DO
DO Take control of your photos! Maybe I will write an entire post about this once I get my online pictures fully organized, but take my advice and don’t wait 10 years to start making decisions about online photo storage. The issue of what to do about all our family photos came up at this particular point because I got a new laptop. Yay! However, I’m determined to treat this laptop better than the old one, which mostly means not using it as a giant digital storage unit. (Because photos make the computer slooooooow.) I also want to remove all the photos from my old laptop so that my kids can share it as a family computer.
I have all of my pictures on an external drive, but I still like to have files handy, meaning, I don’t want to rely solely on the external drive.
Why not just use iCloud?
I find iCloud to be very limited and clunky, though I think it makes sense for the most current pictures. I ended up deciding to use Shutterfly for the bulk of my photos (thank you for the idea, Debbie Wolfe) as well as their sister site This Life (thank you for that suggestion, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer). The iPhone app for both is great. This morning I set up all future pictures to upload automatically to both sites, but that was only after spending 3-4 LONG days figuring out what pictures I already had on Shutterfly so that I was doubling, what needed to get moved off iCloud (so that I could use that more as a current year space), and what could now get deleted from my old laptop. There were many old episodes of Dawson’s Creek playing the background to keep me motivated. I’m not even done yet, but I need a break from this project. I’m also years behind in making any photo books from Shutterfly and a year behind in putting printed photos into any kind of album. (I don’t scrapbook; I’m talking about the slide-the-picture-in kind of album)
Why am I using both Shutterfly and ThisLife? I’m not sure. At some point after playing with each one I will probably pick one over the other, and if anyone is interested, I will report back. I know that I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the photos.
DO make your website (if have one) is mobile friendly. Did you notice that I made a few improvements to the look of my site? It’s now more functional on a phone, which means I had to let go of the site looking different on a computer vs. the phone. For years I wanted them to both look the same, but that means the font would be tiny on the phone. And well, my eyes are not getting any younger, and I assume that’s true for my readers’ eyes, too. If you’re on a computer or iPad now, you should be able to see my full menu bar on top and all the cute little sidebar items with popular posts, etc. If you’re on a phone, you have to futz around to find all that, but if you find the right thing to touch, it opens up all the options like published essays, friendship advice, and book reviews.
DO try this fantastic easy-to-make Greek salad. My friend Nancy F made Ina Garten’s Greek salad recipe recently and it was so good–especially the dressing. Isn’t it always about the dressing?
LISTEN
LISTEN to The RadioLab podcast! My friend, Libby F, got me into this podcast, and I’m really liking what 
I’ve heard so far. If you’re new to podcasts and have an iPhone, here’s what you do: Find the podcast app on your phone and go to the search function. Type in the name of the podcast you’re interested in, and hit subscribe. You can easily unsubscribe. I’m a podcast junky and subscribe to many. Then whenever I’m in the podcast mood (which is often), I can scroll through the list of new episodes and listen to whatever appeals to me at the moment. There are other ways to listen to podcasts, but I only listen from my phone so I can’t help you there.
Has anyone listened to the new season of Serial yet? If you have, please report back! I really liked season one, but for some reason, I’m not feeling that excited about season two. I can be persuaded though.
READ
Read about encouraging the tooth fairy myth vs telling kids the truth from the get go. I had a good debate at Brain, Child Magazine about the tooth fairy. In our house we are unabashed tooth fairy pushers, and that includes my oldest who keeps up appearances for the younger three. My friend, Brain Child’s debate editor, Lauren Apfel, took the other side. Where do you fall?
My FAVORITE post of the week by far: Instagram Husband. It’s hilarious and a little scary. I’m not a fashion or a lifestyle blogger, so I’m not even close to being as guilty of this icky behavior as the wife in the video, but I have definitely barked to my husband “higher!” when he’s taking a picture.
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37 Responses
Nate is my favorite in that Instagram Husband–that eye twitch! So hilarious. And I concur about the photos and dealing with it sooner rather than later–my laptop hard drive died in November on my work computer which has only a fraction of our photos on it (the rest are on our “home” computer) and I realize that I am going to be in some deep weeds if I don’t deal with the thousands of photos soon in a more meaningful way. Great post/advice, as always!
I love when she keeps screaming “HIGHER” and he (was that Nate?) is basically scaling the wall and it’s still not high enough.
