Smart Phone Photo Organization!

Do you have hundreds or maybe thousands of photos on your smart phone? We hardly ever develop any of them either. So it can be so overwhelming when attempting to organize our precious memories. Or frustrating when we think about all the moments "stuck" in their virtual locations. I'm going to share what has worked for me and maybe it can for you too.

First off, when dealing with any challenge, step one is identifying why your current "system" (or lack there of) isn't working. Where does the ball get dropped? For many, it's waiting too long before uploading your camera roll to its alternate location of choice. So they sit there, taking up memory on your phone (or space in your cloud) to be forgotten. I'm a HUGE picture person. I take lots of them and out of everything I own, my pictures mean the most to me. So my "system" is important and a priority.


I use snapfish.com to house all my digital pictures. I find it to be user friendly and the corresponding app works great on my iPhone. I organize my photo albums by month/year. Every month gets its own album. I start a new album on the 1st of every month and upload all my photos from my phone (via the app) on that same day. Takes maybe 5 minutes. Then I delete all the pictures off my phone. Very simple, very effective. Here is a screen shot of my albums via the snapfish app.

And if I ever need to go back and view a picture I snapped on my phone or otherwise (like taken with a real camera; remember those?) I simply pull up the app and they are all there. The site is free, the space is free, and that makes me happy! 

Now ... the most important part ... set an alarm on your calendar (on repeat) for the 1st of every month reminding yourself to "upload iPhone pictures".  And then actually do it when it goes off. Literally takes 5 minutes. You'll be so happy you took the time to maintain this habit because you no longer have to stress about 1000's of "lost and forgotten" memories trapped in mobile land. 

Bonus tip - I do not "develop" any of my photos. Not a big fan of bulky albums taking up space. So I do annual yearbooks. 1 book per year (via http://www2.snapfish.com/photo-gift/photo-books) chronicling our family's memories. And you know what's really easy when I'm making my  yearbook? Looking back at all the pictures taken that year neatly organized by month/year ready to be properly "dragged and dropped" onto the corresponding page of the book. And the books take up very little space too. My kids LOVE sitting down and going through all the memories over the years. We also do one for our family vacations.  They make great gifts for the grandparents and if they get lost or ruined just request a reprint, snapfish never deletes your completed books. 

Snapfish.com is just one of many photo sites to choose from. They have promotions all the time for photo books. so never pay full price. Shop around to see which site works best for you. Or if you're already using one for your "regular" camera photos, look and see if they have an app to help you organize your smart phone pictures too. I bet they do! 

Thanks again for stopping by and here's to another day closer to a life in balance ... 

xo

Sloane