How to Organize Family Photos with My Amazing Photo Organization Quiz
Are you worried about how to organize family photos? Have you wondered how and where to start, what’s the “right way,” or even whether you should bother organizing them? If so, you’re in the right place.
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Many people feel a need or desire to organize their family photos, but they may not realize how important it truly is. Research has shown that children who know a lot about their families do better when they face challenges., and these skills serve them well into adulthood. By taking the time to organize our photos and capture our family stories, we—the family photo keepers—are doing important work toward making the world a better, safer, and more authentic place. We may not see huge world changes in our lifetimes, but knowing that we are doing this important work toward a better future can be reward enough.
In this post I’ll talk about the importance of best practices in organizing family photos, as well as my new tool, The Photo Organization Readiness Quiz. I’ll discuss how it can help you learn how to organize family photos so you can enjoy your photos again and leave a meaningful collection for future generations.
Why I Created the Photo Organization Quiz and The Scorecard
Organizing family photos can often be a daunting and time-consuming task. Many family photo keepers have experienced the frustration of trying to locate a specific photo from the countless images stored on our devices or scattered across various albums (or even worse – boxes of disorganized photos). The problem lies in the lack of an efficient system for organizing and managing these cherished memories. This lack of organization not only wastes valuable time but also hinders the joy that comes from sharing and reminiscing about family memories.
There is a lot of photo organizing information on the internet teaching how to organize family photos. Some is provided by professional photo managers like me, while some of it is provided by home organizers, professional photographers, or lifestyle bloggers. No matter the source, despite the quantity of the information available to anyone with an internet connection, you may feel lost and overwhelmed when sifting through the information.
That’s why I felt the need to develop a tool to help you see both your strengths and weaknesses in the entire photo organization process. No matter where you are in the photo management journey, my Quiz will give you an overall score for Memory Preservation Mastery, as well as individual scores in each of the three key areas. The best part of the Personalized Scorecard you will receive are the organized resources specific to your needs.
Overview of the Photo Organization Readiness Quiz
The Quiz consists of 15 questions that will take you 5 minutes or less to complete. The questions are divided evenly between the 3 Key Areas of Memory Preservation Mastery:
- Envision (Mindset & Planning)
- Archive (Organizing and Preserving Photos)
- Showcase (Celebrating and Sharing Memories)
Most family photo keepers jump right into the Archive area of the process. I see this as being akin to attempting to make a 3000 mile road trip without even looking at a map. Sure, it might be fun, but you might also head down some dead ends, make some wrong turns, and take way longer to reach your destination than is necessary. By making sure you’ve ticked off the boxes in the Envision area, you’ll be more likely to see better and faster success at meeting your goal.
Others jump right into the Showcase area, and why not? That is, after all, the reward of it all. However, they may not be able to find all the pictures they want for a project, or they may realize halfway through that they really want something else. The Showcase area goes much better once the Archive steps are completed.
I believe that the quickest and most satisfying way to complete your photo organization project is to go through the three areas of Memory Preservation Mastery in order. This will give you a roadmap based on your abilities and your goals. And at the end of the road is your own pot of gold.
Master How to Organize Family Photos: A Deep Dive into Each Key Area
Lets take a look at each Key Area of the Memory Preservation Mastery Framework. We’ll look at the importance as well as how the quiz evaluates your readiness in each area.
Envision: Your Mindset and Planning for Organizing Family Photos
The Envision Area consists of two different, but related parts: Mindset and Planning (Goal Setting).
First let’s define what a mindset is: Your mindset is made up of your perceptions and your beliefs about yourself and the world (and everything in between). The thoughts we think are based in our mindset, and when we think a thought over and over, it becomes a belief and seems very true, even if it’s not.
Generally we are unconscious of our mindset. We just live our life and don’t realize how much it drives us. Sometimes it drives us toward success, and sometimes it drives us away from success. In other words, sometimes our thoughts are helpful and sometimes they are not.
The good news is that you can change your mindset by using thought exercises and activities to develop a mindset that helps you meet your goals, rather than hinders you.
The other part of Envision is Planning. There are certain decisions that should be made before you start the Archive work, such as when and where will you work? How often? How will you preserve your collection? What is the end goal? And more.
