So, I finally decided to tackle that big project I’d been putting off, the one I nicknamed ‘Caroline and David’ in my head. Wasn’t really about people, more like two different paths I could take.
Trying the ‘Caroline’ Way First
Okay, first up was Caroline. This was the super organized, everything-in-its-place method. I thought, right, let’s do this properly.
- I started by making a ton of folders. Year, month, event… you name it, it got a folder.
- Then I began moving files. Dragging… dropping… renaming each one. Seriously, hours just vanished.
- I tried really hard to be consistent. Every holiday photo, every family gathering, meticulously filed away.
But man, it got tough. Felt like I was building a library no one would ever actually browse properly. It was just too much work upfront, and I kept finding photos that didn’t quite fit anywhere. Got pretty frustrating, to be honest. Felt like I was getting bogged down.
Switching Gear: The ‘David’ Approach
After hitting a wall with Caroline, I figured, let’s give David a shot. This was the more laid-back approach. Less structure, more just… getting it done.
I basically dumped all the remaining stuff into broader folders. Like ‘Family Stuff’, ‘Work Trips’, ‘Random Junk’. Much quicker.
Then I found this simple tagging software. Didn’t need anything fancy. Just something where I could quickly add keywords. ‘Beach’, ‘Birthday’, ‘Project X’.
- Installed the tool. Easy enough.
- Pointed it at my messy folders.
- Spent maybe an hour just clicking and adding basic tags to batches of photos. Didn’t worry about perfection.
Honestly, the David way felt way less stressful. Sure, it wasn’t as ‘perfect’ as the Caroline plan. Searching might bring up some odd results sometimes if my tags were lazy. But the key thing? I actually finished sorting through the bulk of it. I could find most things pretty fast using the search and tags.
What I Learned
So, yeah. Caroline and David. Two ways to skin a cat, I guess. For me, trying to be perfect like Caroline just burned me out. The messy-but-functional David approach actually got me over the finish line. Maybe the real answer is somewhere in between, but starting with David felt a lot more productive. Just getting things roughly organized and searchable was way better than having a perfect system for only 10% of my stuff. Just my two cents from actually doing it.
