In recent months, I have really embraced deleting my photos! Yes, the person who is always talking about saving and sharing your memories is giving you permission to delete some photos.  I truly believe that future generations will thank you for it.

In January, our son Anderson was born and I am looking at so many things in a whole new way. In July, when taking Anderson’s six month pictures, I realized I had taken over 135 pictures with my camera and my phone to capture this milestone.  As I looked through the photos, I began to think about Anderson looking at the photos in the future and though he might appreciate seeing 3-5 pictures of when he was six months old, will he really want to look through 139 pictures to find the best one.  In the future, I will continue to take several photos to get just the right facial expression but I now immediately delete it down to 30-40 pictures at the most. (but I plan to try and get it down to 10). The great thing about digital photos is the ability to take a lot more pictures without paying for film and developing.  There is still a cost involved in storing all those digital photos.  The standard backup up plan is to keep your pictures in at least 3 places, just in case something goes bad. The average computer has 200-1000GB storage space, then you might have an external hard drive and possibly online backup. I am a big fan of FOREVER* but you do pay for you online storage and I personally only put the photos that I want to keep forever in may account (and the friends and family that I share those photos with, don’t want to see 15 variations of the same photo).

One place that really gets “full” is our phones.   How many times, have you taken a picture of something in a store to share with your spouse or a random picture just for quick reference? Delete this pictures when they are no longer necessary.  Personally, my phone pictures back up automatically to Forever and Dropbox (and can access all these photos from apps on my phone) and therefore, I delete the pictures on my phone often.

One big thing to remember is that if you keep 1000 photos of one event and 25 are really good, those 25 really get lost in the mess and therefore are not shared and celebrated. We take pictures to save our memories but just like any collection, less is often more.

Just be grateful that you are not the President’s Photographer because according the Presidential Records Act, no photos of the President can be deleted. Can you image the size of that collection?

*In the spirit of full disclosure, this is an affiliate link, which means that I may get a commissions if you decide to purchase anything from Forever.com. I only recommend products & systems that I use and love myself, so I know you’ll be in good hands. If you do make a purchase, I ask that you choose Lisa Tonjes Moritz and your Forever Ambassador.