by Natalie, former OMB contributor
With the holidays just behind us, if you are anything like me, you likely have tons of photos either on your camera, computer or printed out in piles all over your spare room. We have spent the last few weeks traveling in Europe, so we have an incredible amount of pictures to organize. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get this area of my life organized and create a plan to lessen the photo build-up in the future. Here are some of the ideas that I have found to help decrease the clutter.
Delete all but the best. Immediately delete all but the best photos on your camera. This helps you keep the great shots and not be overrun by the not so fantastic ones.
Keep them all together. Either on a computer, spare hard drive, or photo sharing site on the web, it is best to keep all of your photos in one spot. It is a great idea to use a second method as well, in case of a disaster such as flood or fire. An online site such as Shutterfly, in addition to keeping photos on your computer or camera, ensures you always have access to your memories. Keeping your photos together also aids you in searching for a specific shot, creating and working on scrapbooks, and even sharing your latest adventures with family.
Categorize. Whether on your computer or website, categorize your photos by year and then further by subgroups such as per child, event, or holiday. This categorizing will help you stay organized and be able to quickly find pictures that you are searching for.
Create family scrapbooks rather than a scrapbook per child. We only have one little guy right now, so luckily I do not have to do any back tracking! We would like to have more children and the thought of creating photo albums or scrapbooks for each child within the family is daunting — I still haven’t gotten any further in our album than our now 2-year-old’s first baths, so I know I couldn’t keep up with multiple books! My plan is to create one family album with a disc kept in the back with all of the pictures from the events included within the book.
What is the best way you’ve found to store, display and keep track of your family’s photos?
