Declutter and Organize ALL of Your Photos! + Clutter-Free January!

Photos, photos, photos! On cell phones, computers, camera cards, thumb drives, cds.. the list goes on! After avoiding this daunting task for OVER 15 YEARS - this week I finally tackled my extreme photo clutter - and it feels sooooo good!
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[@anitamiller3089]

During the initial pandemic lockdown I paid my teenager to upload all my digital photos onto 1 external hard drive. It took him 8 hours. It was the best money I ever spent. 😁

[@fourleaf8055]

Can you please let me know more? What do you mean all your digital photos onto one external drive? Were they on your phone? I put my photos from my camera on my computer. Aren’t they already in my hard drive?

[@kitler42]

@@fourleaf8055 your photos are on your hard drive, but you can store them on an external drive (search on amazon for one). An external drive plugs into your computer so you can access it, kind of like an enormous thumb drive. The reason you might want to do this is so that your computer's internal hard drive has more memory freed up so it will run faster.

[@ahershey8523]

@@fourleaf8055 my computer died- taking many photos with it- learn from my mistake

[@Chris-lc4bo]

@@fourleaf8055 as Katie Picciotoli stated even if you have all your photos on your computer hard drive the eternal drive is the back up if your main computer ever dies or get a bug, you will still have your photos.

[@LuckyCharms_4]

@@ahershey8523some internal drives can be removed and a cable used to attach to a new pc to recover contents. If the drive itself is bad, then u may need someone who repairs computers to see if they can retrieve.

[@ivonafiri9269]

In March I sat down and organized photos on my computer. I sorted them by year. And then some special events into a seperate folder in that year. For exemple 2018 has photos and folder like vacation, friend wedding, kids birthday... I clean my phone almost every day. And google photos beacuse it uplodes. What I didn't do is a backup...

[@lorimcconnell4834]

THANK YOU. I'm buried in photos. I have started to collect all photos from around the house. This is my New Years project. It will take all year. Taking baby steps I'll get it done.

[@debbiescott6349]

I have complete photo overload, from all of mine and my husband's family plus our own photos including hobbies and travel. That said they are pretty organised but still lots of room for improvement.

[@darnitthelma4247]

Yas! I have 1000s Photos but still love to print. Manage to print all of them a year ago but STILL not put into albums/photo boxes etc then there’s the digital mess I need to organise!!

[@findingaway5512]

I definitely still have little disposable cameras from high school and I graduated in 2002. I don't even know if I could develop them right now I definitely want to though I feel like those are really happy times of my life and I had a lot of fun adventures with friends.

[@evansbowen6897]

Last year I had 5000 photos digitized at scancafe. It feels so good to have all the falling apart albums gone. In years past I did 1500 slides. Two external hard drives-one I the safe-keeps them safe. Now to keep it up every year and make some albums so we can enjoy the memories.

[@TheSecretSlob]

Wow! Well done!!

[@allieblank5992]

Thank you so much for the tip about transferring photos from fb to google photos! Did it today!

[@user-jp8fr7xw6z]

It's still a daunting project, but I put it on my project list now and I will get to it eventually. At least I have an idea of how to get started now ... thank you! :)

[@TheSecretSlob]

Getting started is that hardest part!

[@janeonthecoast4920]

Yes!! The blinking photos!! Aaargh!!!

[@kerstincarw2503]

Thank you for this video! I find it sooo intimidating to look at all my physical photos and think "Oh man, I have to make sooo many photo albums, it will take forever". I never thought about just storing them in a box. So simple. And then I can finally have a free mind. Brilliant! :D

[@MarielleSweden]

Greate tips. One from me. I have two external hard drives. One at home, and one at a friend's house. In case of a fire 🔥

[@TheSecretSlob]

That is smart! We keep some documents in the freezer for that reason!

[@mandywinter6490]

Great idea now I'm buying another hard drive I have millions and millions of photos

[@michelleprice5945]

I so needed to see this!! I have about 10 photo boxes plus I just got all of my mom's so I'm going through them in the basement, problem is my husband just installed a wood burning insert in the basement which actually is great and I thought it would motivate me since then I'm not freezing but now it's so cozy down there I end up on the couch watching tv! my goal is to have it done by month end! no excuses!!

