One of the things I 100% was not prepared for after having the twins was how to organize my photos of them. Throw in being a blogger on top of that, and before I knew it, I had 27,000 photos and videos saved in my iCloud account. Making yearly calendars, photo books, Insta posts, and blog posts became a chore and overwhelming because there was just too much clutter. I quickly realized that something needed to change and that is where The Photo Project began.

Below, you will see the steps I take on a monthly basis to organize and declutter my pictures with the goal of being able to make calendars, albums, or even Insta or Facebook posts easier.

Step 1: Pick Your Start Date

Decide on a start date. For me, I am more concerned with the the months after the twins were born because that is where the excessive amount of thousands of photos come from. It is way to overwhelming for me to have so many pictures on my phone and I end up not using them, posting, printing, or making calendars/books with because it’s just too much.

Once I get caught up to current date, I will eventually go back to the beginning and proceed with this same process for pre-twin picutres.

Step 2: Search By Month and Year in Photos

In the Menu bar in the bottom of the Photos app, tap the option that is furthest to the right called Search. Type in the month and year that you decided as your start date. Then, tap “See All.” This will bring up all of the photos and videos that are linked to your account for that month.

Disclaimer: this process is really for getting your pictures organized. I briefly discuss videos as the end, but my focus is mainly on the photos.

The reason I like to sort like this is because I edit a lot of my photos in the Lightroom app and I like the edited photo to be next to the original photo. I also like to see a definitive number of how many photos I am starting with for the month.

Step 3: Keep or Delete

Ok Mamas…..this is the tough part. It’s time to delete. I struggle with this part the most. I feel as if deleting the 25 duplicates of one photo is deleting the memory (even if I save the 1 good one!) I also delete a lot of random things – screen shots of recipes I never made, the bajillion pictures of Lola Mae sleeping, random pictures of scenery or nature…..you get the point. Ask yourself this question: what am I going to do with this picture? Is it frameworthy? Will I post it? Is it worth taking up this space?

Tip: I have to be in the right mood for this. Just like any sort of decluttering or organizing process, there is an emotional aspect to this project. It is hard for us as humans to let things go, especially when it involves our families and friends and pets 🙂 Remind yourself why you are doing this. You are removing the excess so you can see/focus/post/use the good photos!

Step 4: Create a Month and Year Album

In the Photos App, tap on Albums. In the top left, tap the + sign and then tap New Album. Enter the name of your new album – I suggest keeping it all consistent with the year first and then month (for easy sorting.)

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Step 5: Optional – Add to Google Photos

If you save your photos to Google Photos or Amazon Photos, now would be the time to upload them. I just started using Google Photos a couple of months ago and have been very pleased with it.

Step 6: Upload to Shutterfly via the Shutterfly app

I have found the best way to upload my pictures from my phone to Shutterfly.com is via the Shutterfly app. In the Shutterfly app, tap the Upload icon in the bottom menu. In the Device Photos section, select the Album with the year and month you are working in. Tap the pictures you want to add to Shutterfly, then tap UPLOAD. This imports your photos to your Shutterfly account (which then you can access via your laptop/desktop later on.)

Shutterfly is my preferred choice when it comes to making calendars and photo albums. Sam’s Club and MPix are my preferred option for printing single prints and enlargements. I’ve also used Walgreens for canvas printing and have been very pleased with the results. I assume this would be a similar step for any online printing provider.

There are a bunch of promos happening over at Shutterfly, including up to 50% off everything and free shipping on cards with code BESTCARDS.

Click HERE to see all of the promos!

Step 7: Create Memorabilia

Now is the FUN part! You’ve put in all the work to organize your pictures and should be down to a fraction of what you previously had, making it easier to see them, sort them, and decide which pictures to use. My suggestion is to wait a few days after finishing the first steps so you aren’t burnt out. Whether you wait until the weekend, tomorrow, or tonight, step away from the computer for a bit before continuing on. Your eyes will thank you 🙂

This year I plan on making photo albums for the first two years of the twins’ lives as well as the normal calendars I make for grandparents.

Another tip: You shouldn’t have to pay full price and/or shipping EVER for these photo projects. In my experience, there is ALWAYS some sort of promo happening, and this year, they are out of control (but in a good way for the consumer!) The second one promo rolls off, another one begins – so just keep that in mind.

Professional Pictures

I like to keep my professionally taken pictures in an album of their own and do not mix them into my iPhone photos. For example, I have Newborn Lifestyle, Newborn Studio, Fall 2018, Santa 2018 etc. I typically don’t import them to my phone. I have them saved in my Google Photos and desktop and some on my One Drive as well. These also get imported into Shutterfly in their own album.

Videos

Videos are more difficult to sort through because you can’t just make a decision on whether to keep or delete by glancing at the image. For example, if I have 6 20 second videos back to back on my phone of the twins, I want to watch all the videos and then determine which one to keep. In the Albums section of Photos, if you scroll to the bottom under Media Types, you can select all of the Videos to go through. I suggest focusing on your photos first, and then, set a goal for January 2021 to clean up all of the videos.

Tips

1. This takes time. This is not something you can knock out during one nap time. I am doing 3 – 4 months a weekend until I get caught up to date.
2. Ask yourself this question: Is this picture worth framing or putting in an album? If the answer is no, then delete. If it is a duplicate, absolutely delete.
3. One of the best pieces of advice I can offer is to maintain this going forward. I started doing a modified version of this when I started doing my Monthly Review blog posts and have tried to keep up with it. I know we are all busy and time is one of the most valuable commodities we feel like we never have enough of, but taking an hour or so once a month to do this for the previous month will keep you organized and allow you to pull up that cute picture of lil’ Johnny in 2 seconds instead of scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling (and grandma walks away because she’s lost interest.)

Well friends, my hope is that you find this guide useful in your photo organizing endeavor – I’d love to hear your feedback below!

Cheers – MP