Photos in need of a sort out ?

How organised are your photos ?

Do you have heaps of photos spread across your phone, tablets, old laptops and elsewhere?

If you wanted to locate a particular picture would it be easy ?

Have you got plenty of printed pics stuffed away ?

Earlier in the year I attended a workshop at an organising conference with a wonderful speaker called Cathi Neilson. She is the founder of the U.S. based APPO (Association of Personal Photo Organizers). Yes, you can hire your own professional photo organiser !

She gave us a fascinating insight into the world of both physical and digital decluttering of photos.

Photos in our house have been in a bit of disarray since we had children. I used to create quirky albums of holidays and memorable occasions. I’d also frame and put up special moments. Then as time became short and digital pics were flowing I chose not to prioritise sorting them out. The end result is that we had loads of photos scattered across devices which were often blurry, duplicates/triplicates or simply bad ones! The automatic numbering system (20160227_145941 etc. ) made it impossible to find what you wanted without going through them all or knowing the actual date that you took it.

Since being inspired by Cathi I have begun the long but very rewarding task of getting our family photos into good order. I have been putting small but regular slots of time into discarding hundreds of pics, renaming the rest and picking out the ones that I want to use in albums / scrapbooks to tell our story. I’m not there yet but well on the way and have, surprisingly, enjoyed the process so far.

I’ve also recently worked with a great client who felt it was time to get her large collection of physical photos under control. They had been sat, unsorted, in boxes for many years. Together we worked on detecting the important ones which sparked joy and organised them thematically (Instead of chronologically) into

clear pockets. She is now moving on to the next stage of creating her albums. Whilst the process is time consuming our walk down memory lane has been incredibly enjoyable and satisfying. When the project is complete she is really looking forward to sharing this with her friends and family.

It is often the unexpected results of decluttering that are the best. Dealing with your photos brings many emotions along – both positive and negative. I love how the following sentiment sums it up:-

“Physical photographs allow you to slow down, and enjoy a moment so immensely that you’re able hold a piece of it.” – Brighton Kilgore

If you would like help with any of your decluttering and organizing do reach out and get in touch – I’d love to chat.