[@sweetlady6059]

I never knew you can take Facebook photos and save them to the cloud! I need further know how on how to do this! Great video!

[@jennifershaw9323]

I have my external hard drives in fire proof water proof safe in my home.

[@judysbakeryandtestkitchen1654]

Thank you! I need to declutter 20 stick on photo album!

[@shannonengelken4629]

Steph You are soooo motivational! Thank you for the link for the adapter. I just ordered it and I can’t wait to start getting all of my SD cards transferred!😊😊. You have a gift for making even the most difficult task doable! Thank you for your sunny disposition! 🥰🥰

[@UpstateGrammy]

Thank you, Steph! Photos have been a real stumbling block on my road to organization.

[@gapeach51170]

I'm not ready for this yet but I saved this video to come back to when I am :) Currently, I am still dealing with a massive paper hoard. :) I'm almost done! I have grown kids (four boys 28,27,23,20) I want to buy them all an external hard drive and give them copies of all the pictures for them to have ... maybe I can have this done and give it to them as a Christmas gift this year :)

[@TheSecretSlob]

Amazing gift idea!

[@Savingmomma]

This was extremely satisfying to see the end result! Thanks for the inspiration!!!!

[@jenniferb.7250]

Hi Steph, I found your channel with the January declutter challenge and love your content! This was so timely as I’m tackling this project right now! I was so glad to hear I’m not the only person who keeps greeting cards LOL. I regularly declutter my house so the other areas in the series haven’t been too bad and I’ve been trying to stay focused on my photo project. So much is tied into sorting photos with memories and such. I have been really good about putting all of my paper photos in albums up until 2005 when everything went digital. I love the way you showed how to do digital photos. This is where I have been stuck. Any ideas on how to digitize paper photos that are in albums? Short of taking them all out of the albums I’m not sure what to do. I have about 12 albums. Would love to see a video when you put your digital photos in albums and how you do that.

[@TheSecretSlob]

I am not sure about scanning photos in books. But I recommend searching a photo scanning specialist, they will know!

[@juliesanville9021]

I need to do this. So helpful!

[@user-nt7dv8ep9m]

Your eyes are unreal :) new lighting? The video is super helpful, and at the perfect time! Thank you.

[@TheSecretSlob]

Thanks! Maybe because my shirt is green?

[@sarahedgar8812]

I started this process last year. I began with 70,000 digital photos and I'm now at 55,000. For people who take a lot of photos this is a seriously huge task! I agree with other comments that you should have 3 copies and 1 should be in another physical location in case of fire.

[@thatswhatisaid8908]

I have some photos on this phone, some on an old phone, a few on an old camera, about 6 photo albums from childhood and 20s and about 400 million paper photos in a giant wooden box. I also have my mothers photos and her mothers photos. I am leaving this job til last.

[@paulafay627]

OMG what an amazing project. Congratulations Steph. How long did that take? The thought of it is overwhelming. Thank you so much for doing this video. I'm so inspired. It might take me a while to get going, but this is a massive help💕

[@TheSecretSlob]

It took all week, 2 big days and then just a bit more here and there

[@paulafay627]

@@TheSecretSlobwhat a woman you are with 3 smallies in lockdown. Looking forward to that relieved feeling. Have you any ideas on how to sort videos??? Eventually 😃. Love and really appreciate your videos 😍

[@denisebrown3834]

I have 71 years of photos. I feel like I am drowning in them - both paper and digital. On top of that I have arthritic hands and shoulders so have to keep having breaks. I have heaps of digital doubles, triples and more scattered everywhere. It might take me till next January!

[@pamelap.123]

I had hundreds of old photos left to me , my breakthrough was being able to throw out all the ones that were fuzzy/unknown subject matter/ unknown people. that reduces the burden a lot! These memories belong to my parents, who have passed on, so no need for me to keep them.

[@nancywidows463]

I can relate...i have inherited photos of my stepmother's relatives that I've never met or have no relationship with....travel photos of places I've never been...etc. I feel so bad getting rid of them....who's going to continue her legacy? Her son doesn't even care about these pictures, so who keeps them? I'm finally realizing, maybe nobody needs to keep them all.☹

[@marianne4113]

Thank you, so helpful to think many of the photos left by my parents were their memories. However, I do remember many in the photos so I will save some.

