Picture Display Movement. Step 3. Organize

{For Step 2 in the Picture Display Movement, click here}

For me, this step initially felt the most overwhelming.  But once I got started, it turned out to be no big deal and went really fast.

I use iphoto for all my photo organizing.  BUT.  You don't have to have iphoto to organize photos like this.  You can use the same "folder" system on any computer, Mac or PC.

But the problem for me initially was the lack of organization within iPhoto and being able to effectively choose what I wanted to print and keep some sense of order in doing that.

All my pictures were in iPhoto, but that's it.  I started using iPhoto in 2009 so I had 5 years worth of photos in there and was overwhelmed by the prospect of organizing them.

Until I came up with this system.  Keep in mind there are hundreds of different ways you can organize photos.  Which is what overwhelms me.  So I had to pick something simple. That I know I would do and that I would maintain.

To organize the photos that were already in iPhoto, 5 years worth,  (you can google the steps on how to do all of this) I created folders for each year as well as a "vacations" folder.  See the photo below, under "albums" where it has folders for each year and one for vacations

I then created an album for each month in that year as well as an album for Holidays in that year.  Then I moved those albums into the folder for that year.

Then I clicked on "Events" in my library so all the pictures in my iPhoto library would come up and went month by month and put the pictures in their corresponding folder.  The physical pictures don't move so they are all still visible in the events part of your library.  But then when you click on one of the months folder, only that month shows (which can make it easier to find certain photos).

To do this quickly, you can click on the box with pictures from the first of the month, then hold down the shift key and click on the box with pictures from the last of the month.  Then just drag and drop them into the appropriate album.

{See how the boxes for July are highlighted in yellow.  Then just drag those into the "July" album.}

After each month, I would look through that month for any holidays or vacations, highlight those pictures and drag those into the appropriate albums as well.  You can have the same picture in multiple albums without moving the original file.  It just makes a "copy" of those pictures which takes up very  minimal space on your hard drive.

This entire process of organizing 5 years worth of photos (I have about 30,000 photos in my iPhoto library) took me about one hour.  Quick.  Easy.  And simple.

And I feel So. Much.Better now that it's done.

Now to maintain, my plan is, at the end of each month (on a SET date) I will move those files into their album for the month and put them in the folder for their year.  Should take about 2 minutes.  

If you don't have iPhoto, figure out a photo organizing system that works for your family.  Just keep it simple and schedule regular times to maintain it.  If you have the right system, it really doesn't take very long.

You can still set up a Folder for each year, then folders for each month and drag the photos into those folders.

Step 3.  Organize those photos

Now don't stop there!  Step 4 is to PRINT THOSE PICTURES!!!! 

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me!  I'm happy to help where I can.