People take photos every day. Some of those photos are for special occasions and some for no special reasons, but on a whim. Most of us have boxes of photos at home waiting for us to sort & select for albums.
Photo organizing is the “someday” project that you never quite get around to doing. Where to begin & how to begin are common questions. Then there are digital photos, in your camera, phone or sitting in your computer, waiting to be shared and enjoyed. With this modern technology, your phone becomes your camera, catching that special moment and it’s easier than ever. Life is hectic and this project just never seems to get started, let alone get completed.
Here are a few easy ways to get through the organizing process quickly and easily. If organizing your photos is something that you are willing to tackle, try out the ABCs of photo organizing, created by APPO, the Association of Personal Photo Organizers to guide you in the process.
Start with four boxes: A, B, C & S
A is for the photos you want to put in an album. Get out those boxes & bins and get sorting. Because of digital photography, we are now taking more digital images than ever before, leaving us feeling overwhelmed. It’s best to pick a theme for your album and choose the A photos – these are the photos you want to share, print or add to a keepsake book. Perhaps in your computer, you can begin sorting them in folders, according to themes to get you started.
B is for photos that you want to store in a safe, organized way in an acid free box – not all your photos, but the ones you would not want to lose. Deciding which pictures are worth saving can be a difficult and time consuming. On your computer, look into those “now themed” folders and decide which ones you want to save, but you do not want to create an online keepsake book. Subdivide those themed folders accordingly (both A & B).
C is for photos that will be tossed, deleted or put in the trash can (C = can). This can be time consuming, especially when your photos are stored in multiple places and formats. Choose blurry, out of focus and duplicate images as the obvious ones to dispose of. Remember even if you have an out of focus photo of a loved one and that’s the only one you have, it may now be designated as an A or B instead of a C. For more difficult decisions, I go to the “S” category.
S is for photos that tell a story in your life. I usually ask my clients to share the details of the photo and what’s the story behind that photo. Set up a Story folder on your computer as well and perhaps include the story in text as a subfolder to each photo. This helps my clients to make those hard decisions and decide on which to keep and which to toss. This ensures they’ll always have the important photos that they will want to share with family & friends for generations to come.
Following these ABCs of photo organizing will help you go from overwhelmed to having a system to organize photos now and in the future.