[@sweetlady6059]

Although I keep pictures of family I don’t know that belonged to my grandma and her husband because even though I don’t know who they are they are reminders of the styles back then and where I came from.

[@wendyhardy4776]

One option to save old photos digitally for someone else is to add them to a family tree in FamilySearch (FamilySearch.com). It is free to have an account and you can save tons and tons of photos as a memory for that person.

[@polonal2931]

You did an amazing job!!!!!

[@annw1395]

If you do genealogy, you can scan family / ancestor photos onto your family trees at Ancestry.com and free FamilySearch.org. I have dozens of neat old photos of ancestors, many dating back to the 1800s! I wanted to share them with relatives, but didn't know who. One summer, I scanned them into my computer, touched them up, labeled them, sorted them -- and then dragged and dropped onto my family trees on those two genealogy websites. Now any relatives of theirs who are researching those ancestors can see their photos, which is super cool. I still have the originals, stored in acid-free page protectors.

[@courtneyglasco2216]

Love 💘your shirt

[@kerrygouthro4356]

Love this video - thanks!

[@daisyprosser66]

You did a great job! Doesn't it feel great to have it done?? :)

[@conniemccoy5761]

Ok I have tried before to get all my pictures in ONE digital place but it never seems to work. I was re inspired by this video. But it still doesn't work. So disappointed! Could not get google one drive or drop box to send my pictures to google cloud. I find digital organization so hard. I am an organized person and I just keep getting walls. The old fashioned pictures were SO much easier!

[@nagistv]

It was amazing congratulations 👍 full

[@rebeccahartshorn3482]

but but... how much google storage did you have to buy to store all of your photos please? I'm stuck trying to decide if I can get my hoard down under the 15G of free storage or if its worth it to buy some? And and... how do you transfer them all from google to your external hard drive. This is also the step that I'm on and man its confusing. Is there an easy way? Thank you.

[@sunilj10]

How to select which photos to keep is the most important part, which needs to be addressed and elaborated.

[@deefee701]

Yes, it's a bad idea to store photos on the computer hard drive because computers crash, get out of date or damaged after a few years. Use cloud storage. Ask around for help to learn.

[@moniqueforrester674]

Develop the film and tell us how it went!!!

[@judymarkel8029]

I have an 18 gallon tote of photos. And As I declutter I am finding more. So this is very timely. Some evenings as we watch TV I will go through a stack of photos and discard the ones that are of the mess of fish we caught, places I dont recognize ect... The digital world is foreign to me I will need help with that. Thank you

[@TheSecretSlob]

Love that! Combine a mindless task with a little bit of work and it all gets done!

[@Claycat4]

Great video! I am 71, so I have many more photos on paper than digital, but I have a lot of those, too. I have finally stopped taking so many, so that helps. I wish I had been more moderate the earlier years. Young people, if you are starting out, don't take so many photos! They become a burden later. With digital photos, you can make sure you have a good one as you go along. Organize other paper as you go along, too. I have a massive paper problem, so I'm warning you to start while you are young!

[@eileencarroll6418]

WOW, you are amazing. For me, technology is more painful than taxes.

[@TheSecretSlob]

Me too! Great to get it done!

[@thatswhatisaid8908]

Yes, for sure. Steph normally makes so much sense to me, but when she started explaining what to do, my brain started to die, and my thoughts just went elsewhere. I dont have a computer, so i might be stuck, anyway.

[@TheSecretSlob]

You can do it at an office center too 🙂 i know its really daunting at first, you got this🎉

[@catherineconnolly5930]

@@TheSecretSlob I have a huge bin of photos. You gave me some hope! My son sent some off to a company to put them on a cd. So I have a jumping off place, even if I don’t understand the technology.

[@Mamabear11]

Wow. Try 30 years of photos I have 15 plastic totes of photos and 16000+ digital photos.

[@mmmichellegirl]

Wow! Much respect! You tackled THE most difficult De-Clutter Project! You ROCK!

[@virginiagates9322]

I think many of us have struggled with this and feel like it is an overwhelming task, so we don't even start. But, I like how you broke the process down into smaller steps with an indication of how long each step took you to complete. And, though the length of time will be different for each of us, it is definitely not as long as we think. Also, I appreciated the precautions and the helpful tools you used while working on it. Thank you for sharing!

