Photos are such a difficult thing to keep under control. In the digital age, we can take thousands of pictures without creating any sort of clutter in our physical surroundings. But what do you do with all of those photos to make sure they don’t waste away in your digital space? This post will give you useful tips on how to how to organize digital photos and keep only the pictures that add value to your life.
I grew up in the midst of the transition to digital cameras. As a child, my family used film cameras. We had lots of printed photos of different memories that were very special to us, and they all got stored in albums that we could return to later.
But then the transition to digital happened.
I loved being able to take so many pictures. However, with this new way of storing the photos, no one really knew how to organize digital photos.
Now we have years of photos that are just piled onto our computers for no apparent reason. We go looking through them occasionally, but it’s just not the same when they don’t have their own special albums.
After wrestling with this dilemma for quite some time, I’ve got a method that helps me organize my photos in a way that allows me to go back and enjoy looking through them.
Today I want to share with you the process I use to empty my photos from my phone and keep them organized using Google Photos.
How to Organize Digital Photos
Step 1: Get yourself into the right mindset
Before any organizational endeavor, you need to make sure you know why you are doing it.
Why are you choosing to organize your photos? Your answer will determine how to organize digital photos in a way that is unique to you. For example, if you are organizing your photos because you want to remember trips you had and people you met, you are probably going to be tossing a lot of screenshots and random photos that aren’t related to those things.
However, if you are organizing your photos because you want to keep only a handful of them, then you will be choosier about which photos you don’t want to throw out.
Don’t feel like you HAVE to get rid of everything.
It is a difficult path to start on because photos are often something that you didn’t know you wanted until it’s too late. Some people recommend tossing almost everything. However, most people who have kids that are all grown up say that you will want those photos later.
I don’t have kids yet, but I am inclined to agree with the older generation. It might be best to err on the side of caution when it comes to photos of family and events.
The question I like to ask myself when I am going through photos is, “When I am 50, will I have stories to tell about these photos to others?”
If I look at a photo now and have nothing to say about it, I don’t need it. On the other hand, if the photo rekindles a memory, I like to preserve it. Again, this is a personal preference. It all depends on what YOU value in your photos.
Take the time to consider what you will do with your photos. That will help you decide what to keep.
Step 2: Upload all of your photos to your preferred computer storage app
There are a lot of different options out there that you can use to store photos.
To be honest, I went with Google Photos simply because that was the one that was automatically set up with my phone– and it’s free.
You can do your research to find the photo storage app that works best for you, but I have definitely enjoyed Google Photos!
Google Photos automatically uploads the pictures I take on my phone (which is the only camera I own). This means I never have to waste time trying to upload stuff. It also has a main feed that holds all of your photos. Another helpful feature is the facial recognition for family, friends, and even pets! This makes the organization process much easier.
But the thing that I love the most is that Google Photos has an easy way to organize albums. In addition, the way it displays those albums is pleasing to the eye. It has a lot of great features, and it is extremely user-friendly. I would recommend it to anyone!
Step 3: Delete all of the photos from your phone, with some exceptions
When I do my monthly deep-clean, one item on my list is to clean up the photos on my phone. To do this, I start by uploading everything I have on my phone to Google Photos. This is usually done automatically, but I just double check.
The next thing I do to clean out my phone is go through and delete everything.
Google Photos already has all of the photos saved. This means that when I delete it from my phone, the photos are not gone for good.
If you have the Google Photos app on your phone, then deleting the photos is an even easier decision. You can still easily access all of those photos from your phone.
So far, the steps are pretty easy, but here is where we get into the trickier stuff…
Step 4: On Google Photos, delete any photos you clearly don’t want
It’s finally time to start making some tough decisions! Regardless of why you are keeping your photos, there are a few photos that you can easily choose to delete. Below, you will get a rundown of the different categories of photos that you might want to toss.
Screenshots
Chances are you needed a screenshot for a quick reference of something, or you wanted to share it with someone. It is not often that a screenshot needs to be kept long-term, so unless you have some serious objections to tossing it, just delete them now.
