Pixologie Inc, run by photo-organizing pro Molly Bartelt, has spent more than a decade wrangling millions of client photos. In one blog post (June 25 2024) and two YouTube videos, she lays out a single through-line: the fastest, most future-proof way to tame a giant collection is to keep everything in dated computer folders and let tags or facial recognition handle themes later. The pieces walk through why “just search” solutions fall short and how a simple folder recipe beats slick apps for speed and clarity.
If you’ve got thousands of mixed print scans, phone shots and camera files—and want an iron-clad structure the whole family can understand—this method is aimed squarely at you.
Folder-naming cheat-sheet
YYYY-MM-DD Description
2020 Photos
2020-03 March Photos
2020-06 Yellowstone Trip
2020-12-25 Christmas PhotosUse as many—or as few—date parts as you need. Year-only works for broad albums; add month or the full date when you want precision.
Tools mentioned
- Google Photos / Apple Photos → great on phones, but cluttered with “junk” snaps
- OneDrive → keep an eye on what’s stored locally vs. cloud-only
- Mylio, Photoshop Elements, Forever Historian → desktop managers that require steady upkeep
- Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro (PC) and Photo Sweeper (Mac) → go-to apps for duplicate hunting
- Forever → preferred cloud archive once local folders are clean
- SmugMug, Dropbox, Amazon Photos → other common sources you may need to pull from
Organizing steps for digital photos
Gather all digital photos in one place – your “Photos to Organize” folder
- Copy, move, download or export from every phone, card, drive and cloud account
Work source by source to clean up folders
- Rename folders
YYYY-MM-DD Description(see cheat-sheet above) - Move photos into properly dated folders
- Build a nested tree: Decades › Years › Months (or other top-level categories)
- Rename folders
Deduplicate by comparing small batches (e.g., 2014 phone vs. 2014 camera) with Photo Sweeper or Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro
When a folder is spotless, move it to the clean master (Pixologie calls it the Photo Estate / Master Family Photos folder)
Advice
- Always know the full path of your working folders—especially when OneDrive is in the mix.
- Stick to chronological order so each event’s full story stays together; use tags later for people and themes.
- Keep top-level clutter down to two working folders: Photos to Organize and the clean master.
- Nest folders so you click, don’t scroll—hundreds of items in one directory is a red flag.
- Budget plenty of time; a lifetime of photos rarely sorts itself in a single weekend.
Feel free to dive into Molly’s originals and see the full walk-throughs yourself:
- Blog post – Why We Organize Photos the Way We Do https://pixologieinc.com/why-we-organize-photos-the-way-we-do/
- Video – Don’t Organize Photos by Person! – Organize by Date and in Computer Folders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XBYhoFqDM
- Video – Organize Digital Photos in Folders – The Simple Structure You Need! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5WFYg0rdmE
To explore more of her work (or get help if this all feels overwhelming), visit the main site: https://pixologieinc.com/