{"id":216699,"date":"2024-03-25T03:19:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T03:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/25\/a-simple-routine-that-works\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:19:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:19:58","slug":"a-simple-routine-that-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/25\/a-simple-routine-that-works\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Routine That Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My camera roll contains multitudes. I scroll through photos of my kids\u2019 toothy grins, peachy sunsets, and delightful coffee dates and experience joy, wonder, and nostalgia. But lurking there on the other side is guilt, dread, and overwhelm. What am I going to do<\/em> with all these photos? How do I organize photos so that they\u2019re easily accessible for me and my family members? And what if the cyber-apocalypse hits and I lose all my photos\u2014ya know, on top of every other end-of-the-world problem?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be honest. I pitched this story because I thought I\u2019d finally figured it out\u2014let me be your hero, baby!<\/em> But I soon discovered that the more I know, the less I understand. So, I decided to take these questions that keep me up at night to the professionals. And wow\u2014did they deliver. Spoiler alert: I\u2019m on a brand-new photo organization protocol that weaves seamlessly within my routine (thank you, habit stacking<\/a>). And best of all, it works. I\u2019m more organized AND I\u2019m sleeping better<\/a> knowing that my kids won\u2019t rely on junky old iPhones to re-live their very well-documented<\/em> childhood.<\/p>\n

Ahead, find out how to organize photos with practical steps, including the single tool that made my photo organization experience truly enjoyable\u2014aka, how it should be.<\/p>\n

The Challenge<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve avoided organizing your photos for one of three reasons: the sheer volume is overwhelming, digital clutter is easier to ignore than actual clutter, and lack of time, resources, and knowledge makes the process feel like a mountain you\u2019d rather not climb. (Hand raised if it\u2019s all three.)<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the emotional weight to consider. It\u2019s not easy to ruthlessly delete when you\u2019re making a million daily decisions. Sometimes scrolling through photos can bring up emotions or memories we\u2019d rather not face. This is certainly a task that requires the right frame of mind. One that is well-rested and can both stroll down memory lane and<\/em> make objective choices. It\u2019s not easy, but the benefits of a well-organized photo collection can slowly release some of that mental load.<\/p>\n

Professional photo organizer Casey von Stein, aka Miss Freddy, understands the overwhelm. \u201cPeople often feel ashamed by the number of photos in their camera roll. We have forgotten that photos are supposed to bring us JOY! They represent all the blessings in our lives we have decided to document.\u201d And the biggest benefit of a well-organized photo collection? \u201cIt restores the FUN of photos\u2014using them in exciting ways like making photo books, creating custom videos, easily ordering photo gifts, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nCasey von Stein, aka Miss Freddy <\/span>
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Casey von Stein, aka Miss Freddy, is a certified Professional Photo Organizer in Golden, Colorado. After 10 years as a professional photographer, she realized that what people really needed was HELP organizing and enjoying their photos. She offers remote organizing services for clients worldwide and self-paced online courses for those who want to tackle their photo mess on their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Preparing for Organization<\/h2>\n

The way to get it done for real<\/em> this time? Take that mountain and make it a hill\u2014you\u2019ve got to start small.<\/p>\n

When I think of organizing my photos, I think of cleaning up my camera roll. But thanks to professionals like Miss Freddy, I\u2019ve come to understand that it\u2019s so much more. We have photos on our smartphones, computers, memory cards, digital cameras, old Facebook albums, and, let\u2019s not forget (though we may try) those physical prints packed away deep in the closest.<\/p>\n

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People often feel ashamed by the number of photos in their camera roll. We have forgotten that photos are supposed to bring us JOY! <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Step One: Assess Your Physical and Digital Photo Collection<\/h3>\n

First, consider anywhere and everywhere your images currently live. \u201cI\u2019ve noticed everyone\u2019s first instinct when organizing their photos is to delete junk on their camera roll like screenshots and blurry photos,\u201d Stein notes. \u201cBut where does that get you? Exhausted after deleting a thousand items and feeling no more organized, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the first step to organizing photos is creating one \u201chub\u201d for all your memories to live. \u201cOnce everything is gathered into one hub, you can more easily get your arms around it and use tech to simplify the organizing work!\u201d<\/p>\n

Step Two: Set Realistic Goals and Timelines<\/h3>\n

Pull out your calendar and make a date with yourself to organize all your images into one hub. If it\u2019s on the calendar, it\u2019s happening. Highly encourage romanticizing your time<\/a> with good music, nourishing snacks, and something to sip on. Remember, photos are meant to bring us joy\u2014lean into it!<\/p>\n

From there, assign time to organize your photos within the hub. You can either start backward by giving yourself a goal date or work forward, penciling in half-hour working blocks at a time until the task is complete.<\/p>\n

