Hack Your Photo Organization

My family photos are a mess. Part of the organizational fail isn’t even in my house; it’s living in my computer. In either case, having a jumble of jpg files or loose pictures does little good. The point of keeping pictures is to be able to  view them and share them with others. Here are a few strategies that I hope to incorporate more in the coming weeks.

On Your Computer

• A huge memory card isn’t necessarily better. A certain person who I’ll call “mom” likes to keep taking pictures for long periods of time and then has more work to do to organize them into groups on her computer. After you’ve taken photos at an outing, try to upload them into a folder and get those pictures off of your memory card.
• Label your picture folders descriptively. I actually have a bunch of folders I labeled with names like “January 2007″. It sort of works but if I want to easily find pictures, smaller groups of pictures such as “Trip to the Omaha Zoo 2008″ is more helpful.

• Always back up your files. Your hard drive isn’t infallible. I like to back mine up both on CD with a CD burner as well as on an online site. There are so many photo sharing and storing web sites. Choose one that allows you to upload the highest quality image size if you think that you’ll eventually want to print some of them. Also find out the size limitations for storage, costs for membership, and if your account can ever be deleted for inactivity.

• Take advantage of technology for decluttering: the beauty of digital photography is that we don’t have to print every picture we take. We can easily see if it’s a great photo. When you upload your photos, take the time to delete the ones that are just so-so. A few months later, go back and do this again to pare down files.

Managing your Printed Photos

• If you have loose pictures, it’s time to get them into an album! I’m a sporadic scrapbooker and this is one sin for which I must admit guilt. If it’s been 6 months and you haven’t scrapped or otherwise used your pictures, pick the best ones, put them in an album, and toss the rest. Nobody is looking at them when they’re shoved in a random spot in your house. It’s also okay to throw photos away!

• Be more selective about which photos you print for your albums. Nobody else wants to see 50 photos of you at every random monument in Paris. Pick the top 20 pictures from a vacation, put them into a stunning album or create a photo book online. Then display those smaller albums on a coffee table or basket.

• Do you like the idea of a Scrapbook but don’t have time for the hobby? Try making online scrapbooks that you can have printed. Sites like Smilebox make it easy to put a creative spin on your photo collections with less time spent.

• For photos you’re still working on organizing, keep them in a neat shoebox or other small storage container that will protect them until you’re ready to give them a final home.

Small changes like these have helped me to begin paring down the clutter in my house. When you’re able to begin streamlining an area, it becomes easier to do it for everything else. Here’s to a New Year and an organized home! Have a tip that works for you? Share it!