What You Should Do With Your Photos at the End of Each Month

A Simple Routine to Keep Your Memories Organized, Safe, and Scrapbook-Ready

If you’re anything like most of us, your phone is packed with screenshots, duplicates, and a whole lot of precious memories hidden somewhere between your texts, camera roll, and cloud. And every month, the pile grows a little bigger.

But here’s the good news:
You can stay ahead of the chaos with a simple end-of-month photo routine—one that keeps your memories organized, backed up, and ready to scrapbook anytime inspiration hits.

Whether you're documenting family adventures, everyday moments, or prepping for your next Creative Memories album, this routine keeps everything neat, tidy, and totally stress-free.

Let’s walk through what to do at the end of every month to stay on top of your photos.

1. Move Your Photos Off Your Devices

Your phone, camera, and memory cards were not designed to be long-term storage.
At the end of each month:

• Transfer all photos from your phone, digital camera, and memory cards to your computer.

• Create a monthly folder (ex: “2025-11 November Photos”).

• Once everything is safely transferred and backed up, reformat your memory cards to keep them running their best.

This gives you a clean slate for the next month and prevents slow, overwhelmed devices.

2. Delete the Photos You Don’t Need

Let’s be honest—most of us have:

• Blurry shots

• Accidental pockets photos

• 27 versions of the same selfie

• Screenshots we’ll never need again

Take 10–15 minutes to delete anything you don’t want printed or saved long-term.
Future you will thank you for keeping things uncluttered.

3. Pick Your Favorites to Print or Scrapbook

This is the fun part!

Flip through your month’s photos and choose the ones you want to:

• Add to your scrapbook

• Print for albums or frames

• Save for digital pages

• Mark as “favorites” for future projects

Printing monthly helps you stay caught up and it keeps your stories fresh in your mind when you go to scrapbook them.

4. Back Up Everything (Seriously, Do It!)

Photos live forever only if you back them up.

Use at least two backup methods:

• An external hard drive

• A cloud backup service

• FOREVER® storage: Click here to learn more. (My personal recommendation)

• Google Photos, Amazon Photos, or iCloud

Redundancy is your best friend. Devices can fail, your memories shouldn’t.

5. Gather Your Notes & Memorabilia

Photos tell the story, but journaling fills in the heart.

At the end of each month, gather:

• Ticket stubs

• Receipts

• Notes

• Quotes

• Kids’ drawings

• Journaling you wrote earlier in the month

• Screenshots you do want to keep

Put everything in a small envelope or electronic notes file labeled for the month.

When it’s time to scrapbook, you won’t be searching everywhere for the little things that make your pages meaningful.

Bonus Tips to Make Your Monthly Photo Routine Even Easier

Here are a few more tips scrapbookers love:

✔ Clean your phone camera lens

You’ll be amazed how much clearer your photos look!

✔ Create a dedicated “To Scrapbook” folder

Drag in your selected photos so everything you need is already grouped.

✔ Use albums on your phone

Make monthly albums that mirror your computer folders for easy sorting later.

Now Your Photos Are Ready for Your Scrapbook!

By taking a few minutes at the end of each month to organize, sort, and back up your photos, you create a system that’s easy, sustainable, and incredibly satisfying.

No more scrolling endlessly for “that one photo.”

No more overwhelming camera roll.

Just beautifully organized memories ready to become layouts, albums, and stories your family will treasure for years.