Smart Photo Storage Solutions for Families

We are sitting on the couch, as we do every evening. My husband is next to me and my old pal, the laptop is perched on my legs. There is nothing unusual about this setting or the evening, it is business as usual for us. I open my laptop… nothing. I close my laptop, open it again… nothing. A black blank screen is staring back at me. “Oh NO! This cannot be good!” As a writer and mother I can safely say that my entire LIFE in on my laptop. From pictures to documents, memories to business proposals – these are the most valuable and cherished “papers” in my life. I quickly glance over at my husband with a panicked look in my eyes. He smiles back at me, the smile that instantly comforts and calms. He says the most beautiful words I have ever heard him say, besides “I do!” He says “Don’t worry, honey. Everything has been saved in the Amazon Cloud!”

If something happened to your computer, laptop, tablet or phone, can you breathe a sigh of relief? Or will you go into total panic mode? We use smart photo solutions for families, and I am excited to share them with you!

As a mother of four, it is safe to say that I have A LOT of memories documented on our cameras and phones. Granted I no longer take a picture every time Jacob (9) eats a bite of food or gets a haircut, but I sure did for a while. Now multiply that by four kids and you have yourself a data storage problem.

Over the years I have perfected my storage dilemma though. It may seem redundant and overkill to some people. But I am sure that mothers everywhere will agree that there no such thing as being “too safe” when it comes to preserving the memories we have of our children’s childhood.

[bctt tweet=”Smart #photo storage solutions for families! Trust your #baby pictures are safe! #AMZNCloudDrive”]

Smart photo storage solutions for families:

(The first one will BLOW you away)

1. Amazon Cloud Drive! That’s right, if you are a Amazon Prime member you already have access to UNLIMITED photo storage in the Amazon Cloud Drive. This must be the best kept secret benefit of being an Amazon Prime member.
   1. If you haven’t taken the plunge yet to be a member of the most awesome club ever: Amazon Prime! Try Amazon Prime 3-month Free Trial.
   2. You can access the Amazon Cloud drive from your MAC, PC, phone or tablet.
   3. The Amazon Photo app will automatically back up pictures taken on your Android or Apple phone, saving you time and giving you a great reason to sleep well at night.
   4. You can easily share individual pictures or photo folders. This is perfect for keeping grandparents up to date on the kids’ adventures or for sharing vacation photos with the rest of your travel party.
   5. Set-up takes only a few minutes and organizing your photos is just as simple.
2. External hard drive! We bought a great external hard drive last year, which we use along side of the Amazon Cloud Drive.
   1. We only use the external hard drive to store photos. I copy the files over every month, or at least I try to remember.
   2. I create files for each month, so finding pictures is a breeze.
   3. This is the one we use and love: Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive
3. USB flash drive! I know, this is when you may start to think it is over-kill, but I like to have a back up to my external hard drive. (Even I can hear how silly this sounds, but it is my children’s childhood pictures we are talking about here!)
   1. I save individual events or time periods on a flash drive. Our professional family photo sessions get their own flash drive, since those files tend to be much larger than the pictures I take on our camera.
   2. These are the flash drives I stock up on: SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive, 2 Pack
4. Memory cards! Thankfully the price of camera memory cards has come down drastically over the years. Once I have filled a card, transferred the pictures to my hard drive and the USB flash drive I take the card out, write the dates on it and file it away. I simply cannot get myself to hit “delete files” once the photos have been copied.
5. Print photos! This is something I only do when I receive offers for “free prints” or if I am putting the pictures in a frame. I would seriously go broke if I printed every single picture.

Staying current and on top of the latest trends: 

• One of my top reasons for loving the Amazon Cloud drive is that I NEVER have to worry about the technology being out-dated.
• I have an entire binder full of CDs with the pictures from our first 5 years of children and marriage. CDs are becoming obsolete, so before too long I will have to copy all those photos onto the Amazon Cloud drive.
• While the memory cards, USB flash drives and back up hard drives are good, they are still “gadgets” that some day may become outdated.
• Stay up to date with the latest and the greatest technology, otherwise you may be doing yourself a disservice.

How do you store your family’s photos? Did you realize that Amazon Prime offered free unlimited photo storage? (I hope you are as excited as I was when I learned about this awesome perk!)

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.