Photo storage. It keeps me up at night. My digital clutter is worse than my physical clutter. Thanks for the suggestions! And yes, I listened to the first new Serial episode last week (and about to plug in for my ride to work to listen to episode No. 2). Like you, I wasn’t as excited or intrigued by this season, and while it’s totally different than Season 1, I’m hooked! It’s a fascinating story, especially since so much is happening with the case outside of the podcast.
My digital is so much worse, too! I’m extremely judicious about what stays in the house, yet I have 6000 photos of challah (or so it seems). Oy.
I’m liking Season 2 of Serial so far, but I’m not loving it as much as I loved Season 1 from the very first episode. I think it’s definitely worth listening though. I say go for it!
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Good to know! Thanks! You can listen while you feed the baby. I would have loved that option!
I just listened to the first episode of the new Serial – so far I like it. Last year I binge listened to all the episodes, so it’s nice to only be able to listen once a week.
The Tooth Fairy just came up in discussion this morning; my 17 year old told me she was devastated when she found the fairy glitter in my drawer. I still denied it; I just can’t bring myself to verbally confirm the nonexistence. And there have been no baby teeth in my house for at least two years!
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We did pixie dust a few times. 🙂
1. Photo storage – oy. We are in the same place. Photos are KILLING our computer. We are about to take the iCloud plunge (although it’s expensive because of the volume), but now you are making me rethink that. Lonny will be thrilled that I’m back to complete indecision. Besides the cost, why don’t you like iCloud for older photos?
2. Podcasts – I have some I love (Mom & Dad are Fighting, Double X, Invisibelia), but always looking for suggestions for other ones. What do you love?
3. Serial – I like it. I think it will be very different and we all have high expectations. Do you listen to the Slate Spoiler Special for Serial? I recommend it. They explained some things that helped me understand episode 1 more and definitely made me even more interested in it.
Hi! So here’s my issue with iCloud (yes, aside from the cost). Sometimes I want to keep stuff off my phone, but have it on my MacBook. The thing with the cloud is that it’s all connected so if I erase one place, it’s gone in other. In some ways, that’s great because when I used to use the stream WHICH WAS A NIGHTMARE, I felt like I was editing and re-editing the same freaking pictures ALL THE TIME. Like I’d spend an hour of a car ride to Chicago erasing a year’s worth of unnecessary pictures and then they’d still be on my laptop. So aggravating. Using the cloud takes care of that, BUT, if I want to clear out my phone and still have the pictures elsewhere, it was too confusing for me. But I am not the quickest with the photo stuff so that could be an easy fix.
I’m not going to say I love shutterfly. I find the website itself very hard to work worth. It’s slow and organizing the photos is a pain. This Life so far is much faster and easier to organize. So not sure why I’m on Shutterly at all except that I didn’t know about This Life until about 60% into this process. Sigh.
PODCASTS: I’m obsessed with Tablet’s UnOrthodox. Highly recommend. I like Mom and Dad too but starting to need a break from that. Love Double X. I’ve never heard of Invisibelia. Will look into that. I like (but no longer love) Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Robyn Schein said I must start listening to Israel Story.
Omg, don’t even get me started on photo storage. We have an external hard drive and I think my husband has some sort of RAID array (basically, if it goes down, the data can be reconstructed), and then we also have an external harddrive that we back photos up to every few months and is stored in our safety deposit box. I have *thousands* of photos (fell off a bit this year, but I usually take thousands per year :P) so storing anything in a cloud is just a nightmare! I do still need to go through the past couple of years and divide everything into dates/events, and weed out the bad photos! Time, it all takes so much time!!!
The tooth fairy debate was great!
Thank you the tooth fairy debate and I’ve loved your comments there and Herstories. thank you!
And all those photos–WOW. The storing is nothing compared to the editing piece of it. UGH!
The update on your site is great. Did you get professional advice about how to make your site more mobile friendly? Or did you read an article or something. (‘Cause if it was an article, I want to read it.)
Not just professional advice, but had a designer do it for me. I’m always scared to really mess it up.
You are like the 10th person to mention the husband Instagram post, so I guess it’s time for me to go read it! Also, I love Greek salad, so I will check that out as well. I am a Shutterfly girl, but live in fear that they will go out of business. Would love to know your thoughts once you’ve finished your research!
