Tips to Tackle Photo Organizing with Care

As the frenzy of the holidays winds down, January tends to be the time of year when we find our heads the most clear and our hearts the most full. You may also find that you suddenly have a full photo album from all of the memories that you captured over the holidays. Since they don’t take up much space, it’s easy to quickly accumulate a collection. Figuring out how and where to store them all is more difficult. The best remedy for this clutter conundrum is to make sure that your photos are organized. Follow the steps below to tackle photo organizing in your home and ensure that your best memories are preserved with care.

1. Gather, Sort, and Toss

It is much more challenging to make a plan of action if you don’t know exactly what you need to organize. The first thing you should do is gather all of the photos that are currently in your home. If they are stashed all over the place, you will never get a project completed.

For this recommendation, I don’t just mean to gather all of the photos in albums. You should also sort through photos that you have stored in frames you are no longer displaying. If you or your loved ones don’t recognize anyone in the photo, it’s safe to say that you can toss it. The same goes for photos of scenery. Perhaps you have been holding onto them, hoping that you will one day remember where they were taken. If you haven’t remembered yet, it may be time to part with them. Be sure to toss any duplicates, too.

2. Store Safely

While you are sorting through photos, you should also take a look at how you are storing them. Frames might seem like a good idea, but beware that photos can get stuck to the glass when they are stored in areas with extreme heat and humidity. If your photos are in frames that no longer match your style, save the picture and give away the frame. 

Storing hundreds of photos in boxes or albums takes up less space than storing them all in frames you never use. Photo experts will tell you the old photo albums that have sticky plastic pages will ruin your photos and should be removed. If you want to store your photos in albums, consider using newer versions that have simple plastic sleeves to insert photos. 

You can also use photo boxes to store your pictures. Try to separate photos into categories, based on what makes the most sense to you. For example, you can separate them by year, season, holiday, or family member. Each category should have its own box for the best accessibility. 

Plastic bins are a smart choice if you plan to store photos in the basement or garage. You never know when you might have a water leak in these spaces. Using plastic will protect your photos from water damage and other unexpected conditions. 

3. Go Digital

For the ultimate space-saving solution to store photos, consider going digital. Some might say that this is the safest way to store them. When you have a digital file, you don’t have to worry about things like water damage because you can simply print another copy if the first one gets ruined. You can also save paper and space by only printing the photos that you want to display. 

There are a few different options to transfer photos from your phone. You can use a cloud-based storage system, a thumb drive, or your computer. Cloud-based storage provides the most convenience and protection because it is not tied to one computer. You will be able to access your photos from a computer anywhere. 

Even if you plan to use digital storage, you should still make sure that your photo files are organized. This will make it so much easier to find specific photos when you want to look at them or print them. Just like you separated physical photos into boxes by category, you should separate digital photo files into folders by category. If you have photos that were taken on multiple dates within one folder, consider establishing a file naming system with the date included to keep your files in order.

Tackling photo organizing can be especially difficult because so many of your photos may have sentimental value. These tips will help you avoid overwhelm and take on one of the toughest organizing projects with care and compassion. You will be so glad you did the hard work to get organized when you can find your photos quickly, share them with others, and enjoy reflecting on the past. 

If you still need some help getting started, though, we would be glad to offer assistance. We can implement systems that keep your photos safe from all of life’s unexpected surprises and allow you to look back on the best memories of your life with ease. Contact Transformare Organizing for professional support today!