Have a Plan for your photos now!!

I am always amazed when someone can't find a photo they are looking for.  I almost always can locate a photo from an event fairly quickly once I open my computer up.  See, I have a plan.  I know, this is where my husband always rolls his eyes, but I have this plan, and it has worked for me for over 10 years, so I am going to stick with it! 

At the end of the year, actually, I try to do it every 3 months or so, I download all the pictures from my phone and my camera on to my desktop.  I have a file ......


STOP!  

Maybe we should start at the beginning of the year.   

OK .... this is what my PHOTOS section of my desktop looks like.  I can't figure out how to get close enough for you to actually read the file titles, so you are going to have to trust me.  

The first files are 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 etc. right up to 2014.  In January, when I had a day to sit and do computer work for a couple hours, I finalized my 2013 files and opened my 2014 files.  

The steps I take to open a new year are simply to create file folders so I have somewhere to put all my pictures.  So, for 2014, in my pictures library, I created a file and named it 2014.  Every time I download pictures from my camera or phone - or steal them from Facebook or get them from friends this year, the pictures will go somewhere in this file.  

After this step, it kinda gets personal according to how you think, how you scrapbook and what you take pictures of.  My beginning file always has the 12 months, and my 3 boys names, my sister's name, and storage folders.  So the breakdown looks like this:

2014
     Jan
     Feb 
     Mar
     Apr
     May
     June
     July
     Aug
     Sept
     Oct
     Nov
     Dec
     Will
     James
     Tori
     Paula (I have a special album I am making for her!)
     Phone(this just gives me a temporary place to dump pictures so I can sort them into folders easily)
     Camera (see phone note!)

Then, when I know certain events are going to happen in any given month, I will add yet another sub-folder at this point. For example May.  I have several things that happen every May that I like to scrap and keep pictures of. So, my folder in my 2014 file will look like this:
*2014
    ** May
          ***NATIONAL SCRAP BOOKING DAY (all day crop I DO take pictures!)
          ***BIRTHDAY (mine!)
          ***HOG (road clean up, and rides start this month!)
          ***YARD (Spring fever hits and I start yard clean up!)

Now, as more things happen, I may add new folders, but basically this is it.  I try to clean out my phone and my camera about every 3 months, but may do it more often if I am ready to scrapbook and event. 

At the end of the year, I make sure I have all the pictures I want from all my devices and friends and family (it's after Christmas you know, so I have to collect pictures from other people!) And I make sure every thing is in it's proper file and I BACK IT UP.   

Let me say that again.  BACK IT UP! 

 I make a DVD disk of each year, I have them filed in my scrap booking room in a DVD box designed just for this purpose.  I got this box at TARGET I believe and it is just perfect. Picture disks are the only thing I keep in that particular box.  They are organized and labeled by year. I should have a second copy made so I can keep a back up copy at my sister's house.  Maybe that will be one of my goals this year. 

I am, like every one else I know, behind on my scrap booking, so I love that I know just where to go to get the pictures from 2009 when I am ready to work on that book.  This makes my life easier, I hope it will help you get some control over your photographs so you have more time to play too!  

see you soon!  

Connie