Everything becomes easier when you have the right tools.  I’ve spent a lot of time researching, testing and learning from the photo organizing professional community about the BEST products, on the market in the photo organizing industry.  This is one page your should bookmark.  I will keep adding products to the page as I have products I have to share with you.  I will try to post both Canadian and American links to help you find what you need no matter where you are.

This post will be updated with my favourite products, apps and services I encounter and recommend.  These recommendations are all tried and tested with my own personal family photos and memories.

The PowerSort Photo Organizing Box

This is THE BEST box to organize your photos.  There are many boxes you can find on the market to organize your photos, but I love this one because it has several features that most do not have.

  • It is made of photo safe plastic that will keep moisture away from your precious photos. It protects much better than archival boxes made from paper/cardboard even protecting from spills and floods.
  • It has SIX divided compartments.  This allows you to partially fill the box without all your photos sliding about.  When you are sorting you can organize right away into categories.  Write on each white divider tab with a pencil to keep your sections labelled.
  • The loops on the lid keeps the lid on nice and secure.  This makes these boxes nice and portable.  You won’t lose the contents of your box if you accidentally drop or tip one over.
  • They look nice on my bookshelf.
  • They fit photos up to 5×7 size.
  • They last forever.  I own many of these boxes, some I’ve had for 20 years and they are still in near perfect condition.

Available in:  Canada and the USA

 

 

Just getting started on your photo organizing journey? 

Then take a look at the book Photo Organizing Made Easy. Going from OVERWHELMED to OVERLOAD

 

 

 

 

 

The Amazon Fire TV Stick

This gadget connects to your home TV.  But the magic happens if you already save and organize your photos in FOREVER.  You can easily bring up your family photos and videos on your TV with the Forever app on the Amazon Fire TV Stick.  If you have the streaming package, you can watch home movies.  You can even get the streaming for just one month – so you can get your family together and reminisce watching home movies together.  The Streaming package(s) is less than other streaming services.

Make it a movie night you will remember.

Available in: Canada and the USA

 

 

 

The Slidebox app available for Android and Apple

This little app packs a powerful punch to help you delete the duds off your camera roll.

As you swipe through your photos you can easily tap to drop them into a folder, or swipe up to delete.  DO NOT create too many folders or these will soon become unmanageable.  I create just a couple of categories (Upload to FOREVER and Business).  The ones for my business I try to use then delete.  My family photos that are “keepers” are added to my “upload to FOREVER” album.  Once I’ve gone through my photos in Slidebox, then I open my FOREVER app and upload these to the correct album.  Because I do this frequently it doesn’t take me long at all.  Most recently I accomplished this in the car ride (hubby was driving) back from our camping trip.  Then, I DELETE the photos OFF my PHONE!

 

 

 

The FOREVER app available for Android and Apple

This app is fantastic.  I have all my photos at my fingertips.  Not just the photos I’ve taken from my phone, but ALL my photos that I have uploaded to FOREVER are available.  I can have the app sync with my phone if I want (though I don’t, and can tell you why another time) and it remembers which photos I’ve uploaded already to help prevent duplicates!

Photos can be organized into multiple albums.  Use tags and descriptions that embed into the metadata of your photos so that you can search for a photo too.  I can easily download any photos I need, share full-resolution photos with family and friends and organize my photos.

It is so nice to be able to find a photo in seconds instead of scrolling through thousands of photos on my phone.

Available everywhere

 

Elgato Video Capture

This little device is helpful to capture your video from your analog camcorder.  You will need a computer or laptop capable of handling video, a working camcorder plus some time and patience to digitize your home movies yourself.  If you are a DIY person, this may be a good option for you.

Available in Canada