Photos and videos continue collecting on our phones, tablets, and laptops as we’re out and about, taking trips, going to events like birthday parties, or even shopping in the store while deciding what to use in decorating the house.
Taking photos is an everyday, and every moment, occurrence.
Have you received a text from your husband or kids at the grocery store with a picture showing what types of soup or ice cream to buy or not buy?
We’re deluged with digital photos and videos and many of us, even most of us, still have print photos stored in traditional scrapbook albums and stuffed loosely in large and small envelopes.
How do you make sense of all the memories and store them safely?
Read on for methods and tools.
Photo by Tim Gouw Pexels
I’m delighted to have become a photo coach when I was a young mother, 27 years ago. Helping clients journal stories about their photos was fun and it’s still fun now.
Storing and organizing our photos was different when I started because the technology was different. Now, we’re clearly into the digital era but we still have printed photos to care for. Scroll down and I’ll show you how I bridge the two eras.
Now, the tips.
1) Delete the clutter
Get rid of what you don’t need, like photos from the trip to the grocery store. Don’t let those linger. Don’t be afraid to use the delete button.
And discard all the duplicates. I’ll be glad to let you know other ways I make those journaling decisions.
2) Take inventory
People pics: Whose pics do you have—and who don’t you have?
- Spouse
- Children
- Grandchildren
- Cousins
- Friends
Places
Are there certain places you always went on vacation? Or certain places you went around home? Keep pics of the places that best represent your family’s interests.
Milestones
What are key milestone photos and videos you should keep?
Pare down the excess and keep what represents you and your loved ones the best.
Remind yourself that you don’t need to save every photo, like the ones from the grocery store 😊, but that you’ll keep the ones that are your most meaningful memories.
Seasons
Different times of the year have their own special meaning as do holidays. You may not need to capture all the seasons in a particular year, but let’s say you have mostly summer shots from the past few years. If so, then balance those with autumn shots or spring photos and videos during the next couple of years.
This gives you a bit of a guide so you know who or what to include for the future.
3) Store your memories safely and permanently
My photos, videos, and home movies my father took from decades ago are safely stored online in a space I own. The platform I use is FOREVER®, a complete memory-keeping system.
Now you can easily digitize all your older memories including slide shows, hand-written letters (remember those?) and printed photos along with VHS tapes.
Once you open an account, you can download the FOREVER® app on your phone to conveniently upload the photos you’ve been taking.
My main album, Travel Memories, has sub-albums or nested albums
Do I really mean “safely” and “permanently?”
Yes.
FOREVER® has an unmatched guarantee in the industry that your memories will be safeguarded well beyond the next century. They invest in research and development to handle past and future technologies and file properties.
I can share with you if you’d like to know more.
4) Arrange them in digital albums
Creating digital albums is like creating folders on your computer for storing documents.
You might have an album titled Vacations, or Travel Memories like mine above, and inside you create nested albums that show vacations throughout the year.
Use your photos to research your family’s history, another service that FOREVER® provides. It’s easy to designate photo albums for the mother’s side of the family and the father’s side.
5) Do a little at a time
Give yourself permission to do a little at a time.
Everyone is busy, some more so than others. But choose an album or two to work on and just spend 15 minutes a day uploading from your phone.
6) Make it a family project
Margarita Buitrago, photo coach
Friends of mine like Kathie Storie worked with her father for two years, helping him organize his photos in FOREVER®.
Margarita Buitrago connected with cousins in South America and shared photos using her FOREVER® account.
Setting your albums to private or sharing them with friends and family around the nation or the world is easy.
Try Free Storage and Let’s chat
Contact me and I’ll show you how FOREVER® is a safe and permanent way to safeguard your memories.
Me and mom today
You may be wondering why you should try FOREVER® if you’re already using social media, free services, or low-cost monthly services.
Remember, FOREVER® guarantees that your memories will be safeguarded for a lifetime plus 100 years or more. Again, I’ll be more than happy to let you know why they can make the claim.
Plus, you own your space and you don’t rent. It’s an amazing benefit that you can read about in the post I linked below.
In addition, there are savings plans, discounts and wonderful gift ideas like printed photo books.
I invite you to try FOREVER® with 2GB free storage.
Join me and my friends to dive into deeper, learn the platform and write our family’s stories. See my Events page for dates and times.
Curious about an Income Stream?
My home office today, where I connect with clients and team members across the U.S.
I’ve loved my career as a photo coach. FOREVER® makes it easy to become a professional photo organizer and work with people throughout the U.S. and Canada like I do from my home office.
If you find this is a fit, then I’ll be happy to mentor you or connect you with some wonderful friends in the business.
Again, it’s easy to contact me and learn more.
