using Dropbox. Any experience with that?
Becky Says...
Post authorI use dropbox too 🙂
Cami Says...
I use This Life by Shutterfly, 25,000 pictures for $59 per year. This includes video too. It sorts by person, day, month and year. And there is an App, so I am never without my photos. It auto sends them from my phone too. You should check it out. I know the down side is the $$$, but it’s worth it to me. I would much rather know my pictures are saved than to have my computer poo out and lose 30 years of my families memories. Right?
Lil Says...
Cami – Wow! This sounds amazing. I have way too many photos on iPhone/iPad/laptop/digital cameras. Not organized????. Thanks for the tip!
Tracy Says...
Has anyone found a safe program to use that finds duplicate photos on your computer? I worry that a lot of them aren’t the safest, even past the virus software…thanks!
Anne Says...
What wonderful tips. Personally I find when organizing photos is to make a point to print them of as soon as I can. As you can never trust technology too much and whats better than having a glass of wine, flicking back through the 90’s reminiscing on what you used to wear..instead of potentially loosing it on your laptop and those moments you can’t replace. :o)
Jane Says...
i so need to do this … I am soo many years behind and where they are all stored is hot mess.. I got those picture containers for Christmas still need to get pictures from years ago printed and in books or cases… HELP ????
Nancy Says...
I just inherited all the family photos from my Grandma and my Mom. The photos have zero organization and I am not an organized person. Looking for an EASY way to take all these photos put them on the computer and sort them. Next what should I do with all the hand help photos? HELP
Misty Says...
You should try those photo boxes she pictured from the Container Store. They look great! I think I’m going to try those myself.
elizabeth Says...
Instead of printing my photos and then putting them in photo albums, I upload them to Shutterfly and make a photo book. For any truly special photos that I want others to have, i print those. I wait until the photo books are 50% off, then I buy my books. I do the last year in January,so I will be doing 2015’s book this month. I began doing this 4 years ago. I will also be making a photo book from 2006 this year. I am going to try to catch up by doing 1 book a month until I am caught up.
Bev D Says...
Such good ideas here! I am in the process of digitizing my printed photos. It is time consuming but will be worth it.
Shannon Says...
Thanks for the great ideas! I’m about 8 years behind and I need to catch up. I have a lot of photos on shutterfly and my computer with only a handful being printed out. I would be devastated if I lost them!
Lala Says...
Get a photo safe pen and write names and dates on photos!
Meg Kalmbach Says...
I obtained an acid free ink pen from an art shop, where the ink is moisture proof and your writing will hold up for two hundred years. I initially got that to write in an acid free journal to share my life story to pass down to my grandchildren. Because the world is changing so. I feel that a family document like this could be very valuable in 100 years.
Kathryn Burks Says...
I would like to know if you can print photos from CDs and if you can do things to them like crop them.
I have been afraid to downloads them to CDs
Becky Says...
Post authorYes 🙂
Claudia Says...
I was years and years behind. I finally had had it. I got big boxes one for each year and spread them all out on my dining room table. I then went through each picture one by one tossing it in the appropriate box. That took me about a month. Then I went through each box, tossing duplicates into another box, then organizing the others chronologically and by event. That took a month. Then bought matching albums, and started putting them in the albums and labeling each picture as I went. That took about 3 months. I offered the duplicates to my kids, then tossed what they didn’t want. BTW–15 albums, 300 photos each album.
Patty Says...
Curious what albums did you use?
Melanie Says...
I am looking for a digital place to store photos that will do two things: 1) Identify duplicates and 2)put them in chronological order by date taken… Anyone have suggestions for recommended sites/clouds that do this???
Denise Says...
You can buy the same plastic containers large & small from Michael’s or Joann’s & use coupon.
Susan Williams Says...
We are in process of scanning letters, and pictures. Husband is going to put them on a thumb drive. Plans are to give drive to other family members.
Filmmaker805 Says...
I use the cloud for digital back up. There are tons available. If you’re a amazon prime member they have a free cloud based photo storage, google has cloud storage – like I said, there are several to choose from. We also use cloud based storage at work for large video files. No issues at all and files are searchable. Invest a little in cloud based ( very little) and dont waste time on CD and DVD archives – thses are an outdated formats now.
Shelley Collison Says...
I do it the same way you do. I have all my albums in one spot, and loose pics also. Digitally are all stored on a wee tiny memory/storage card. I am pretty much organized…now my parents…that’s a difderent story…
Phyllis Harper Says...
I have photos of my family that I love, but don’t like the background on some. Is their a program that will allow you to change the background?
Becky Says...
Post authorPhotoshop would work 🙂