It’s time for spring cleaning around my house, how about you!?  I have finally gotten around to a few projects that have not only freed up space but has gotten my family more organized and it feels wonderful!! But this blog post isn’t about the spring clean we usually do around the house. This is about cleaning and organizing your photos. Yes, all of those photos you have on your computer and your phone and haven’t done anything with. Sound familiar?  Read on!

It may feel like a monstrous task that you just really don’t have time for, but when you break down the tasks and commit to just 10 minutes a day, it will get done! Everyone has just 10 minutes each day they can reallocate, like substituting 10 minutes of social media scrolling for 10 minutes working on organizing your personal photos so you can actually print and enjoy them! Here are some tips to get our started.

1 – Let’s start with images on your phone. Go through and start deleting. Yes, delete! You don’t need 5 images that are almost all exactly the same. So often, we are taking several photos of the same moment in hopes to catch one that’s good and then we never delete the bad ones. So go through and delete anything that you wouldn’t print in an album. It’s easier to go through older images once the moment has passed and you can better choose the best ones to keep and delete all the rest. For any images you want to keep on your phone, for whatever reason, make folders to store those so you have them organized and easier to get back to view or share them.

2 – The next step is to get those photos onto your computer. Plug that baby in and transfer those images over to your computer. Put them in a temporary folder to organize later. Then delete them off your phone.

3 – Now that the photos from your phone are on your computer, make sure photos from any other cameras that you use are on your computer too.

4 – It’s folder time. Decide what folder organization system you want to use and create those folders today. Personally, I have a folder for every year and then I have subfolders for each quarter and within those might be a folder for a vacation or special event. You might want a folder for each month or folders for photo type like nature/wildlife, landscapes, sunsets, etc.

5 –  This next step is optional but it’s something I like to do to help me keep everything organized better. I go through at add the date to the front of the filename of each image. So if the filename is xyz123 and it was taken on August 3, 2017 (when you click on the image you will see the date created in the file information), I will change it to 20170803-xyz123. You might just want to do the year and month, or label it with it’s category or location, it’s totally up to you. This is the most tedious and time consuming step if you don’t have a program that will allow you to export them with the date and filename. Remember, 10 minutes a day. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in 10 minutes!

6 – Next, move those files into the appropriate folders that you have created. This will be the easiest step if you’ve renamed your files.

7 – Go back through your images and delete any duplicates or not-so-great photos that you may have missed or that were from your camera instead of your phone.

8 – Now that you’re organized, it’s time to print! Everyone can enjoy them once they’re printed into an album and off the computer.  I recommend using a quality print lab such as Nations Photo Lab for best results.

9 – Stay organized by taking time once a week to go through your photos on your phone and delete the ones you don’t need to keep. Then, at least once a month, upload photos from your phone and/or camera to your computer and rename them and put them into folders.

I hope this helps you get your photos organized!  Don’t forget to print!