Messy photo gallery? Tricks to clean it up once and for all

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Digital cameras have been around for over 30 years. If you were lucky enough to own one, you’ve been taking digital photos for decades. That also means that you have tons of images. Even if you only started taking pictures with a smartphone, that amounts to an enormous collection of digital memories.

At some point, you need to sort through and organize your photos in a central storage location. But where do you begin if you have thousands upon thousands of images? It’s a daunting task, but there are a few simple tricks to make things easier on yourself.

Here’s the secret …

Don’t try to do it all at once. If you’re staring at thousands of photos or just swiping through your phone’s gallery and thinking, “How in the world do I sort all this?” you’re not alone. But don’t think about the end goal. Take it a small chunk at a time.

That can mean sorting through one day, week or month of photos while watching TV. Or maybe you turn on your favorite podcast and sort pictures until you finish an episode.

No matter how you decide to split things up, stay consistent. Chip away a little at a time and before you know it, that mess is contained. Need help getting the ball rolling? Here are some tips for cleaning up your photos.

Locate them all

You might have photos stored in places that you don’t realize. The most obvious place would be digital storage, like your smartphone or computer’s hard drive.

But what about the old camera you threw into the junk drawer years ago? There is a chance the memory card might still have some images on it that haven’t been backed up anywhere.

Make a list of all the places where you could still have photos stored:

  • Go through drawers and storage cupboards and gather all the old and forgotten technology. 
  • Look through online storage services like Google Photos, Amazon Photos, Dropbox or iCloud. You might not use Flickr anymore, but it could hold more photos than you think. The same goes for Photobucket.
  • The junk drawer could hold more than just old tech. Where do you put your flash drives? Find them and check them for images.

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