A good photo organization system should help you access a curated collection of vacation photos easily, and it shouldn’t give you anxiety.

Here’s how to start:

1. Curate: Pick the best shots and delete the rest

Although digital photos don’t have the same storage limitations as physical photographs, no one needs 500 photos of one vacation. Pick the very best photos and delete the others. If you need help deciding what to keep and what to discard, keep in mind this advice from Marie Kondo, author of the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: “Photographs exist only to show a specific event or time. For this reason, they must be looked at one by one. When you do this, you will be surprised at how clearly you can tell the difference between those that touch your heart and those that don’t. As always, only keep the ones that inspire joy.”

If you have anxiety about deleting photos immediately, try dragging your favorites into a separate folder and then revisiting the discards in a few weeks or months. Chances are you will be confident with the decisions you already made, and you can delete the other folder.

Hints for deleting unnecessary photos:

• a few photos of a particular place are usually enough to capture its spirit and jog your memory of that location

• if you have 3 group photos that look nearly identical, pick the one where everyone (or you! lol) looks the best and delete the rest

• “Unexciting photos of scenery that you can’t even place belong in the garbage.” (or the desktop trash can, as the case may be) – Marie Kondo

2. Use photo editing software and take your photos from meh to yay!

Download a good photo editing app and use it! Even if you’re not a pro (I certainly am not!), modern photo apps can easily take a mediocre photograph and make beautiful. Seriously! Lightroom and Photoshop Elements are popular desktop applications for editing and organizing, while VSCO ($19.99/year) and Afterlight ($2.99) are easy-to-use mobile apps. I find the mobile apps easier to use, personally – for some reason it’s faster for me to adjust lighting, etc. with my finger than with a mouse. 

3. Rename your files to keep them organized

After you’ve culled your photos down to your favorites, it’s a good idea to rename your photos with unique file names. One good way to do this is by date (YYYYMMDD) or by place and year.

If you have the time, tag the photos to make them searchable.

4. Print your photos in a tangible medium

Print your pictures out in 4×6 photos and put them into an album, or use Blurb, Artifact Uprising, or Shutterfly to make a beautiful book. This is the most time consuming part for me (after editing), but it should be pretty easy after you’ve curated and organized the photos.

5. Enjoy!

Show off your new album- put it on your coffee table or bring it to your next friends’ barbecue or to your parents’ house. Your parents may even want a copy, especially if the album is full of beautiful photos of your adorable kidlets.