Got a lot of photos? Do you want to be able to enjoy your pictures instead of having to search and search to find your favourites? Does the thought of tackling your photo collection seem so overwhelming that you keep putting it off? Me too!
That's why this month I'm hosting the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge! Each day I'll share tips to help you declutter your photo collection so you can really treasure and enjoy all the best ones. And I'll share my progress as I declutter my photos along with you :)
Today I'm sharing tips for organizing your photos as you declutter.
Today's Photo Decluttering Tip - Decide How You Want To Organize Your Photos
As you've been decluttering your photos, you've probably been thinking about how you want to organize them. There are two main options - chronological or by theme and there are advantages and disadvantages of each.
Chronological Organizing - Advantages
- Digital photos are easy to sort chronologically because of their metadata
- Printed photos from photo albums are also easy to sort chronologically because they were likely put into albums that way
- People tend to remember events chronologically so it's easier to sort photos and find photos later
Chronological Organizing - Disadvantages
- Older, loose printed photos may be hard to sort by date if they don't have anything written on the back
- Sometimes you want to remember something all together but the photos may be spread out among other photos (a sport a child played for several years, birthday parties throughout the years, school photos over the years, etc.)
Themed Organizing - Advantages
- Allows you to view related photos easily (vacations, annual celebrations, photos of ancestors, etc.)
- Can easily create albums of related photos
- Easier to handle lots of undated photos because themes are easier to identify than dates
Themed Organizing - Disadvantages
- Many people have a hard time thinking in themes and prefer things chronological
- It doesn't match up with your digital collection if that is organized chronologically
It's up to you which method you choose. There's no right or wrong way. You can even do some of both if you want . It's good to build on what you already have if possible. It depends somewhat on how your brain works (mine's pretty chronological so I'd have a hard time organizing my photos any other way lol). How you want to view, enjoy, and share your photos can affect your decision as well.
Once you establish your organizing process you can use it on all the photos you've decided to keep after decluttering.
My Photo Decluttering Progress
I decluttered a photo album and an envelope of negatives today. I pulled all the photos out of the album but it was quite a large album (binder style and I think I added additional sticky pages so it was really full), but I haven't gone through the pile yet. I'll tackle those photos tomorrow.
So no change in my overall number of photos decluttered. I'm very glad I'm doing this challenge. There have been days when I don't feel like decluttering photos but I push past those feelings because I know I need to post here :) After the stack of photos from this album, I have a few more albums I want to declutter and then I'll finish up the month decluttering more digital photos. At the half-way mark in the challenge now!
Your Turn!
Today your task is to decide on how you want to organize your photos - chronologically or thematically. Consider all the pros and cons listed above and think about your collection and which would work best for you. Once you've decided on a system, start organizing your "keep" photos within that system.
If you'd like more decluttering ideas, you can check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.
How are you doing in the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge so far? How do you think today's tip will help you? What photos are you decluttering today? Are you organizing your photos chronologically or thematically?
Happy decluttering and organizing!
Here are the rest of the posts in this challenge:
