Guest Post - Your Future Self Will Thank You for Organizing Your Photos

Is anything more wonderful and chaotic than planning a wedding? Luckily, there are plenty of professionals ready to step in and organize all the pieces: venues, flowers, food, and invitations. There’s so much that can be handed off! 

Until it’s time to round up photos for the guest book, the reception slideshow, and photo book gifts for the wedding party. 

Who’s going to go through all of them to find just the right ones for the bride and groom? Not the wedding planner, that’s for sure!

Enter Your Friendly Photo Organizer

My team of photo organizing professionals made this process surprisingly easy for our client.

Finding photos of her daughter to use for her wedding was quick and fun, as she was able to enjoy looking back, taking it all in, without being overwhelmed by the project. 

And the secret lay in getting organized before that diamond ring appeared.

You see, a few years ago, she was tired of the clutter in her house and wanted to finally get her memories tidied up and preserved. Her goal wasn’t to just put them all into pretty boxes and line them up on a shelf. She also wanted them organized in a way that allowed her to find, use and enjoy any photo she wished. Quick and easy trips down Memory Lane would be possible!

So, she pulled all the photos she could find in her house and dropped them off at my office. They were in albums, in frames, in boxes, in scrapbooks. On her phone, on CDs, external drives, negatives, and slides. There were also dozens of home movies on various tapes and film reels.

My team sorted through all of her items, removing duplicates and photos that didn’t tell her story.  The rest were scanned and preserved. Every photo, print and digital, was placed into labeled folders, organized by year and event. This created one organized collection that showcased her family’s journey. 

Fast forward to today.

When her daughter got engaged, nostalgia kicked in. Our client’s baby was getting married! Celebrating the journey included looking back at how far she’d come. From EVENT TO ACTIVITY TO EVENT, she had grown into such a lovely young woman. And the same could be said for her fiancé.

They wanted to share all of these happy memories with their wedding guests. So, the client simply logged onto the online photos site we created for her and typed in her daughter’s name to find all of the photos of her. To narrow the search, she also searched by year and event. In a matter of minutes, she had a selection of photos that could be used for the wedding! She also had tears in her eyes as she remembered all those years of mothering.

There was just one thing missing: photos of the groom. Without an organized system, collecting his photos is taking more time and effort. They had to wait for his family to go through all of their photos to find the best ones. It slowed down the process and added to the growing list of tasks.

The Best Time to Organize Your Photos Is Now

Organizing your photos is more than simply rounding them all up into archival boxes. 

When you take the time to properly sort, scan, and label each one, the result is a system that is easy to use and can be shared with anyone.

Save time and hassle 

It will be so easy to find photos of a particular person, year or event. No more digging through drawers and boxes and closets.

Make gifts for special occasions

Easily create photo books and slide shows to celebrate: births, graduations, sporting events, weddings, memorials, family vacations, and holidays.

Share memories with family and friends, even if they don’t live nearby. 

You can send images and videos through email or social media. Or you can give the login information for your private online collection to trusted family members and friends and they can browse anytime.

Preserve older, more delicate images from the effects of time. 

Not only do photos fade or get torn, technology changes. Those photos on CDs or slides, and videos on DVDs or film reels need to be converted so they can be enjoyed by future generations.

Ensure your memories are safe from fire, flood, and other disasters. 

In an emergency, it’s easy to quickly grab a few organized boxes on the way out the door instead of pulling photos off the walls. And having an online backup means everything is secure even if you don’t have time to take anything with you.

Spend your time enjoying your photos and making more memories. 

Especially when your daughter is getting married! Wouldn’t you rather be sampling cakes and visiting florists instead of digging through your closet for pictures?

Do Something Today That Your Future Self Will Thank You For

If you get overwhelmed by even the thought of sorting through your memories, hand the project off to a professional photo organizer. We have the most advanced equipment, tools, and strategies for getting the job done. You’ll save time, money, and worry knowing your photos are safe and secure and at your fingertips. Organize your photos and videos now because, in times of celebration or grief, your future self would rather be with loved ones, not piles of clutter.

Rachel Arbuckle is the founder of 2000 Paces Photo Organizing, a San Diego-based photo organizing business dedicated to providing authentic, compassionate solutions to transform the chaos of photos and memorabilia into an organized, preserved collection that can be easily shared and enjoyed for generations.

Benefits of Keeping Your Home Decluttered

If you missed spring cleaning this year, you might want to circle back and give it another try. Did you know there are many benefits to keeping your home decluttered? Keep reading to learn more about how decluttering and organizing can help you stay healthy and productive at home.

Keep Your Home Looking Clean & Organized

The first benefit you’ll notice from decluttering your home is the improvement in aesthetics. Keeping your home decluttered will help you maintain a clean and orderly appearance throughout the house. If you want to achieve an organized or minimalistic style of interior design, keeping your home decluttered is crucial. For example, start by organizing your shelves with just the necessities to achieve a minimalist look. Then take this simplistic style and apply it throughout your home.

Reduce Common Indoor Allergens

Decluttering will promote not only an aesthetically pleasing home but also a healthy one. Dust, hair, and other airborne debris can collect on clutter and accumulate throughout your house. Performing regular decluttering and dusting sessions can help rid your home of some of these common indoor allergens and improve indoor air quality.

Be More Productive

A clean and organized space can influence your general frame of mind. If you keep your space organized with only the necessities, you’re less likely to be distracted by other objects while working. Whether you’re doing chores, working in your home office, or trying to accomplish other tasks around the house, the fewer distractions you’re faced with, the better. You’ll be better able to focus and concentrate when your surroundings reflect your goals.

Promote Peace of Mind

Just as clutter can impact your productivity levels, it can also impact other aspects of your mental health. Leaving clutter to accumulate for too long can have a negative effect on your mental health, causing stress and anxiety levels to rise. This can even negatively impact your sleep schedule. Don’t let your quality of sleep and mental health suffer—simply staying on top of decluttering can help provide peace of mind.

You might not have known that keeping your home decluttered can have so many benefits. The next time you notice items starting to pile up, remember these benefits of decluttering your home and start organizing. You and the space around you will start to feel clearer and more comfortable.

Top Myths About Professional Organizers You Need To Know

If you need a professional organizer, you might have some questions and concerns. This is completely natural, as a person you have never met will be in your personal space and rummaging through your things. It can seem a little scary at first. Still, it’s important to realize that professional organizers are here to help, not harm. Because of this, you must understand the top harmful myths about professional organizers.

They Only Work With Extreme Cases

Hoarding is a difficulty with letting go of objects you’ve obtained over time. A hoarder often has many items they refuse to say goodbye to, no matter how long they’ve had them. Because of this, people often associate them with professional organizers. Most of us imagine professional organizers coming into the picture only in the worst cases of hoarding.

However, this is a myth. It doesn’t matter if you have a small closet that needs cleaning or an entire house. A professional organizer will help you keep things in order and remove what you don’t want. There are also many psychological benefits to decluttering, which can lead you to have greater peace of mind, whether you struggle with hoarding or not.

They Will Judge You

This is a common concern when a stranger comes into your personal space. If you feel a little self-conscious about your home not being as tidy as you’d like, it’s important to put things in perspective. Not only has your organizer probably seen far worse in their time, but they also understand that things can get out of control. Life happens if someone leads a busy lifestyle, has children, or deals with depression or any other number of issues.

There are so many reasons why a person’s house may be messy. In addition to this, if you didn’t care about the state of your home, why would you call someone in to clean it? This is a particularly harmful myth about professional organizers that everyone should know about because it can lead to an attitude of fear and distrust.

It’ll Cost You

For some reason, people feel that all professional organizers are expensive. Perhaps they watch TV shows on hoarding or have a friend who was over-charged. Regardless, this is a myth. Professional organizers run the gambit between cost-effective and pricey. Many of them work on an hourly basis. If this is the case, a small closet wouldn’t be as expensive as an entire house.

Others choose a flat rate, which can be a steal depending on the scope of work. But it’s doubtful that it’ll break the bank. It’s all a matter of perspective, who you choose as your organizer, and what you want them to clean.

There are many myths centering around professional organizers. Our misconceptions can cause us to miss out on the help we need and cause us to miss out on opportunities. It’s important to remember that there are misconceptions in any profession and to get the full facts before falsely judging.

How to organize your linen closet

Nothing beats a good night's sleep on fresh new bedding. Considering the fact that you probably have four or five sets of sheets (don't we all?), the spare sheets will be stored in your linen closet. This is where the situation gets complicated. Your linen closet is most likely where you are keeping years worth of accumulated towels, sheets, and bedding. If you are dreading that your guests will somehow open your linen closet and see the mess inside, then you are most likely all too familiar with what a disorganized linen closet looks like.

