A Two-Step Process for Organizing Digital Photos From Your Phone
The following is a guest post with a two-step process for organizing digital photos from your phone from regular contributor, Kristin at The Gold Project.
*I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.*
We live in a world that is centered around technology. Back when I was a child, we had to purchase those disposable cameras, take pictures, wind the film after a shot, and wait two weeks to find out if the photo we took captured the intended memory. Now, you can carry one device that can make phone calls and take amazing photos that you can look at instantly. My kids will have no idea what we went through to get a good picture.
Smartphones are amazing, but their digital organization is lacking in the photo department. How many of you have thousands of photos on your phone?
The idea for this post came from my mom. She is wanting to get a new phone. She has had her current phone for probably four years. That means four years of photos. Yikes! My mom is not technology savvy, which means she has every single photo she has ever taken on that phone. That is at least four years of photos, maybe more, depending on if the company transferred older photos to that phone four years ago.
Guess what? I will be the one attempting to either transfer all of those photos to a new phone or find her a solution to store them outside of the device. Thankfully, I have a system I have been using for several years that has worked for me.
How often do I remove photos from my phone?
I like to sit down once a month and transfer photos off of my phone. I think that is a good time frame because more than likely those photos have already been shared on social media if I decided to do so.
Sometimes, I slack off a little and I sit down once every two months. But, the goal is every month.
What do I do with the photos once they are removed from my phone?
I have a two part photo organization system for photos that I remove from my phone and I am going to share them with you today.
Digital Photos Organization System
Step 1: External Hard Drive
When I take photos off of my phone, the first place they go is to an external hard drive (affiliate link). I have my external divided into years and then months.
All of the photos from a particular month will go in that month’s folder. I will also go through these folders periodically to remove duplicates and photos that are just not worth the extra space on my external hard drive.
Step 2: Photo Saving Site
After I save them to an external hard drive, I upload them to a photo saving site. I use Shutterfly. There are many other sites that provide the same service. I have been using Shutterfly since 2009 with zero issues, so I have stayed with them.
Every year, I make a yearly digital photobook that is divided out by month. I also make special event books as well (those are in the picture below). In addition to making these memory keepers, I know that the photos are there and if something happens to my external hard drive, I still have my photos.
I have been using Shutterfly since 2009 and my very first photos are still on their website. It makes me feel good that I have my photos saved at home and online. If something happens, like my external breaking (which, has happened in the past), I know that I still have my memories.
Then, when I print my yearly photobooks, I have three actual storage places for my photos: on a storage device, online, and a paper copy. Plus, my phone has extra storage space for other important things.
I would love to know if you remove the photos off of your phone periodically. And, if so, how do you organize them?
My name is Kristin and I am a middle school career education teacher by day and a mommy/wife/blogger by night. I am married to my high school sweetheart and we have two loving children. We recently made a life-changing move to Arkansas, so our new house is always under construction. I get excitement out of finding new creative, functional, and cute ways to organize things! I also enjoy writing and documenting life as it happens. So, I put these loves together and created The Gold Project. With the help of my husband, I am attempting to turn our house into a home. So, check out this special place of mine and take this journey with me!
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Here is Laura’s system for how she backs up and organizes her digital photos.
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