[@mummy005]

I've been working on organizing my family photos so I can start scanning them. My photos go all the way back to the late 1950s, so I have quite a few to go through.

[@darnitthelma4247]

Wow it’s a nice project though if at times I’m tiring & emotional! Good luck x

[@Wedow12]

You’re so lucky. Photos in a small bin. I’m 60, have YEARS & YEARS of photos of all sizes, like 10x13 etc. Plus the digital photos since the beginning of that era. Not to mention the tons I have in frames. Ugh. Nightmare.

[@lydiaroberts6301]

OMG...this is hanging over me...I am going to tackle this now!!! 10,000+ paper photos and 100,000+++ digital!!!😬

[@ThePurposefulPantry]

I have an entire bookcase dedicated to paper photos and scrapbook albums. And I still anticipate another half bookcase full from my mother in law when she passes. I am so tempted to just put them all in a box and ship them to a professional digitizer. But then the guilt of throwing them away after that is huge

[@TheSecretSlob]

If you arnt using them and enjoying them now, then I think you should for sure!

[@azwife35]

LOl - I have 10 of those photo boxes! Plus all the oversized photos in file folders. And I know what you mean about the digital ones. It's overwhelming - I have over 5,000 on my phone alone. I have been deleting photos, a year at a time, off my phone, when I'm waiting for a phone call or for an appointment or something like that. That is helping.

[@nathalievantournhout7358]

I have started this week every day 15min decluttering foto's from my phone. When that is finished i Will put the ones to safe in the cloud and on external disk. After that i wil do what you did! I hope it Will reach the finish 😄☺️😅. Thanks 👍👍

[@SarahLizDoan]

You’re so beautiful!!! And this is such a wonderful and helpful video! Always a pleasure to watch your videos! Have a wonderful week! 😊

[@EricaLucasLoves]

Photos definitely feels like my nemesis. I’m so glad you tackled this!

[@TheSecretSlob]

I think its a problem for a LOT of people!

[@sjf3930]

I have 3 totes full of photos. Plus dozen of frames. Zero in order. I started last year to fix it but after day 3 I was done. It's so much!!!

[@jeannebowes2898]

Brilliant!

[@nancywidows463]

@S J F. I've been there. I finally decided to stick with only black frames, and then sorted buy size. I then eliminated small frames, 5x7 and smaller. 8x10 and larger goes on the wall or on shelves or dressers. Sorting photos is overwhelming. Don't give up !

[@catherinemitchell515]

Good topic! Check out Miss Freddy on Instagram and you tube. She’s a certified photo organizer and will organize or scan your projects. She also has very helpful reviews of backup cloud companies and even printed photo books. Check out her backup boot camp for a great in depth step by step. She has duplicate finder/delete software she recommended which is fantastic and got rid of over 10,000 duplicate photos for me. (It looks at the metadata.)

[@lannahh2076]

great work. this is one type of clutter, of an endless number of things people can collect or hoard, that i can honestly say i don't have to go thru. phew! i have never been a picture lover...so not easy cuz i am great at decluttering...just easy because i didn't have that obsession! thanks for the tips about how to get rid of the old computers ....i need a video just about that ...step by step!

[@MariaDrangel]

You have uploaded so many good videos over the years but WOW - this is the best EVER! I am sure that I will come back to it several times until I have this situation under control.

[@lfuentes4098]

I don’t have a number but I’m sure it’s way more than you! Lol. Thanks for this video, you gave me great ideas. I need to do this!

[@keyisme1356]

Lol, that's amazing! Love how much space you saved. I have 14 "finished" scrapbooks. And I think I'm going to take them apart. It's too much and I don't want to look through them. Because I glued all my photos in, including the ones I don't care about. And saved Christmas programs and everything. And it takes up more space than I want it to. I also have most of my digital photos on google photos, and backed up, but there's a few that aren't added yet - prints from childhood, and some Facebook ones (thanks for that tip!), And a couple cds. Thankfully I don't have photos on old computers or zip drives. I do have some in my email though. You didn't mention that one! I have more than a terabyte of photos... It's going to take me quite a while to declutter them.

[@cbobbi8]

Do you back up your photos that are on google photos? That’s where I have all mine and I’m not sure if they are totally secure.

