Intro
As the years go by, our youth is gone forever, leaving only piles of photos. But as the number of photos increases, it becomes harder for us to place photos.
Want to know how to declutter pictures?
Whether we save photos in electronic format on a computer hard drive or cloud disk, or save paper photos in a photo album, there are some photo organization and storage tips to help us reduce clutter and disorder, and make it easier for us to Find the photo you want.
Organizing electronic photos
Our previous article mentioned various issues with electronic declutter: Digital Minimalism: The Power in a Connected World. Anyone who is interested in how to declutter pictures can go and see it.
Import photos from mobile phones
And camera devices to your computer.
Then create a folder on a certain drive on your computer to save the photos.
You can give this folder a name, such as photos from xx. This way you will know the purpose of the folder at a glance next time you see it, and avoid deleting it by mistake.
Then import photos from all devices into it.
Check elsewhere on your computer
Cut and paste electronic images from other locations on your computer into this folder.
If the photos in other places have been grouped by folders, just paste the groups over directly to reduce the work of regrouping later.
If there are photos on other computers, you can use a USB flash drive or the Internet to transfer them to this computer.
Delete blurry photos
Browse the imported photos in thumbnail mode and check them one by one.
Check for blurry or worthless photos and delete them. This saves us a lot of hard drive space.
If you are worried about deletion errors, you don’t need to delete them directly. The system will automatically back them up to the recycle bin, and you can restore them according to the situation.
Create folders based on dates
You can create some folders according to your own situation, according to the time when the photos were taken, and according to the rules of dates.
For example, you can create a folder every year, and then create folders within it on a monthly basis.
Or create folders based on year + month, such as “November 2023”.
When you decide to use a certain naming convention, try to stick to it.
Create folders based on photo themes
If the photos were taken on a special theme, you can name this folder according to the theme, or you can name it after the person who took the photos.
In fact, there are now many cloud photo album apps that specialize in storing photos, and many apps can even directly identify photo content for classification.
Put a number in front of the folder name
By default, the computer will sort alphabetically, or sort by time.
If we want to arrange the folders in the order we want, we can add numbers to the file names, such as “01 Wedding” and “02 Beach”.
Use 1 or 2 or 3 bits, depending on how many folders you have.
Automatic network disk organization
Today, with the rapid development of technology, a lot of sorting has been automatically implemented by artificial intelligence.
For example, Google’s Netdisk can automatically classify photos according to the time they were taken.
It can even recognize faces, seasons and scenes. There are also labels that can be used.
But many times, you still need to classify manually to better suit your needs, or if you are more concerned about privacy, we still recommend that you classify manually.
Stored in independent hard drive or cloud disk
We have to consider the possible loss of photos if the computer crashes.
Therefore, we need to back up the photos and store them on a separate mobile hard drive or network drive.
Avoid storing photos on desktop etc.
The desktop, my documents, etc. are all stored on the C drive, and the operating system is generally installed on the C drive by default.
If the system is damaged and the operating system is reinstalled, the C drive files will be overwritten, resulting in loss of photos.
So we should try not to save photos in C drive, desktop and My Documents.
Organizing paper photos
Now that you know how to declutter electronic photos, how to declutter paper pictures?
Collect photos
This step is the same as the first step in decluttering electronic photos.
Collect all the photos together, then find a table, wipe it clean, and lay out the photos on the table.
Remember to collect drawers, folders, photo albums, etc.
If you are not satisfied with the classification of the photos in the album or scrapbook, you can also take them out and re-categorize them.
Organize photos
Filter the photos and sort them into two piles: those you need to keep and those you don’t.
We can reduce clutter by letting go of photos that are blurry, boring, or damaged.
If you want to put some photos into a separate album, you can put them in a separate pile.
Group photos into categories
Arrange the photos you need to keep in chronological order, with older photos at the end.
Photos from the same time or event are placed in a pile.
Record information behind photos
If necessary, you can write corresponding information behind the photo, such as date, member or event.
When recording, remember to use acid-free pencils to avoid damaging your photos.
Storage of paper photos
If you want to display your photos, you can buy some photo frames online, put the photos in them, and hang them on the wall.
You can place many photos on one wall to create a photo wall, or you can hang them across an entire aisle to create a home gallery.
Most photo sizes are 6 inches or 8 inches, so you need to pay attention to the corresponding size when buying photo frames.
You can also use clips to hang photos on twine for display.
Put in photo album
Some photos need to be treasured. We can buy photo albums with plastic films and include those important photos in them.
You can save them in pages according to events, or even save them to different albums.
When buying a photo album, remember to buy one of the corresponding size to avoid it not fitting in.
Load envelopes
Place less important photos in acid-free envelopes. And record the corresponding information behind the photo, or attach a label.
When loading photos, it’s best to have them all facing one direction.
If you have a lot of photos, you can also use a storage box with some acid-free lining paper or plain paper inside.
The best storage temperature is 4-27 degrees, avoid light.
Back up to electronic format
We need to be careful whether the photos will be lost or damaged. It is recommended to scan or copy the old photos into electronic format.
Then save it on a separate mobile hard drive or network disk. Just like we said in the section on electronic photo preservation.
