matching binders, divider tabs, 8 1/2 x 11 photo paper packs (buy 1/get 1 free), slim CD cases and and CD labels.

I store all my photos in year/month order in folders on my external hard-drive. Once the month is over, I create an index sheet of all the photos in that folder and place in a binder that is filed in the same year/month order. I also create a CD back-up of the folder which is stored in a pretty little box, again filed in the same year/month order.

Of course this process (which sounds lengthy but really isn't!) should be done monthly. But, in reality can be done whenever one gets around to it - as long as you understand the risks of not having back-ups of your photos.

One thing that had been bugging me about my system from last year was I had not taken the time to get nice binders for my index sheets and I really needed dividers in between all my CD's. So, I went out and bought a bunch of $5 recycled binders from my local office supply stores. I love the look of them and it makes me feel *green*. I put my tabs in there by year and printed and placed all the index sheets up to this month! Yeah! I then went in and make CD back-ups of all my photos up to this month and created simple tags to seperate the CD's. Ok, my simple tags are index cards poorly written on. But, I have my eye on these babies.

This is my back-up system and one way to locate photos on the fly. I'm going to invest additional time (eventually) back into a software Organziation system where you tag photos and can quickly search but for now at least I know I'm backed up. Feels awesome! Here are some photos:

Now, I'm onto my next project - my negatives! I picked up some additional *green* binders for them and some negative sleeves. This will be easy because 75% of all my negatives area already in sleeves. These are NOT being put in any order. I'm not that crazy!