[@myrnadenengelsman6422]

I will tackle this today.... Waaaaa. Thanx for your inspiration 🙏

[@brittanychaston1032]

Starting in June Google photos will start having limits on new uploads. Get it done now... Note to self as well

[@jeannebowes2898]

Just have ten photos on my iPad. I divided the physical photos between the children, They have scanned the historic ones, I have the originals in a museum acid free box. I have one annotated album. Senior senior here before the age of digital photography. A few of the favorites were copied onto canvas and are on the wall. We sorted Alan’s fam and picked out what he wanted in a physical album. We sorted the rest into envelopes to be mailed or dropped off for his fam. Two are being mailed out this morning. I personally do not have any paper or digital clutter, but Alan is a writer/ historian....

[@sandrajiggins6303]

Perfect timing for this. I was just saying I need to start working on all the photos I have and this will help a lot!! Thank you.

[@marneangel7]

I'm sooo gonna send you a greeting card;)

[@mrsengineer8781]

Wow how many likes should I give for this video ...one is not enough❤️❤️❤️👍👍Thank you very much😌😌😌

[@sarachappell8590]

I found this information super helpful. Thanks for sharing. Appreciate the links you provided.

[@lorihogg6604]

This is my project for 2021.....it may have to spill into 2022 :0. Being in my 50's, I'm afraid I have Sooo many more paper photos besides digital. Thank you for the ideas. Congratulations on getting the weight off your shoulders!

[@findingaway5512]

So glad you said to back it up. Some people actually have multiple hard drives in case your external hard drive goes too. Maybe worth it. Yes it's definitely good to have the copies because the one KZbinr I watched last picture she had stored on a website when the website switched pictures they accidentally lost hers and she missed a couple years of pictures that way. And the website had said there wasn't going to be a problem so she thought the pictures were going to be okay but they ended up not being okay. ☹️

[@tms4945]

What are the boxes you put your paper photos into?

[@TheSecretSlob]

Oh I will link them! One second!

[@elsd3656]

Google photo's saves your pictures in a smaller file size than original or if you upload in full size, limits your back-up space to 15 GB. Are you sure your photo's are saved in full size? I see the difference when I make prints.

[@TheSecretSlob]

I pay for premium storage and upload at original sizes. Good point though!

[@deannab8649]

I love your shirt !!! I have only seen that movie a million times lol. I definitely have tons of concert pictures , albums , discs everywhere . yikes . I do have Google photos on my phone though .

[@barbarajames4933]

Always good to remember Cloud is only ever temporary storage. Google drop programs all the time. That external hard drive is a better place. Dup drives even better.

[@cathyflamme7490]

Love this and need to do this but definitely not as computer savvy. Would love after your January declutter series a step by step tutorial showing the process. Like is google cloud available through computer and phone, ? A app. Then showing how to put photos from devices and on hard drive to cloud. After sorting do you back up on same hard drive or different. If same do you clear out photos you uploaded first? Think visually seeing you go through the steps would really help so many. Your process sounds doable if one knows how do do those things without spending hours researching it on the internet(that seems to be me anyway)themselves. Just and idea if interested, thanks for all your motivating videos!

[@ritabeth1838]

This is so crazy, I was just searching the other day for an idea of what to do with all my photos. Then you read my mind and made a video! Thanks!

[@TheSecretSlob]

I'm so glad!

[@rkatika9]

Thank you for all the tips Stephanie! Instead of a hard drive I'd suggest an SSD drive which is very unlikely that will crash or break. Love your channel

[@deb9806]

I found a roll of film too in a box from my teens. I think it was Cher from late 70's I doubt it will come out well ; ) Thanks for all the tips

[@TheSecretSlob]

haha yes!! I hope you get it developed! I am waiting on my mystery roll at the photoshop now!

[@justanothergigi]

Helpful hint: I have preserved a lot of photos and collections. Your fingerprints will etch into many of them so hold them at the edge or where gloves wear organizing...the fingerprints will show up especially on glossy photos when you scan them.

[@lisaholderby3031]

Thank you for making this seem possible. 🙌 It’s one of those things that just never makes it to my to-do list but is always looming in the background 🤦‍♀️

[@pinkrainbowkennelz1640]

Please develop the role of film😜🤣

[@TheSecretSlob]

Haha I have nooo idea what is on there! definitely intrigued!

