photo organising Archives - Page 2 of 2

Aug 02 2017

Save Your Photos: Take A Photo Inventory

How many photos do you have in your digital collection? What about your print collection? What about film, video and other memorabilia? It’s time to take a photo inventory.

Assess the mess. It’s time to take an photo inventory! You need to know how many photos you have so you can plan the scope of your project and the time involved.

Digital Photo Inventory

Taking a count of your digital photos can be done in a few clicks. Be sure to look for various formats for digital photos such as JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, and Raw.

Organizing your pictures? Take a #photo inventory so you know what you are dealing with. #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Print Photo Inventory

Printed photos are a little less exact.

Professional photo organizers measure photos or weigh them when estimating. A one-inch stack of photos is approximately 100 pictures. This number may be less if you are working with older photos which may have a thicker backing. If you weigh boxes of photos, 6-7 pounds is the equivalent of 1000-1200 photos.

Don’t forget your slides. A circular slide carousel holds either 80 or 140 slides. If you are unsure about the slides you have, you can check out this rare slide guide.

Home Movie Inventory

When counting your home movie collection, you will find it helpful to count the various film and video formats. Not sure how to determine the formats? These two links will take you to The National Archives for information on how to identify them.

Film Formats

Video Formats

And don’t forget to count your memorabilia!

What are your final numbers?

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.

Sep 08 2016

Get Your Printed Photos Organized!

Follow these five step from Sheila DeHart of Tidy Up Organizing to get your printed photos organized.

I’m pretty sure many of you face this same dilemma. My kids are in their 20s, so that means the majority of their childhood was captured using a film camera. Gasp! I was the mom at Disneyworld with the fanny-pack full of rolls of film. And it was almost unheard of to not get double or triple prints if the store was offering it for free! So now what? You have tons of printed photos stored in the basement or attic. Maybe yours are nicely organized in shoe boxes or maybe they are tossed haphazardly in large plastic totes.

Either way, there is a better solution out there!

Let’s start by getting set up in the perfect conditions for getting these printed photos organized in 5 easy steps:

Step 1: Set Up Your Work Space

You’ll need a worktable with great lighting. This table could be your dining room table or a folding table set up just for this project. Just don’t use the kitchen table, you are going to want to spread out and work on this when you have free time. Don’t think you are going to pack this up just to serve dinner to your family!

We are going to start by sorting through the photos. However you currently have them stored is fine, just take a bunch out and start going through them.

Step 2: Toss Your Photos

Here is the “rule of thumb” when it comes to sorting photos. Keep the ones that are interesting, in focus, mean something to you, have good composition or tell a story. Toss the ones that are blurry, out of focus, unflattering, too much scenery or you just don’t recognize anyone in the photo.

For example, I have tons of pictures of my kid’s school parties. I only keep the ones my kids are in. The pictures of the other cute kids at the party won’t mean anything to anyone in my family in 20 years, so they go in the trash.

You will be surprised at how many photos you are going to toss.

Step 3: Sort It Out

Another decision you will have to make is how you want them sorted. Chronological order is the most pleasing to me. Maybe you are the type of person that would like them sorted by event, then the way to do that would be to make categories such as holidays, birthdays, vacations, family times, sports, etc. Within each of these categories, you could put them in chronological order too.

5 steps to organize your printed photos #saveyourphotos Click To Tweet

Step 4: Time to Scan

Once you have completed the task of sorting the photos, the next step is to get them scanned. You can check out the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO) for a professional photo organizer near you who can help you with this. Scanning the photos and then putting the digital images on a disc or flash drive and also storing those images in a cloud storage is the safest place for your families cherished memories.

Step 5: Store and Display

What you do with your printed photos once you have them sorted is entirely up to you. If you want them on display in beautiful albums, this will be so easy to complete now that they are sorted and in chronological order. Another way to store them is in archival storage boxes to keep them safe.

This is your family’s story, how you choose to tell it is up to you. We at APPO are here to help!

