NEW PRODUCT DISCOVERY! 
The last couple of weeks I had let you in on the fact that I had some computer problems. I vowed to go through the other computers and make sure that I backed up important documents and photographs. And, in the process, I need to share a great product I discovered!

It's called Picture Keeper! Just insert Picture Keeper into any USB port on your computer, click "Start Backup" and Picture Keeper automatically finds and saves all your pictures. That’s it! They all fit right there on the Picture Keeper drive. What's more, subsequent backups are fast because Picture Keeper will only copy the newest images when you use it again to save your recently added or changed pictures. They come in various sizes holding up to 16,000 photographs!

I'm very excited about this product! Yes, you can buy a USB Thumbdrive and manually put all your pictures onto it…but this includes the software to make it so much easier! I ordered mine and can't wait to use it! Let me know what you think!

You never know what you will come across when you peruse your pictures! Thought I would share this one given the time of year! This was my absolutely fabulous girls trip to Anguilla! Oh how I am missing the beaches now!

I made this collage using Smilebox. Learn how by visiting:
 http://www.organizedphotos.com/digital-made-easy.html

Last week I mentioned how my computer had crashed and how sad I was because I had lost everything on it due to the virus software failing and my data was corrupt.

I should feel lucky that's all I lost….

I woke up Wednesday morning to discover that a good friend’s mom’s home had burned down. Thankfully, her mom, who is 87 years young, was visiting family when this tragic event occurred. However, her 100+ year old home was a complete loss.   

This old farmhouse at the end of the road named after the family, had stood for generations and held many fond memories. It was where my friend’s father was born and where he passed away last year at the age of 93; where he and his wife had raised their seven children; where all the family holidays were spent; where friends and family were always welcome; where he had still worked, until his death, tirelessly on repairing the roof, replacing the siding and all the regular upkeep that an old house required. Needless to say this house had stories to tell. 

At the point of writing, the news is still fresh and the sadness deep. You never think it will happen to you. It made me think about what would be lost if my house should it suffer a similar fate.

We don't have control over fires or natural disasters, but we can be proactive and properly store those items that are irreplaceable.

1. Fireproof/waterproof safe: this is probably the most important place you can store those items that would help for personal identification and the legal process such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies, bank account information etc. You may want to consider a safe that has a combination code instead of a key that could be lost in such a disaster.
    
2. Public storage rental: if you have items that need a larger storage area but that you don’t need regular access to, consider a public storage rental. Consider your options and seek ones that are climate controlled as well as disaster proof.
    
3. Digital back-up: I touched base on this subject a little last week. Consider scanning important documents and backing up your personal data to a thumb drive or disk and store it in your fireproof/waterproof safe. I just discovered and hand-held scanner called The Flip Pal which has received really good reviews. I plan on purchasing one soon! I just added it to my website:www.organizedphotos.com/innovative-products.html

I can do my best to protect the items I can protect, the "stuff" is just stuff and can be replaced and most importantly of all, I would always have the fond memories of everything that happened in my home. Memories of a home filled with kids; big crazy birthday parties, playing ping pong, having bonfires, roasting marshmallows, building ski and snowboard parks in my front yard so my grass is constantly destroyed and of course...extremely high grocery bills. 

I hope this message inspires you to think about the blessings and memories that have taken place in your home and inspires you to take action at protecting the items you can protect. And, as always, I will refer you Get Organized Now, as Maria is the Queen of organizing and can surely provide more insight as to organizing your paperwork.

Don't make the same mistake I did!For fifteen years my expertise has been on organizing and safeguarding "old" photographs. And by "old" I am referring to pre-digital photographs. In Save Your Photos and Your Sanity, we teach you how to safeguard and organize the piles of physical photographs in as many as 10 days!

With everything being digital photography now, you may not have AS big a pile because you are able to sort through your images and delete those that are less than perfect.

However, some of you may have NO piles at all because you don't print them regularly….are you one of those people? I absolutely have been known to procrastinate on the actual printing. In fact, I will share with you something that happened this week. I was slowly and selectively transferring files from my old computer to my new computer. However, the other day when I logged into my old computer, my profile wouldn't load! YIKES! I took it to Staples where I was told I had a virus (even though I had current virus protection) I paid the $70 for them to do a data retrieval but was called a few days later with the news that the files were corrupt and that NO DATA WAS RETRIEVED! I have recently started experimenting with cloud storage but I hadn't uploaded everything unfortunately.

Two lessons learned from this, I need to get better at printing my photos AND I need to practice regular data back-up. Visit Must Have Apps! for some great apps that allow you to upload your photos to your local printer and have them ready within an hour and Storing Your Photos in The Cloud for some resources for storing your documents externally.

Hi Friends,

You thought you had heard the last of OrganizedPhotos.com didn't you! Last month you received an email that we were dissolving our business. It is true we sold out of all of our products and we dissolved our parent company, The Sentimental Playground, LLC and yes, Chris and I are each pursuing new adventures. However, we didn't expect the outpouring from so many of you with well wishes as well as disappointment to our news. It was really touching!

Therefore, I have decided to revamp our site and make it a resource for all of you to refer to for inspiration, new products I discover as well as tips and tricks that will help you in your organizing quest. I am adding much of the content you have received over the years so that you always have it to refer to. And…feel free to share with me anything you find that might be useful to our readers!

There is no longer physical product (Photo Pockets, Negative Pockets and Page Planners) for sale, however, I have decided to keep our e-book, "Save Your Photos and Your Sanity" for sale as it has helped many friends with peace of mind. 

Another change is that you will no longer be getting emails every few days…I will be sensitive to the fact that we are all trying to simplify our lives, so I will send emails as I discover great new products or if I have something important to share!

I invite you to visit the NEW AND IMPROVED site www.organizedphotos.com ! I'm excited to share and would love your feedback! 

Happy New Year and here's to new beginnings!