The Quiz asks you 5 questions which are scored and will determine where your mindset and planning is currently at. Your scorecard will give you resources to help you beef those out if your score is less than you would like.
Archive: The Heart of Photo Organization
I’m sure you understand the importance of organizing your photos. One of the main benefits is so that you can find any photo you are looking for quickly. Another benefit is so that future generations can easily make sense of the collection. Boxes of disorganized photos are discarded every day because those who inherit them don’t have the time nor motivation to make sense of them.
But many family photo keepers don’t realize the importance of preserving them. This means having a backup plan in place, whether we are talking about digital or printed photos.
Several years ago I had a client who had her laptop stolen from her home. On that laptop was every picture of her two little girls, from birth through elementary school (which they still attended when the laptop was stolen). The laptop was eventually recovered, but it had been wiped and she lost all those pictures permanently.
Another client had a sister whose house burned to the ground taking all her photo albums with it. She lost her wedding photos, family photos and more. Fortunately my client had digitized her own printed photos and was able to share what she had with her sister.
The 5 Quiz questions that deal with the Archive area will determine your understanding of the importance of organizing and preserving your photos, as well as give you resources to increase your understanding.
Showcase: Celebrating and Sharing Family Memories
In the Memory Preservation Mastery Framework, Celebrating refers to how you enjoy your photos and memories in your own life. This could be through displays in your home, videos or slideshows you watch on your TV, photo albums or photo books, or even your favorite photo coffee mug.
Sharing refers to how you share photos with others, whether that’s through a digital family archive, traditional albums or photo books, photo gifts, and more.
Our memories are often shared memories, and so it’s important to be able to share them with others who would value them as much as you do. It’s also important to capture the stories of the photos and behind the photos. Pictures without stories can become meaningless in a generation or two.
The Quiz asks 5 questions to determine how much you’ve thought about celebrating and sharing your photo memories, and will give you a score and resources to help.
How to Use the Photo Organization Readiness Quiz
The first step is to take the Quiz – there’s a button below. But before you go click it, I want you to know what to expect.
First, this Quiz is for anyone, no matter where they are in their photo management journey. Those at the beginning who still need to learn how to organize family photos will get all the help they need. Those in the middle will probably learn some things they hadn’t thought about before. And those near the end can still benefit, too. One of my advanced clients said that the Quiz reminded her of something important that she’d been meaning to do and had been putting off.
Once you answer the 15 questions, which will only take a couple minutes, you’ll be taken to a page that shows your overall score, and your score in the 3 Key Areas of Envision, Archive and Showcase.
You’ll also receive an email with a link to download your Personalized Scorecard, an 11-page PDF created just for you based on your scores. It will also contain resources to help you improve your score in each area. The PDF is yours to keep to help you make progress on this important project.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if you score high, medium or low in any area. What matters is that you take the steps to improve and keep moving on your project.
Success Stories and Testimonials
Here are some things that people have told me after taking the Quiz:
- “The results were VERY accurate.”
- “I was encouraged to know that there was specific practical help for my ‘overwhelm.'”
- “The quiz showed me where I need help in organizing and archiving my photos and memories.”
- “It is really well laid out and simple/easy to complete.”
- “I think this will be of great value as you have SO many resources for the next step.”
- “Thank you so much for this quiz! Not only did it help me see the areas I need help, you gave me a step by step roadmap!! I am printing it out and putting it up so I can work on on it weekly. I finally feel I will actually start working towards a photo collection my whole family will enjoy!”
After you take the Quiz and review your Scorecard, feel free to email me your thoughts, as well as any questions you may have.
What’s Next?
I hope I have convinced you that my Photo Organization Readiness Quiz will help you by showing you where you are, giving you resources to help you improve, and, eventually, getting your family photo memory collection organized so you can celebrate and share your memories according to your own goals and needs.
Just click the button to take the Quiz. In addition to the Personalized Scorecard, you’ll also receive “The Insider’s Guide to Photo Organizing,” all absolutely free. You’ll be added to my Family Photo Keeper Community and receive my emails full of tips and tricks and motivation. I never share your information and you can unsubscribe any time by using the link at the bottom of each email.
I look forward to helping you meet your photo management goals.
