Day 18: 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge | From Overwhelmed to Organized: Day 18: 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Day 18: 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge




Got a lot of photos? Do you want to be able to enjoy your pictures instead of having to search and search to find your favourites? Does the thought of tackling your photo collection seem so overwhelming that you keep putting it off? Me too!

That's why this month I'm hosting the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge! Each day I'll share tips to help you declutter your photo collection so you can really treasure and enjoy all the best ones. And I'll share my progress as I declutter my photos along with you :)

Today I'm talking about metadata: what it is and why it's important.


Today's Photo Decluttering Tip - Add Metadata To Your Digital Photos


In the context of photos, metadata is the info attached to your digital photos (file name, size, date, etc.). It is attached to your photos when you take them using a digital camera. Or it is attached to your photos when you scan them.

Why is metadata important? Here are a few reasons:

  • It helps identify key information about your photos
  • It is used when organizing your photos
  • It makes it easier to search for pictures
  • It helps you remember things about your photos (kind of like writing on the back of your printed pics)

Do you need to change or add metadata? You might want to if any of these situations apply:

  • If you scanned your photos you will need to change the date from the date the photos were scanned to the date the photos were taken (I have some of these but will have a lot more when I scan my printed photos)
  • If you saved your photos on CD's back in the day you may need to change the dates if you copy those photos back onto your computer (I have lots of these from when my mom and I first starting using digital cameras and to share baby photos of my kids my mom saved them on CD's and then I loaded her photos onto my computer but all those photos have the saved date instead of the date taken)
  • If your digital camera ever had the wrote date set in its settings (I had a whole bunch of photos with the wrong year for awhile on one of my cameras!)
  • If you want to include additional tags or searchable information (with as large a collection as I have I would like to be able to search for photos rather than scrolling through folders on my laptop but this will be a long-term goal that I will work on a bit at a time).

Depending on what you plan to do with your digital pictures, you can determine whether you want to add or change the metadata. 


My Photo Decluttering Progress


Today I went through another album. I decluttered 63 pictures plus 1 package of negatives and an album. That represented 61% of the pictures in that album. And my overall percentage of decluttered photos remains at 55%.




Some of those pictures were the proofs from my university grad pictures and my eyes were closed! Why on earth did I keep them for 25 years? I'm so happy to be doing this challenge and finally decluttering things like this. 


Your Turn!


Today your task is to look at the metadata for your photos. You'll find it in the photo's properties. Get a feel for any metadata in your current digital photos that may need to be changed. As you scan your printed photos, decide how you can include as much metadata as possible. That may mean scanning lots of photos at once, saving them in one folder and then changing the metadata photo by photo as you transfer them to where you want them stored. And keep decluttering your photos so you have less photos to worry about metadata for :)




If you'd like more decluttering ideas, you can check out my Decluttering/Purging Tips & Ideas board on Pinterest.



How are you doing in the 31 Day Photo Decluttering Challenge so far? How do you think today's tip will help you? What photos are you decluttering today? Do you have a lot of metadata to adjust in your digital photo collection?

Happy decluttering and organizing!






Here are the rest of the posts in this challenge: