I like taking pictures.  Here is what I don’t like, organizing the photos that I’ve taken.  And, unfortunately, this little unlike of mine applies to both the printed and digital picture.  The truth is, and likely with you too, I don’t print out as many pictures as I used to.  An while this makes for a bit less mess in my hands, I more than make up for it with all of my digital pictures that have happily cluttered up my computer and phone (confession : there are currently 1,023 photos on my iPhone at the moment).

A few months ago, I decided to take control of my digital life and organize my photos.  iPhoto was bogging down my computer and I could no longer take it.  I spent an entire week going through thousands and thousands of photos. I created a little system for myself to help stay on track after the initial clean up.

HERE IS WHAT I DID:

01. Bought an external hard drive  : Not so smart that I wasn’t already backing up my photos to an external hard drive but I wasn’t.  My brother in law told me he keeps a duplicate hard drive at another location just incase something ever happened to his back up.

02.  Said good bye to iPhoto : I like the way I can visually view images in iPhoto but other than that it drove me nuts (mostly slowing down my computer).  I now import my photos with Image Capture and it is a million times quicker – for reals.  I still have some photos in iPhoto that I reference but I’m finding I’m very rarely opening it these days.

03. Created a folder system : This is definitely a personal preference kind of thing but I broke it down by year and month.  Within each year folder there may also be folders titled by big events, “Christmas, 1st Birthday, Tucson Vacation and so on,” for easy access.  I now keep the current month folder on my desktop and when the month is finished I transfer it onto the hard drive.  I also, usually, keep a copy of the past month or two in a separate folder on my computer for quick reference.  And on a side note, I keep separate folders for my blogging photos.

04.  Became an instant editor : I’m talking about editing the actual photo itself  but rather editing out any photos that are unnecessary to keep.  After I import my photos, I try to quickly delete duplicates, bad shots or any photos I don’t want to save forever.  I don’t need 3 shots that are basically the same.

Now if you’re prints are a mess, then I’d recommend somewhat of the same thing.  Pick up some photo boxes like these (or these super organizy ones).  Then allocate a seperate box for each year or for each person in your family (this idea is great for kids because you can later pass on their box to them – sorting already done).

And if you find your self a photographer with no prints to show for your work, than I encourage you to get your hands on some of your lovely photos.

TRY THIS:

01. Print some of your Instagram shots.  I just ordered a bunch from Pinstagram (I’ll share more on that later).
02 . Get a Instax Mini (pictured above) a.k.a the modern day Polaroid.  It’s one of my fave things.  You can get one here.
03.  Find some old photos and arrange them in modern way.  I found these old square photos (above) from a trip to Europe that my mom took when she was 16.  I think I’m going to frame them or tack them up just like they are pictured.  I love the washed out look and I love even more that they are a special memory and have a story to tell.

What about you, dear reader, do you have any tried and true tips when it comes to photo organization?  Share along in the comments and lets get a conversation going!

 images / la la lovely