[@jenlibertowski3984]

Yes and report back! 😃

[@staceyshannon9087]

Any suggestions for home videos?

[@suestor5510]

I’m definitely coming back to this video, because it’s so important, but right now I’m trying to find your paper declutter video pertaining to bills, etc. I’m in the thick of doing that right now and need motivation!!❤

[@tiffanytempleton2201]

Love your shirt! 😜 Yes I need to do this!! Thank you so much for the motivation..I bought a hard drive so now I can finally stop procrastinating pictures..blah

[@sarapawsonherrington2595]

Double the age (yours). And triple the photo collection and you might have my photo collection. It is huge, and this is very useful!

[@kimbarbeaureads]

I love that Friends episode. "Richard, if you are in there..." Lol I love when Chandler starts singing the Sanford and Son theme song. 😂😂😂

[@sarahenry4125]

😳😳😳 Wow!!!!! I NEED to do this! But the time it will take!!!! Ugh! You’ve inspired me for sure to add this to my list of projects to tackle! Thank you!

[@mwillis7791]

I am so glad I’m not the only one that has rolls of film🥴

[@cindyhenry1410]

I probably have 10 times the amount of what you showed in this video. It’s DAUNTING to do this and to top that off my main (desktop Mac) computer had some kind of malfunction and some of my files got scrambled so I have no idea what order the photos are supposed to be in. It was a problem when the OS was updated. I’m afraid to do another update because of that and really don’t know what to do! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! TYFS

[@paulaeaton9720]

Thank you! I like the idea of an external hard drive. You've given me inspiration

[@MeLrOsE429]

Recommended video. Just subscribed and am now "motivated" to begin tackling my photo problem. However, it's not just a photo problem, it's my kids' treasures from growing up. For example, all of the coloring book pages that went on the fridge or the art stuff that came home from school or the essays they got a nice note on from the teacher. I have 4 adult children and the youngest is in grad school. I had at one point 27 totes of treasures and photos. I have cut down some of it. My question though: how do you dispose of the items once you go through the process of backing it all up. I have such an emotional attachment and empty nest syndrome that I can't seem to let it go....😭😭😭 PS. You look like the age of one of my kids so I don't exactly expect an answer to that question, unless you are a therapist....😂. Thanks!

[@myxochi]

It is a huge project!! I did it last year, and being older, I had old, old videos in various formats and even some old picture slides. It cost a tonne, but I took them to a specialist who transposed them onto an external hard drive. FYI - I save the HD now at my bank in a safety deposit box. Some photos from the past were lost in a fire. Back in the day, it was harder to get copies from others to replace the lost ones, and there were no digital copies then. Another pointer: It’s a great gift to do this as special Christmas or Birthday gift for someone who is a baby boomer in your family. Last note: I’m now journaling info about my photos. I’m starting with my paper photos. I don’t know how long my memory will be good, so I’m labelling them and journaling the experiences from those times. That way, if someone after I am gone wants to know the W5, they will know. And, if my memories go, the journal will be a great adult storybook!

[@brieb9750]

About how much did it cost because I have about 15-20 albums of my moms I need to do something with...and I want to keep them all lol. Thanks!

[@myxochi]

@@brieb9750 hi. I am in Canada. It cost me just over $800. However, most of the cost was to transpose videos.

[@brieb9750]

@@myxochi Oh good to know! I might have some old video too. Memories are priceless :) Thank you so much!

[@lorikorstanje2964]

good for you I've got a ton of albums and bins of moving totes of photos. I so need to do this

[@jessicahoward5128]

Just the motivation I needed! I’ve been dreading this for years. I’ve lost thousands of photos from a laptop crash and have been meaning to centralize my photos ever since. Didn’t have a clue where to start! Thank you for the inspo! 🤩

[@elsd3656]

I started uploading all my pictures on Google photo. If you download backup and sync from Google, it makes automatic back-ups of all the pics and videos in the selected folders on your PC. At this moment he is syncing item 4526 of 98602😱

[@zambranaml]