Sheila DeHart lives in St. Louis, MO where she runs Tidy Up Organizing, a company that provides residential and photo organizing. She started her business to help people live happier lives by getting organized and out from under clutter. Once she started seeing how many of her clients were not enjoying their photos because they were not properly organized, she decided to become a Certified Photo Organizer. As a hobbyist photographer and Certified Photo Organizer, Sheila understands the value and importance of preserving her clients cherished memories. She is a member of APPO and NAPO.

Get Your Printed Photos Organized | SaveYourPhotos.org

Aug 30 2016

Dare to Automate Your Digital Photo Workflow

When it comes to organizing your digital photos, do you have a workflow? A what? Learn from Caroline Guntur of The Swedish Organizer, LLC.

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to get behind on your to-dos, especially keeping up with your digital media. With so many photos coming at you every day from devices, email, and social media, it can be really overwhelming to stay organized, but we all know that neglecting your memories isn’t a good option. You cannot afford to lose your memories. They are too valuable! So how do you stay on top of everything?

You need to delegate.

Imagine, if you will, an elaborate system of rivers, all running to the same great lake. They are rapids and as such, hard to keep up with. If you try to stop them mid-stream, they’ll be hard to control, and may spill over. Now imagine that these streams aren’t actually real rivers, but your digital photo streams.

If you think about it, your digital photo streams are flowing just as quickly, and are just as hard to keep up with… The stats were released just this past month. An estimated 1.2 trillion photos will flood our devices this coming year, according to Mylio. How many photos will end up in your stream? You should know. You are responsible for curating them.

Instead of trying to stop each and every single stream, try redirecting them all to the same great lake, and back them up from there instead. Maybe this isn’t the most eloquent way of describing it, but it’s how I see my digital photo life. I’d rather deal with one spot over several different ones. So how can you achieve this streamlined workflow?

By using funnels.

In my opinion, the best backup strategies consolidate your digital rapids into one steady stream instead of dealing with them individually. Creating automatic backups is one component of this system because it allows you to re-direct your stream where you want them to go. All it takes is the willingness to set it up. It may sound like a lot of work, but just like organizing anything else, it actually ends up saving you a lot of time.

Here are some examples of ways you can simplify your life by automating your digital photo workflow:

Example #1: Redirect all new photos posted on your social media profiles to a cloud storage provider, like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Why not just grab them off your devices? Because the photos that post to your social media accounts aren’t just your own. Your friends and family members post to your account too, and I doubt you’ll want to borrow all of their devices on top of dealing with your own! If you think about it, Facebook itself is a funnel for all the important people in your life. Now take it one step further, and automate it by using an API service, like Zapier or IFTT.

Example #2: Import all the photos from all your devices at the same time, and to the same location.

Why at the same time? Because batching not only save you time, but it ensures that you don’t forget any of your devices. Now take it one step further, and automate it by auto-syncing your photos regularly using a program like Mylio, or to a cloud solution like Forever.

Example #3: Send the photos from your DSLR camera straight to your computer or cloud solution using a wireless SD card.

Remember the old days when you actually had to plug your SD card into your computer? Sure, that’s still a good way to do it, but why not bypass that step entirely? Most Professional Organizers will tell you that the less steps it takes to complete a task, the better, so I challenge you to take it one step further. Automate it with a wireless SD card, for example Eye-fi.

These are just some of the ways you can simplify your workflow by setting up automated rules. Depending on your comfort with technology, budget, likes, and dislikes, you have to find the right solutions for you, but don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. Automation is my best friend, and it can be yours too.

A native of Ystad, Sweden, Caroline Guntur now resides just outside of Chicago, IL, where she runs The Swedish Organizer, LLC, a company that provides customized family history solutions to clients around the world. As a Certified Photo Organizer, Personal Historian, and Professional Genealogist, she enjoys helping others preserve and protect their memories. Caroline runs the blog OrganizingPhotos.net, a site that discusses best practices in organizing, digitizing, and preserving family history, as well as SearchingScandinavia.com, a site dedicated to helping Scandinavian-Americans connect with their heritage. She is a member of APPO, NAPO, APH, APG, and NGS.

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.