Welcome back to the third and final week of the Victoria Marie Spring Clean Challenge! This week we are talking about photo organization. I truly believe that organizing photos, whether print or digital, can be an easy process. All you need is a simple system and a bit of dedication to see this project through.

Now, I know what some of you are probably thinking: “Victoria, I have a million photos! I can’t possibly organize all of those photos in a week!”

Well great…you don’t have to!

This week were are only going to focus on one set of photos at time. So, your challenge is to pick a set of photos (past or current) to organize this week. You may elect to organize and purge photos on your devices (i.e. smart phones, tablets) or dig into a box of photos that is collecting dust under your bed! Just pick a starting point and go for it! The feeling of organizing one set of photos will build your momentum to attack another set of photos, hopefully in the near future!

Here’s the plan!

Like we did in Week 1 and Week 2, you are going to establish your organization and purge criteria. Remember, this is unique to YOU so do what you feel is comfortable. Identify a set of photos to organize. NOTE: Be realistic! If you have 10 boxes of photos from your childhood, organizing and purging those photos will more than likely take more than a week! Pick one box then go from there.

FIRST STEP: After you have selected the photos you wish to organize, go through each photo (print or digital) and make a decision for our photos: KEEP, SCRAPBOOK or TOSS/GIVEAWAY. 

KEEP: Select ONLY the photos you really want to keep. Put these photos in a folder (physical or digital) for later retrieval. The photos that you decide to keep will need a “home” – printed and placed in albums, remain on your computer, or put in cold storage (i.e.photo boxes).

SCRAPBOOK: From the photos you have designated as “keep”, select the photos that you wish to scrapbook. These photos should represent a story that you want to tell – select the very best photos for this task! Put these photos in a separate folder (physical or digital).

TOSS: As you are sorting your photos, set aside the photos that are duplicates, damaged/fuzzy photos, or simply photos that you do not want to keep. NOTE: Special consideration should be given to older/vintage photos that cannot be replaced or reprinted. You might opt to keep those photos or give them away to someone in your family who might want them.

GIVEAWAY: Once you have sorted through all of your photos and have selected the photos you want to keep, scrapbook or toss, make another folder for the photos you wish to giveaway to family members or friends. Consider making small photo albums for these individuals with your extra photos! Or keep a few around for future projects (i.e. kid’s school projects).

SECOND STEP: At this point, you will need to decided how you want to organize your photos – by date, theme, person, etc. I personally like to sort my photos by year and month. Set up a system that works well for you!

THIRD STEP: Establish a home for your photos! For print photos this could be a photo album, a photo safe box, or in your scrapbook album. For digital photos, be sure to establish at least two (2) places to store your photos – on a device such as an external hard drive and using a Cloud based service like Google Photo, Dropbox, or iCloud. More information will be provide in this week’s YouTube video. Of course, be sure to print your most favorite digital photos to have on hand for scrapbooking or to place your photo albums.

Once you have completed sorting, organizing, and purging your first set of photos, repeat the process! Depending on the number of photos you have, this process may take you a few weeks or even a few months to complete. Be patient and work with one set of photos at a time! You can totally do this!

Check out the Victoria Marie YouTube Channel this week where I will demonstrate how I organize my print and digital photos!

If you haven’t already, be sure to join the Victoria Marie Facebook Group! Each week participants will be asked to post pictures of their organization process on the designated post on the Victoria Marie Facebook Group page.

In order to be eligible to win the prize, participants will need to respond to at least one (1) challenge prompt and post a picture on the designated post for that challenge prompt on the Victoria Marie Facebook Group. Winners will be selected by Random.org. 

A winner will be chosen and announced on Monday, March 27, 2017.

Okay, let’s do this!