Now that Google is changing their Terms of Service and capping things off at a 15GB limit (www.techrepublic.com/article/google-were-capping-your-free-cloud-storage-at-15gb-starting-next-year/), I'm keeping my account under 10GB as a precaution. This has also turned out to be another great way to weed through and digitally declutter what's online! For external storage, I keep two portable hard drives. One hard drive is for regular use, and then I upload images onto the second one for long-term storage--so that the second one has less wear-and-tear. This not only keeps my photos in two physical locations, it allows me to declutter images from the first drive before putting them on the long-term drive. While this process might seem like overkill, I recently had a portable hard drive break--it would only work if I squeezed it, but luckily I was able to clear everything off there before discarding it. I also keep a flash drive handy with frequently-used items (music, videos, etc.), so that I'm not taxing the larger, more expensive hard drives too much on frivolous entertainment items. Because my computers are older and I have lost several hard drives over the years, I simply don't trust the average computer for regular storage. My folders stay empty (Documents, Downloads, etc.) and if my info is not on Google Drive, then it's on the hard drives. Oh, speaking of which... Google Photos drives me up the wall BECAUSE of its scrolling system! It's great if you organize by date and you upload regularly, as you do, but I'm scanning old family photo albums and uploading those images. Some don't have dates and are more identifiable by decade, which means I either have to go into each image to put a year/approximate year onto them or make albums and then put them in the albums--which is its own form of hell. So I prefer to keep all my photos on Google Drive, which keeps a tally on the side of gigabyte use and allows me to move and locate images better.

[@shadowprovesunshine]

My Western Digital 7:45 external hd died....really disappointed and frustrating😢 Stayed in a drawer for 10 years.

[@latmcb9863]

OMG - that was a HUGE project!! Great job getting everything organized. Do you think you will eventually scan the paper photos so that you can have digital back-ups? I can't believe you used to be a slob - even though your videos prove that you were. You are my decluttering hero and such an inspiration to so many of us!!

[@TheSecretSlob]

I will yes! I don't want to send them in the mail right now, so maybe next time I am in the city I can take them to get done 🙂

[@juliequates9529]

You can buy very inexpensive photo scanners. They sort of look like laminator. They save as a jpeg. I haven't used mine since my big scan but it was worth it. Though having someone else do it is preferable. 😆

[@sweetlady6059]

@@juliequates9529 - After being in a contract position having to upload pictures and emails to PDF, I learned Jpeg is being pushed out for newer system of saving everything to .pdf it was an eye opener! Even Microsoft word perfect and word documents were converted into PDF files

[@juliequates9529]

@@sweetlady6059 ok good to know. My scanner you could choose either so ill keep that in mind!

[@annarepke1118]

I dread the day I tackle photos. Bins and bins of paper and negatives. I moved all my digital to dropbox years ago... then deleted them and EMPTIED THE TRASH on the computer before I realized it takes lots of time for those to download! I'm paralyzed now!

[@lauriesavage3622]

Great job organizing. It looked like you saved the cds and thumbdrives in a box. If you had already uploaded and backed up those photos, why didn't you just throw(destroy) the cds and thumb drives away?

[@TonyaWeir81]

❤️❤️❤️ A friend of mine clips greeting cards together per event, all birthday cards from that year, all wedding cards, etc. I don’t collect mine but I thought that was a cool idea if you do.

[@julieparker9813]

I needed this video so so much 😨. I have a pretty good handle on paper clutter but photos are another story 🤯.

[@mangisty1007]

I am dreading doing this! 😬

[@nemahmah2143]

Steph, we all have "Monica" spaces. I used to think I'd never have a junk drawer. I still don't, but I have a junk box. And my store room is atrocious too. Did your expert friend have any advice on storing your paper photos in the box? Specifically, did she say whether or not you needed a sheet of acid free paper between each photo or just line your boxes with the acid free paper? The reason I ask is because I have generations of family photos and some have stuck together. I know photo printing materials have come a long way since then, but I definitely want to keep that from happening.

[@Mysticsoul77]

I definitely need to do this. I have 596 photos of our kitty furson alone on my phone. That doesn't include all the other 2,130 photos on my phone. 🤯 Unfortunately and old phone is completely dead new battery isn't even working. I have thousands of pictures on my phone. I bought an external device to back up an old computer. Unfortunately the company isn't even in existence anymore. I don't want to erase what's on our computer now with the old computer information. I'm at a loss of how to get that information (pictures) to another external device to save them.