Photo organization seems easy enough but very often, people end up getting discouraged and don’t end up finishing at all.

Your memories deserve to be organized and safe, particularly if you want to pass them down to your kids later on.

So, where do people go wrong and what is the biggest mistake they make during this process?

The answer: Only focusing on organization and forgetting to plan.

How you organize your photos will be key in successfully completing the project.

Organizing photos can be a daunting task but when you have the correct workflow in place, it becomes a lot easier and more pleasant.

The Photo Organization Formula

Step 1: Gather all of the photos you want to organize in one place. This could be physical prints that are sitting in drawers and boxes or digital prints on your hard drive.

Step 2: Decide on categories and sort through your photos accordingly. You can sort your photos according to events and holidays or year and month – whatever makes more sense to you.

Step 3: Edit the photos that need correcting if you know how to do so. There are a number of programs and apps that make editing quite simple, Lightroom and Snapseed being two examples.

Step 4: Organize your photos using captions and keywords by renaming your images. This could include the category, month, and year.

In the same way that you follow a recipe, this simple process will ensure you can easily gauge your progress and better plan your photo organization sessions. When you have a system in place, it’s very difficult to get discouraged, simply because the process feels more structured.

In fact, this organization formula can be applied to other areas of your life such as sorting through your closet or spring cleaning your kitchen.