I just watched it – hilarious!
Knew you would love it!
I always love these posts!! xox
Thank you! I’m coming soon to read the end of year posts!
So many things to comment on here!
1. Photos: went through my own little mini-crisis a couple months ago for the SAME reason. I switched laptops and all my photos were on my old computer (18,000!) and it was sooooo slow. As I type this, I’m uploading all my photos to Google Photos. I LOVE it. Very functional and easy to use. I also use Shutterfly to make a yearly book.
2. Podcasts: LOVE them. LOVE Radiolab. Storytelling is great. Have not listened to serial but keep hearing I should.
3. Tooth Fairy: we believe!!!
Does Google not have a photo book function? The only reason I’m sticking with Shutterfly is to avoid having to do something separate for books. But if Google had the book option, I would probably consider switching it all there. I’m not loving Shutterfly. This Life is growing on me though.
I so need to organize my photos too. I’d love a detailed post about how you managed and what all you settle on in the end! I’ve been dreading that for years, but maybe you can lend me strength. 🙂
If I ever come to some good conclusions, I will! So far I find that each solution comes with drawbacks. I think I know it would be a hit of a post though.
I am also suffering from phone as photo storage problems. I was actually about to sit down and work on my 2014 album for ten minutes (remember how Gretchen Rubin says to do a huge task like this in small chunks??)… but then I saw this and had to read! I loved reading your book list… I am SO glad you felt the same way as I did about Among The Ten Thousand Things!!! I got my book club to read it b/c I was dying to check it out after reading a great review, but then none of them actually read it and I was bursting, wanting to ask someone, “Is it just me, or is it impossible to love these characters, and why is the mom always saying ‘Isn’t this yum?'” So thank you for validating me there:) I just read Kissing in America (per GNB’s rec!) and LOVED it. Liking Big Magic, but not LOVING. Liking Serial 2. I am only on episode #2. And I’m digging the small changes on your blog’s look. I feel like maybe the yellow banner at the top is different?
I needed that Gretchen Rubin reminder. I’m so burned out on looking at pictures and trying to delete a bunch. Going to take a break and resume in a few days.
I’m liking this season’s Serial. Am in the middle of episode two. I actually find the story more compelling than last season’s.
And seriously with that book Among the Ten Thousand . . .I was so rooting for it. What a great premise. And then . . . just sort of drifted.
I LOVE the fact that there are as many people out there as me passionate about photo storage. Before I went iPhone I had a sweet and easy set up with Google Photos that worked really well but I also don’t love iCloud. It tries to “help” me too much which means I can never really do what I want.
You definitely need to write more on this. 🙂
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You’re the second person to mention Google Photos. I wish I had looked into it. I feel like I’m too far gone now. Very glad not to be relying on iCloud though. That was a positive step.
I don’t love iCloud. Or even like it. I put my phone photos in my computer with my camera photos. They all go to SmugMug, dropbox and an external hard drive. It’s a process for sure!
I so agree about making websites mobile friendly!
Instagram Husband is great!
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A few bloggers have mentioned SmugMug. hmmm . . . I will have to take a look though I’m probably too far into Shutterly to switch.
Oh pictures! I can’t even think about that right now! I have so many pictures on my phone I need to print, and put in an album – the slide in kind. 🙂 The Instagram Husbands made me laugh so much! And I really need to pick up Big Magic. It sounds so good. 🙂
Oh! And I checked out the mobile version of you site – it looks good!
Thank you! It was hard for me to accept its simplicity and somewhat generic look. But saving readers’ eyeballs won in the end.
I’m a big podcast listener also, but I haven’t tried RadioLab. I’ll check it out. I enjoy Gretchen Rubin’s podcast. She usually has some interesting discussions or tips. Her sister helps “keep it real.” 🙂
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Yes! That is exactly what Elizabeth does. Good call!
I need to organize my photos – I know what you mean about using the computer for the bulk of your digital photo storage. Thanks for the motivation.
I haven’t heard the new Serial yet, but am curious about it. Thanks for all the recommendations. I always love these posts!
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I’m liking season two of Serial even more than the first!
I have the exact same goal with respect to organizing and getting all my photos on a cloud. I’m with you though; iCloud is just not doing it for me. I was debating between Pikasa and Flickr. Need to get this project going this week though. Thanks for your ideas!