Photographs are easy to take but pose a challenge to organize. Many are blurry or not well-composed, while others are beautiful and capture a memory perfectly. Most digital photos never leave the memory card. How do you wade through all the good and bad photos you have and bring order to the chaos? Just take it step by step.

1. Download your photos regularly. Ideally, once a month you will take them from your camera, phone, and social media accounts to store them in a photo management program online or on your computer. Microsoft Photos, iPhoto, and Google Photos are free programs that allow you to back up, organize, edit, and share photos in one central location. Frequent downloading keeps your memories intact even if you lose or damage your camera or phone. Many phones and some cameras can be set to automatically upload photos to cloud storage, which makes it even easier by doing the transferring task for you.

2. Edit the number of photos by getting rid of the blurry, repetitive, or otherwise undesirable ones. You must be ruthless about the ones you delete. Remind yourself that all those so-so photos are just clutter that make it hard to enjoy the good ones. If you have not done this purging task before, it will seem overwhelming at first. You very well may have thousands of photos to look through. Resolve to work on it a little at a time to get through your collection. This is a good project to schedule on your calendar, and again, a task to repeat regularly to keep your photos organized.

3. Separate photos into folders and subfolders. You can do whatever is logical to you, but one method is to make a folder for each year, and within that one, a folder for each month (use the numerical notation for months so the computer will sort them in order). Then, within the month folder, create subfolders of events to make finding shots easier. So, you might have a 2016 folder, then an 04 folder for April, and a Picnic at the Park folder, for example.

4. Rename and tag photos if your program allows. This is an extra step but makes it easier to search for the photo you want. If you like to correct red-eye or otherwise enhance the photo, this is the time to do that.

5. Back up your photos. This means they are on both your computer hard drive and an external storage such as cloud storage.

6. Print your photos. Shutterfly and Snapfish are two popular online sites that let you upload and store photos, print them, and mail them to yourself or pick them up at a local Walmart or Target. They also have options for creating scrapbooks and other items from your photos. Both sites frequently run specials to save you money.

7. Remember to preserve old family photos and movies, too. Scandigital is a good resource for high-quality results, especially if you have a lot to preserve. Send your old snapshots, slides, and negatives and the company will scan them and put them on a DVD. They also transfer VHS, 8mm, and 16mm movies and carefully ship your originals back with the new DVDs. Look for Groupon specials to save money on this service. If you want to make the conversions yourself, a film-to-digital converter can give you satisfactory results. When shopping for a converter, note that not all models will convert printed photos, so choose according to your needs.

Do you have a small collection of keepsakes that are special to you? Staying organized does not mean getting rid of all your collectibles. But it can mean paring the collection down to just the ones that have meaning for you. Keep only the ones that make you smile, and then put them on display. Here are some ideas for showing off a collection of keepsakes:

School will start later this month, so get ready now to organize the daily influx of school papers. To keep the permission slips, announcements, and worksheets from taking over your kitchen table, you need a plan:

 

For artwork, you can make a photo album, store in an accordion file, or even repurpose it. To make a photo album, take pictures of the originals, which you can then discard. Professional Organizer and Owner of Get Organized!, Lorraine Brock, recommends Artkive, an app that makes it easy to upload, tag, and store photos of artwork permanently on the cloud. Then you can share, create gifts, or print out a bound book from the photos of the originals. If you do not have the time to photograph and upload the photos yourself, the company can even do it all for you. If you want to repurpose the art, you can make it into a placemat by laminating it or use it to wrap gifts.

4. In about 30 years you can hand your grown up child their school papers, so they can share the memories with their kids of what they did in school. Simple treasures that take little effort.

Teaching kids to be responsible for getting a task done can sometimes be a steep climb, especially if they get lost in the time warp of their phone or video screens. Pictured here is one humorous but practical solution one mom came up with to motivate her kids to put down their devices and help out. You may have seen it on the internet. It is a chart that assigns points to various chores. Once kids accumulate enough points in a day, they can have their freedom again. Similarly, another mother changed the Wi-Fi password daily and only gave it to her kids after they had done their chores.

Experts tell us that teaching our kids early to make responsible choices builds internal motivation, healthy self-confidence, and good decision-making abilities, all of which are necessary life skills when they are adults. If you need some ideas, here is a source for free printable chore charts in a wide variety for various needs.

For practical ideas on teaching your child self-discipline, Plano ISD has prepared a helpful video for parents. This site has other videos on topics like dealing with mean girls, reducing power struggles, and homework habits. These are helpful to view as you prepare for back-to-school.

We all scream for ice cream! Here's a sweet way to save a little money and enjoy a cool treat. On August 31, you can get
any size scoop of ice cream for just $1.31 plus tax at participating Baskin Robbins ice cream shops.

To celebrate their '31 flavors,' this special price is good only on the 31st of the month, which includes August 31, October 31, and December 31. Have fun saving money while taking a break from the heat to enjoy a scoop of Vanilla, Chocolate, Pralines 'n cream, Pistachio Almond, Cookies 'n Cream, Baseball Nut, etc.