Monday, May 23, 2011

Computer Organising

I've had such a lovely time today reading through everybody's comments- thank you so much. It means alot to me to get such friendly feedback.

I received alot of comments today, which as I'm sure other Bloggers are aware come through my email inbox, as well as on the blog. This reminded me to do one of my home organising jobs- organising in the computer. I like to keep on track with emails, sorting them into folders, so my inbox doesn't get too full.

I delete the emails I know I won't need again, immediately after reading them. Then every now and then I sort the others into folders- Family, Friends, Blog, Bills, Birth & Baby, Receipts, Organising, and so on. I have quite a few folders, and I can always add a new one if an email I need to keep doesn't belong in any folders I already have.

Another task I like to keep up with is de-cluttering my desktop. I often save documents there so they are easy to find (lazy, I know!!). So every few months I need to delete unwanted icons on the desktop, so I can clearly find only the ones I actually need there. I like my desktop to only have a few things on it, as I usually have a beautiful photo in the background, and I want to be able to see as much of the photo as possible :-)

 I am really bad at one major job on the computer- organising photos. I use Picasa 3, but I have never taken the time to learn how to use it properly. I would love to learn how to correctly group photos in folders and albums, one day... one day. In this world of digital photography they sooooo quickly build up, into thousands and thousands. A great piece of advise I was given recently, was to delete the unwanted or 'bad' photos, and in the case where you have several of the same thing, choose the best and delete the rest. Such a good idea- back in the day of film I would only take 1 photo of something, not 10! So I need to work on this.

I will be putting 'photo organisation' on my To-Do list. How do you organise in your computer? Sorry no pic today- I think a photo of my computer would be way too boring :-)

14 comments:

  1. Hi Sarndra
    I have just found you through Rhondas Down to Earth blog.
    I was delighted to see that you refer to your baby as 'Peanut'! We have five children and Peanut was the name we gave to our first until she was born. Peanut became Eleanor, our beautiful daughter, now 27 years old.
    I love your blog as I am not a very organised person and I will be following with interest.
    Best wishes

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  2. I spend heaps of time organising photos on my computer. I have 3 kids that all are passionate about their sports and I'm a scrapbooker, so I can easily take 100 photos per footy or cricket match.

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  3. I have also come from Rhonda's blog link and I have put you in my favourites. I am always trying to better organise myself and will be checking in on you to learn more about what you do to see if it would fit my life. Great work, by the way.

    How I organise my photos:
    I have a folder on my computer marked Photos and inside that folder I have folders marked with labels like, people, WA holiday, objects, flowers, buildings, etc whatever is important in your life. (I take oodles of pics an put them on RedBubble) I also have a folder titled Pics, which is where I empty the camera into and then sort them into the other categories when I have the time, (usually try to do it straigt away) then the Pics folder is empty once again till you are ready to empty your camera again.
    Keep up the great work and best wishes for your baby's safe arrival.

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  4. Hi Sarndra - your MIL sent me!

    Sometimes one wonders whether the net effect of computers is to make mor work rather than less. But of course there are some things (such as THIS) that one couldn't do without one.

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  5. Sarndra - I have a separate portable hard drive, which I plug in when necessary. On that hard drive I have, amongst others, a folder called photo's.

    In that photo's folder I have various sections - animals, house, garden, family, etc.

    The family folder is separated into the different family members folders, and everyone's folder is divided again into years. That way I can easily, and quickly, find a photo of my children at the age of 18 or my grandson at the age of 2.

    Where I have family gathering photo's I store that under "Family" and each photo will be labelled with the occasion, date and location.

    And I have a different folder for copies of ID's, etc.

    Makes life simple to be organised :-)

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  6. Sarndra I'm with you on the Picasa organization! I use it too and find I accumulate waaaaaay too many shots. We did buy a portable hardrive that I export them out too...but...I don't do it often enough! Thanks for reminding me to get on top of it once more :-)
    Lus x

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  7. I`ve discovered that I can arrange my pictures with global tags like Nature (with some subfodlers for Cats, Giragffes, Birds), Babies, Funny... but this just doesnt work for the photos. They are too many. So I label the folders with names of cities and then I make subfolders with seasons. Sofia-->Summer 2011 is still empty but in 2-3 months it will have at least 100 photos. And when the new season comes, I`ll sit down and rename them so that they have real names not just numbers (this will make me realize i dont need all of them and i`ll delete at lest 1/3). I also happen top keep photos that werent taken by me or where i wasnt present. I name these folders after the poor people that are on the photos. And I`ve put an imaginary limit - no more than 50 pics per friend unless it`s my best friend`s baby :)
    I think it`s a good arganisation - photoes tell stories and pictures just picture things :)

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  8. Hi Sarndra~
    I too have come over from Down-to-Earth. I learn something new on each visit.
    I know I will enjoy visiting your blog as well since organising has become my second focus right now.
    All the best to you as you enjoy these last months of rest!

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  9. Hello Sarndra from Texas! Just found your blog - been following your MIL for a couple of years now. I need help with organizing so I'm looking forward to learning some of your tips! I, too, have tons of pictures on Picasa, and have not properly gathered them into albums, etc. That's a big project I need to work on. Welcome to blogland, sweetie! Looking forward to "Peanut"'s arrival!

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  10. Hi Sarndra
    Just checking in from Down-to-Earth and I'm thrilled to hear of your organising blog. I will be one of your 'regulars' from now on as I too get a real buzz out of being organised. I have just bought a new computer and I'm enjoying getting it set up in an organised fashion. I've transferred photos from the old computer, hundreds of them, and I'm enjoying moving them around into their files. That's just the Virgo in me.
    Congratulations on the Blog. Love it already. Jean

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  11. I just started this job on the weekend, I had 4 computers in 18 months (a couple broke ;) and my folders are a great big jumbled mess and to make matters worse Ive switched to Mac and cant see whats in each folder until I open them :( big job, but Im starting with labelling photos as 00Family, 01Friends etc

    BTW thanks for the comment on my blog :)

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  12. Hi Sarndra, Tiggy from Ireland here.Popped over from down to earth. I am heavy into organising, and have spent the last 5 months during a major declutter. I used to use Picasa, but didn't like Picasa 3, so on my new computer I am using just the picture library on windows 7 and find it great.I have a new system. I now file by year, and just have seperate folders for my grand children. At the end of the year I then delete the unnecessary, & pick out the good photos to file under specifics- garden, makeovers, craft and blog etc.and leave the rest as general. You can view month by month so it is easy to organize. I am now starting albums of my grandchildren (7,7,4, and 2) just picking out about 12 favourite photos per year. In windows 7 you can put up 2 windows and just drag the photos from one folder to another which is very quick. The balance I will keep on disc to save space. Looking forward to reading your other posts. Do pop over for a visit.

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  13. I keep everything in files. Email, photos, documents etc. I do spring and fall cleaning on my computer just as I do my home. I purge what I don't need anymore to keep it manageable. My desktop also has folders on for files I want easy access too. I too, like to see my background picture and like a clean desktop.
    A note on photos, when I upload to picassa, I delete what I know I don't want right away. I also make sure everything is labeled by date and category. It makes it easier to find if I need photos for any of my blogs.
    One thing I do need to work on is to learn to back up my photos and documents. I should have some zip drives in case my laptop goes kaput!
    Have a great day!

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  14. Hi Sarndra, I couldn't find a link to send you a private email. Would you mind taking a look at a couple of posts on my blog and give me your opinion of how I organized my freezer? I'm including the link to my blog but if you don't want it in your comments you can delete it. I couldn't find any other way to give it to you.

    http://anitaestes.blogspot.com

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