1. Gather everything in one place first
Don’t start organizing on one phone. Collect every phone’s camera roll, old computers, and scans of printed photos into one library first. Duplicates are fine at this stage; they get dealt with later.
2. Let dates, places and faces do the sorting
Most photos already know when and where they were taken. A good library uses that, and finds the people in them, so “Grandma at the beach in 2019” is a search, not an afternoon of dragging files into folders.
3. Make albums only for the moments that matter
Albums are for events you’ll want again: a wedding, a trip, the first year of a baby. Everything else can live by date. A handful of good albums beats a hundred half-finished ones.
4. Star your favourites as you go
Each time you look through, star the best photo of each moment. In a year you’ll have the family’s best photos picked out without ever sitting down to do it.
5. Clear out near-copies and screenshots
Bursts of near-identical shots and old screenshots are most of the clutter. Keep the best of each burst and let the rest go; a good library will point them out.
6. Share, so everyone adds to it
Invite the rest of the family so their photos land in the same library from now on. Organizing once only works if new photos keep arriving in the same place.
7. Print the best of each year
A photo book of each year is the version of the library people actually pick up. With your favourites starred, it takes minutes. See photo books.
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