photo organiser Archives - Save Your Photos

Aug 16 2017

Save Your Photos: Collect Your Photo Organizing Supplies

The proper photo organizing supplies are an important part of your photo organizing project. A Photo Organizer’s kit includes many different items that make the job of handling, identifying and storing your precious lifetime of photos.

What the Experts Use

Before you get down to the business of organizing your photos, you’ll need to collect some photo organizing supplies. We polled Professional Photo Organizers for their supply list; these are the ‘must haves’ when they begin any photo organizing project.

Cotton Gloves

Fingertips contain an oily residue that will further deteriorate your delicate photo.

Face Mask

If your printed photos smell musty, or they were stored in an attic or basement they may contain mold spores that you could find irritating during the sorting process.

Gather these helpful #photo organizing supplies that the experts use. #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Soft-lead Blue or Black Art Pencil

As you sort photos you may want to include a date, year or name on the back of a photo. This pencil is not permanent, and will not indent or harm your photo until you can capture the details digitally once scanned. Never use a pen to mark the back of your photo.

Index Cards

Jot down more details, facts, stories and dates on index cards and group them with printed photos. Index cards can be scanned with printed photos, so important details remain grouped together.

Archive Quality Photo Safe Storage Box

Choosing a good quality photo box will keep your photos safe, and aid in the sorting process.

Dental Floss and Hair Dryer

If you have peel and stick albums, some of your photos may be difficult to remove.

Smartphone Camera

If you have old albums with details on the page, you can take a snapshot of the page to keep the details with the photos.

Sticky Notes or a Notebook

These come in handy for creating a timeline during the sorting process. Some organizers use apps like Evernote or OneNote to curate information or create timelines.

External Hard Drive

Choose a high capacity drive according to the amount of images you have.

Garbage Bags

You’ll come across toss-away pictures, artwork and meaningless ticket stubs that will help reduce your clutter. Let’s set a goal to fill a bag!

These are the essentials, but you may have some more ideas too. Whatever makes your job easier, add it to the list.

What are your must-have photo organizing supplies?

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.

Sep 19 2016

4 Reasons to Hire a Professional Photo Organiser

Mara Morrison of The Filing Fairies wants you to get past the reasons you aren’t organizing your photos and consider hiring a professional photo organiser.

In our line of work we hear things like:

“I could do this myself”

“I know I could do this on my own but I just can’t motivate myself to get started” or

“There are too many options I don’t know which one is right for me”.

Because many people believe they have the skills to complete a task themselves, there is also an associated sense of guilt. They are thinking “I should be able to get this project done”. They are embarrassed that they long to hire someone to do it for them. I remember the first time I hired a cleaner for the house. You should have heard the song and dance I made about how busy I was and how I really COULD clean the house myself, how apologetic I was about my Joe Average house hold mess. I won’t even get started on the wife/mother guilt that I laid on myself. I will tell you though about the relief once I gave myself permission to let that responsibility go, the sweet release of the burden that would allow me to focus my energy on my growing family and a business I loved, was uplifting.

You hire a landscape gardener to advise on planting or design and help keep the lawns in check, or a tutor to unravel complicated math problems with the kids. There is no shame in engaging a professional photo organiser to help you with your photo life management. Most people are unable to put a monetary value on their life’s memories so why not invest in getting help to ensure that they are used, enjoyed and protected.

4 reasons to hire a professional photo organiser #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

4 reasons why you should hire a Professional Photo Organiser

You are busy.

Life is chaotic! We are all at different stages of life and everyone one of those stages comes with high demands on your time. It is perfectly reasonable to not get through the basic household chores and errands, let alone a special project (no matter how important it might be). How often do you have a basket of washing to put away? A Professional Photo Organizer is dedicated to helping and is working hard to provide solutions you can use.

You are overwhelmed and scared.

The elephant just seems so huge and you don’t know where to start eating it. Metaphorically you are scared that eating such a large elephant will make you full to bursting and you are scared that trying to work on a large project will crush you. A Photo Organiser can help identify a clear process to suit your unique needs and put you on the path to freedom.

You are confused by choice.

You know the old saying a Jack of all trades the Master of none. When there are too many options or solutions you become confused by what might be right for you and of course you can’t be expected to be skilled in all areas. Plus you recognise that you don’t really want and unskilled indecisive ‘Jack’ to be held responsible for your priceless memories. A Photo Organizer can demystify all the solutions and ascertain what is right for your individual needs.

You need accountability.

Similar to engaging a trainer or coach to motivate you to achieve fitness and sporting goals, a professional photo organiser can hold you accountable for your organising goals.

Your story matters. Your photo collection tells that story. Don’t let guilt or fears prevent you from doing something to preserve and protect your precious memories. Check out our Resources Page and download our eBook or other checklists.

We make it our business to make your wishes come true.

Mara Morrison

The Filing Fairies is a partnership between friends Mara Morrison and Jo Myers, who met working for an event management company. It was there that they discovered their shared passion for order, lists and getting things done. In 2008 as part of a 150th Anniversary Tour for NAB they organised close to 200 events over an 8 month period. It was during that time they recognised their excellence as a team. Now as The Filing Fairies they hope to realise a vision of giving you peace of mind by helping you to organise your photo collection so you can utilise and enjoy it. The Filing Fairies are certified members of the Association of Personal Photo Organizers.

Aug 23 2016

Get Started: Find Your Pictures

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?

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.