Step Three: Grab Your Tools<\/h3>\n

First, you need a photo storage system to get your hub in working condition. Michelle Nash<\/a>, photographer and Executive Producer here at Camille Styles, turns to Dropbox or Google Photos. \u201cGoogle Photos is the best web-based program for photo organization, in my opinion. They were one of the first companies to implement smart search where you could find specific people.\u201d Search \u201cdog in bandana\u201d or \u201cVenice Beach 2021,\u201d for example, to find exactly what you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

Miss Freddy suggests that your photos live in three places to ensure ultimate peace of mind and security. Your phone can be one of the places, in addition to your digital storage system, and finally, an external hard drive. Backing up your photo collection on an external hard drive is the most secure way to prevent loss. Michelle recommends this smaller hard drive<\/a> as a working drive that\u2019s easy to travel with and this 10TB external hard drive<\/a> for storing your entire collection.<\/p>\n

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Sorting and Categorizing<\/h2>\n

Now that you\u2019re ready to put all your photos into one main hub, it\u2019s time to sort and categorize. If you\u2019re using Google Photos to back up your camera roll, images will automatically be sorted by date. If you\u2019ve got a backlog of photos from other sources, you\u2019re best off creating a system.<\/p>\n

Create a System for Sorting Photos<\/h3>\n

First things first: you need to get everything on your computer. Upload from hard drives, digitize physical copies, sort through USBs\u2014just get \u2018em all on there. (Note: if your computer doesn\u2019t have the space, you can always work from an external hard drive.)<\/p>\n

Next, it\u2019s time to sort. When you\u2019re organizing photos on your computer, it helps to change the filename so they\u2019re easy to find. \u201cJust like how we used to write \u2018Michelle\u2019s Birthday 1998\u2019 on an envelope filled with physical photos, it helps to rename your files digitally.\u201d For example, Michelle generally uses a format like \u201csubjectmatter_location_date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle shared her exact process: <\/p>\n

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  1. Keep a master folder for every year (ex: 2024) <\/li>\n
  2. Create subfolders for each month <\/li>\n
  3. Create specific subfolders within each month (ex: \u201cMichelle\u2019s 30th Birthday\u201d) <\/li>\n
  4. Within these subfolders, get as specific as you want to and organize into \u201cscenes\u201d (ex: \u201cOpening Presents\u201d and \u201cCake\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    At this point, you can backup the images on your computer to a program like Google Photos and then sync a backup with your phone\u2019s camera roll\u2014your hub is now complete and ready to be organized.<\/p>\n

    How to Categorize Photos in a Fun and Useful Way<\/h3>\n

    Miss Freddy relies heavily on creating digital albums to categorize and highlight events or people. And while it\u2019s a common misconception that albums take up more space in an already sprawling collection, the truth is that they\u2019re highly underutilized. \u201cPeople think they\u2019re creating duplicates and making a bigger mess of their collection, but that\u2019s not true at all! Albums do NOT create copies of your photos, they reference the original in your library.\u201d<\/p>\n

    She uses albums as a way to categorize photos that matter most. \u201cI use \u2018Best Of\u2019 albums to earmark my favorite photos of every family member (including the dog!), travel albums to highlight favorite photos from trips, project albums to gather photos for projects like slideshows or photo books, and much more!\u201d<\/p>\n

    Utilize Technology for Efficient Digital Sorting<\/h3>\n

    I took Michelle\u2019s advice and turned to Google Photos for my personal photo library and one of my favorite features is how the technology sorts everything for me. It highlighted frequent faces so that all I had to do was go in and give them a name. From there, I can simply type my son\u2019s name and a place in the search bar (ex: \u201cAvery at Disneyland 2019\u201d) to use facial recognition and metadata to find exactly what I\u2019m looking for.<\/p>\n

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    Dealing with Duplicate Photos and Low-Quality Images<\/h3>\n

    Up to now, we\u2019ve only covered the photos we want to keep forever and lock \u2018em away in a vault for our great-great-great grandkids to remember us by. But what about all those images you really, truly do not<\/em> want? The screenshots are easy enough to delete, but what about when you\u2019re faced with two (or two hundred\u2026) photos of the same thing (I\u2019m talking about selfies) with a slight difference from one to the next? Ah, the freedom and the cage of carrying a camera in our back pockets.<\/p>\n

    I asked Michelle how to just make the decision already and delete the photos. She offered sound advice: \u201cI think the main gut check before you delete an image is just asking yourself: is this an image that myself or someone else would want to revisit sometime in the future? If the answer is no, then delete\u2014and no regrets! If you have even an inkling of a yes, keep the image and store it where it belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s a handy list if you\u2019re hovering between yay and nay.<\/p>\n

    Keepers:<\/strong><\/p>\n