We all do it; take photo after photo of our kid, our pet, what’s on our plate at any given meal. It’s fun to document every aspect of our lives through photos; sharing the greatest and best moments on social media. But, what happens when you’re on vacation and your phone is telling you that you’re out of storage space? Before you take any more photos, you need to delete about 100 from your gallery; it’s not a good feeling. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some tips for organizing your photos so you never have to make an on-the-spot delete or save decision again.
Know What You’re Working With
Figure out the what and the when. This is one of those two-part tips for organizing your photos, but you need to do both. Go through your photos and come up with a game plan as to when you want to be done clearing out your photos. For example, if you’re in the market for a new digital camera or your phone needs upgrading, those are the perfect times to assess all of the photos you have stored.
Just like in life, when cleaning or organizing your home, it’s impossible to know where you stand or how to begin, if you don’t know what you’ve got lurking in those closets and drawers. So, when it comes to organizing your photos, the same logic applies.
You need to know what you have; so go through all of the folders in your phone, including screenshots, and figure out what’s what. This is also a great way to sort through those “definite deletes.” You know, the ones where it’s just a blurry shot of your foot as you were walking through the aquarium. This also means, going through any professional photos you have and any pictures you’ve taken with your “good” camera. Once you know what you have and which devices you’re pulling from, it’s time to go on to the next step.
Tools for Organizing Your Photos
Now that you know what you have, get it on your computer. That means uploading from your phone, going through hard drives and USBs from years ago, and if you’re up for it, maybe even having your physical photos digitized.
Clear out any photos you do not want to keep and then you’re ready. One of the best ways to organize your photos is to use a tool like Dropbox. This storage tool allows you to save files, photos, and documents on the cloud and share them easily.
Dropbox ensures your memories are kept safe. There’s no worrying about a fried hard drive or lost USB. It’s also ideal for organizing your photos because you can create folders to make finding what you’re looking for, so much easier. Dropbox allows you to import photos from your device and sync when you wish, so the steps are minimal, saving you time and energy. You can even scan your physical photos through the Dropbox app and upload them to the cloud.
Another great tool is Google Photos, and since it’s already on your phone it may be easier than downloading a new app. Google Photos allows you to save and share photos from your Google account. It makes searching for that one particular photo easy too, since the built-in search tools can be very specific.
Organizing Your Photos – Consider Daily Maintenance
Ok, hear us out on this one! Many of us spend the last few minutes before falling asleep, or the first few before getting out of bed, scrolling through our phones. Yes, it’s a bad habit and yes we should stop, for the sake of our mental health, and better sleep habits, but the bottom line is we’re probably not going to stop even though we know we should.
So, rather than playing online games, or following an argument in the comments on a social media post, take that 15 minutes before you put your phone back on your nightstand and go through your photos from the day. Delete those screenshots of memes you’ve already shared to social media, look up those recipes you’ve screenshotted, and put them on your Pinterest or email them to yourself. Delete that picture of your spaghetti and meatballs that no one cares about, and clear up some space on your phone.
Then, do your meditations and get some sleep!
Organizing your photos doesn’t have to be the daunting task you think it is, especially when you’ve got a system in place after you’ve done a huge purge. The key is to stay consistent and be more discriminating about the photos you choose to take and keep. They can’t all be memories, so why should they be taking up memories?
