I had good intentions and followed through pretty well during the first few years of marriage. Shortly after getting our photos developed, I’d place them neatly on the adhesive pages of photo albums with clever captions below. When we started having kids I envisioned photo albums for each child, creatively capturing each milestone from first steps to graduation.

Something went very wrong between the visions and reality and we now have boxes of photos. The ones that did make it into those old adhesive photo albums have been removed, but some are very badly damaged. I invested in several photo-safe boxes and began organizing the photos by date. I’m glad they are safe from further deterioration, but this still doesn’t seem to be the best option for preserving memories long term. Honestly, it’s all a little overwhelming.

I used a new approach with the pictures of my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding. I used an online photo book service and was very pleased with the result. I have to say, the layout options were a little less intuitive than I would have liked, but workable if you have some photo editing knowledge. The same company offers scanning of photos, but I’m not comfortable sending irreplaceable memories through the mail.

Organizing digital photos can be equally frustrating. We recently updated our computer’s operating system and can’t get our photos to transfer. If they aren’t safe on the hard drive, then they have to be stored elsewhere.  Print them? Burn a CD?

A simple internet search yields a lot of results for how to organize photos, but I’d like to know what works for you. Have you found a great solution?

My photo organization finesse level: 
Novice     Advanced beginner     Competent        Proficient        Expert

What’s your photo organization finesse level?