Organizing Photos on Your iPhone

Last week, many of you were sweet enough to share some ideas for things you’d like to read while you’re home with your families. A common suggestion, and one that I’m totally struggling with, is how to organize my pictures. My children are old enough that I actually have printed ones (and negatives!) from when they were small, in addition to the millions I’ve taken on my phone. Not sure where to start, I turned to my friend and organizing guru, Stephanie Klein, owner of Happinest Organizing. Stephanie has launched a business helping people de-clutter their homes by finding the calm in an organized space.

Stephanie’s first piece of advice was to divide organizing photos into three projects: the ones you have on your iPhone, the prints and negatives you may have stashed away in a box, and the photos and albums you might have inherited from your parents or grandparents.

“This is a very time-consuming project, especially if you try to tackle all of it at once,” says Stephanie. “It’s not something you can stop and start either. You really need a big block of time like we have now.”

Here is how Stephanie suggests you tackle the photos on your iPhone in a few simple steps.

1. Scroll through ALL of your photos.
2. Delete pictures you don’t need. Be decisive! Keep only photos that have meaning to you. Try to limit major events to 1-2 photos each. Get rid of duplicates.
3. Press the heart button at the bottom of the screen of a photo you want to keep. This will automatically place this picture you’re keeping into a “favorites” folder.
4. Create albums from your “favorites” folder under the “My Albums” section. Stephanie suggests organizing them by months, years, events/occasion, people/family members/children, etc.
5. Organize your albums by priority so that you see the most important ones first. Under “My Albums,” press “Edit,” and hold down the album to drag it to any order you’d like.

Stephanie also recommends that you set an alarm on your phone once a month so that you more regularly review your pictures and keep your “de-cluttered” system going.

Now that wasn’t so bad, right? Ready to tackle that box of photo prints you have? Stay tuned.

xo,