Blurry Photos
If you have a photo that is just plain bad, then get rid of it! Don’t second-guess yourself. If it’s blurry, or if the people have red-eye, or the lighting is weird, just get rid of it. Don’t worry, there will be other pictures out there!
Photos where you can’t remember the context
This one is a little harder to judge, but it is helpful in deciding what you want to keep, especially when it comes to nature photos or photos with people.
If there is a photo with a group of people you can’t remember, or you don’t know what you all did the day you took the photo, it’s not really worth keeping.
It would be the same thing as keeping the stock photos that come with photo frames you buy in the store. A photo might be worth a thousand words, but some photos don’t have any words to go with them and are not worth keeping around.
Duplicates
This one is actually pretty easy. If there is more than one photo of the same thing, decide which photo you like better and keep that one. Easy peasy!
Once you’ve gone through all of these categories, take one more look at what’s left on your drive and make sure you love it all. If there is a photo that you just don’t have any excitement about, then go ahead and delete it.
Now you’re ready to put those remaining photos on display!
Step 5: Make albums that are relevant to you and put your photos in each one
With the photos you decided to keep, you can now decide what albums to put them in.
Now, you might feel like this part is just a waste of energy, but I would argue this is the most important step. Without pictures organized in albums, your photos are still just going to be a random pile in your digital space. Maybe you will occasionally scroll through it, but it won’t feel cohesive or intentional.
It would be the equivalent of printing photos and leaving them in a shuffled pile on the table.
Instead, you should put them in albums. This way you can open those up and enjoy the memories that come from a cohesive collection of themed photos. Usually, I like to keep photos of events and people, so I have my albums organized by location and big events. I also keep a separate album all about my pet dog, ‘cause he’s just so cute!
For my blog, I also need to keep one album that holds those pictures. I don’t ever look at those pictures, but I need them for blog purposes, so I just keep them all in one album.
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” -Ansel Adams
Once you make an album and choose the pictures you want in it, you can go to your main feed and archive those pictures.
This simply declutters your main feed so that you have an easier time organizing your remaining photos.
I’m not going to lie, this step takes a long time, especially if you have a lot of photos. Just take this step day by day. Don’t expect to get it all done in one sitting, or you’ll find yourself hitting a wall and getting frustrated.
Organization is an art, and it should be enjoyed! When the organization is starting to feel more like a chore, it’s time to take a break and come back later.
Why I don’t back up my photos and what I do instead
Some people who teach how to organize digital photos will tell you to back up your photos at this point. But to be honest, I don’t do it myself. I do believe there is a value in photographs. But I don’t think any physical item is valuable enough that we need to safeguard it with countless backups.
My laptop recently died, and I lost a lot of photos and documents I never had backed up. Surprisingly, I found myself caring very little about those lost memories.
Those pictures were certainly valuable in the season that I took them. Seasons later, however, I can’t remember a single thing I had stored on there that is going to be seriously missed in the end.
“Every photograph has an equivalent idea or emotion attached to it.” -Alfred Stieglitz
I’ve known other people who have had a similar experience, and they, too, were surprised by how much it didn’t upset them. Losing photos is not as upsetting as you might think.
That being said, I would recommend one additional action that really added value to my interaction with digital photos.
Whenever I go through my photos, I pick a few that I absolutely adore and I print them. I don’t always have a place to put them right away, but they always get used.
The pictures I choose to print get looked at far more often than I would ever look at my digital copies of those photos.
It feels satisfying to highlight some of your favourites so that they can be enjoyed more on a daily basis.
Conclusion
I hope that these tips have taught you a little more about how to organize digital photos in a way that will work for you. Remember, when organizing your photos, it’s important to know why you are keeping photos at all. Once you have this answer, the rest of the organization process goes much easier.
What about you?
Do you have trouble organizing your digital clutter? Do you have any tricks you use? Comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
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