To organize your linen closet, all you need is a bit of imagination, creativity, and resourcefulness. But, most importantly, you must want and be ready to put in the effort. Just like a bad day can ruin your night's sleep, so can unsanitary sheets. Unfortunately, where there is mess and chaos, there are also sanitary concerns.

Out with the old, in with the new

Are you still holding on to the dinosaur sheets you had when you were a child? Is your linen closet so stuffed that when you pull on a towel, the whole pile comes tumbling down? In reality, you are most likely not using at least half of the items you have in your linen closet. Decluttering is an important part of regular household maintenance, but this process becomes even more important when relocating to a new state, city, or even home. There is no reason to hold onto superfluous and unusable items, so make your linen closet the first place that will be rid of all the excess items.

Forget about emotions on the day you decide to declutter your linen closet. That will only lead to you holding onto items you clearly no longer need. Instead, let your reason guide you so that you end up with the array of items your family frequently uses.

Wash before you stack

Even though this one should go without saying, it deserves at least an honorable mention. Never put unwashed linen in your closet. All it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch and compromise the cleanliness of all of your linen. The health hazards of sleeping on dirty sheets and bedding are scary, so keep this tip at the back of your mind at all times, especially if you have kids and have to keep their well-being in check. Their tender skin deserves the best, and that's certainly not a piece of clothing that is unwashed.

This is also an important step when packing your linen for a move. The experts at Excalibur Moving and Storage say that many people skip this step, which leads to damage to their items as well as their health.

Keep your linen smelling fresh

Washing your fabric won't be enough if you leave it in the back of the closet for a long time. Eventually, the pleasant aroma will diminish until it completely fades. Once your linens get a neutral scent, it's only a matter of time before they start smelling bad. The good news is that you can prevent this.

When organizing your linen closet, get sachet bags of lavender, pine, or vanilla wrapped in cheesecloth and place them in the back of your linen closet. The effort you have to put into this is minimal, yet it will keep your towels and sheets smelling fresh for a long time.

Organize your linen closet by categories

What happens when one shelf contains everything from towels to summer blankets and king-size bed sheets? That shelf becomes so disorganized that finding the item you were looking for becomes a time-consuming endeavor. And if you are sleep-deprived and feeling the effects, the last thing you need is to spend ten minutes trying to claw your way to a fresh set of sheets.

There are many different systems to organize your linen closet. For starters, you can separate your items by their type. Put towels on one shelf, sheets on the next one, bedding on the third one, and so on. Secondly, many people like to organize their items based on location. Put all the things you use in your kitchen in one place, separate those you use for the bathroom, and definitely make sure your bedroom linen has an area of its own. Finally, you can always separate your items by size. This way, you might be able to stack up many smaller items on one shelf, leaving the others to be taken up by bulkier ones.

Keep your linens in boxes, bins, and baskets

If you have dozens of different linens in your closet, putting them all in separate bins won't be a feasible option. Unless you have a walk-in linen closet, there won't be enough room for separate containers, and you will have to make stacking work. But if your linen closet isn't overstuffed, then you can invest in some aesthetically appealing boxes or baskets.

Everything depends on the look you are trying to achieve. Opting for woven baskets will give your closet a homey vibe, while coordinating boxes will make everything look neat and clean. It is also a great way to add more storage space to your home, and thus keep everything neat more easily.

Labeling as the final part of organizing your linen closet

Now that everything is decluttered, separated, and in order, all you have to do is make sure it stays that way. Simple pieces of washi tape or adhesive labels will help you and your family remember the organizing system and ensure your efforts have not been in vain. Whether you have organized it by location, size, or type, a simple label will help everyone remember the system, which will hopefully prevent your linen closet from becoming messy again.

There is a lot of debate as to which factors help us sleep better at night. Some people find cold rooms to be the determining factor in whether they fall asleep quickly or not. Lots of students report technology-related problems and claim that it disturbs their sleep. And then there are those who believe that without hours of rigorous physical activity, all efforts to fall asleep will be vain. No matter which belief is your guiding light, the fact is that clean sheets and bedding can only help the case. And in order for them to stay fresh, they will have to be placed in a clean closet. Luckily, you now know how to organize your linen closet and achieve the best functionality with the space you have at your disposal.