If you are like most people your print and digital photos are scattered. Andi Willis of Good Life Organizing gives us a jump start to help find your pictures.
The first real step to organizing and saving your photos to actually find your pictures and gather them all into one place. You might think that’s the easy part, but for some people it becomes a full-blown treasure hunt. To help get you started on this quest to find your pictures (both printed and digital), I’ve brainstormed a couple of lists to help you get started.
For Printed Photos
Some print photos are easy to find like the photo albums on the bookshelf, while others are a little more wily. Here are some places to start your search. As you find them, put the photos all together in one place like the dining room table or the guest room closet. Then you are ready to move forward with your photo organizing project, they will all be waiting for you…together.
- Photo albums
- Photo boxes
- Framed pictures (even behind other pictures in the frames)
- Scrapbooks
- Relatives’ homes
- Plastic bins
- On refrigerator
- Drawers – dresser, junk, kitchen, coffee table, china cabinet
- Closets
- Under or behind beds, couches, dressers and other furniture
- In the nightstand
- Jewelry boxes
- Tucked between pages of books think favorite books, cookbooks, family history books)and bibles.
- Wallet
- File Folder
- Memory boxes and hope chests
- Yearbooks
- Safety deposit box or safe
- Undeveloped film
- Unpacked moving boxes
- Attic
- Garage
- Storage unit
- Storage room
- Secret hiding spot – under a floor board, inside the mattress
For Digital Photos
Digital pictures can be a little trickier since they literally hide inside our devices. As you discover these digital images, move them all into one central storage location like your computer’s hard drive or an dedicated external hard drive. Just be sure that you have that central storage location backed up. This is really important.
- Cell phone (old, current, your phone, the rest of the family’s phones)
- Computer hard drive (old, current)
- Laptop (old, current)
- Tablet
- CD and DVD
- SD card from digital cameras
- Digital Camera with built in storage
- USB drive
- Cloud storage (i.e., iCloud, Shutterfly, Dropbox)
- External hard drive
Let’s get searching for those photos. It’s time to find your pictures!
Then come back and tell us where is the most interesting place you’ve found a family photo?
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We also invite you to visit our sister blog The Photo Organizers for more tips and in-depth knowledge from some of the top photo organizing industry professionals. To find a photo organizer near you, visit the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.
Andi Willis is the owner of Good Life Organizing in Perry, Georgia, as well as a Certified Personal Photo Organizer, Home Organizing Expert, author and video host. Passionate about helping people organize their homes and preserve their precious photos, Andi can be found at Good Life Organizing, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and on Amazon.
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