My computer had a fatal error today. AAAAHHHH. All was well after a re-start, but it scared me and reminded me that it’s time to clean the clutter off my computer and backup backup backup. I’m pretty good about deleting as I go while I’m shooting. I’m also pretty good about deleting shots as I download them onto the computer. But I still have a MILLION ZILLION shots that I never look at and are not great images yet are taking up valuable space on my computer. It’s hard with kids because every shot is an example of their wonderfulness, but do we really need tens of thousands of shots?

After my fatal error this morning, I unexpectedly stumbled onto the key to a de-cluttered hard drive. Here are some simple steps towards editing down your shots to a manageable number.

1) Edit as you go. When you’re shooting, go through your pictures ever few minutes and trash the wonky shots. Wonky includes blinking shots with eyes closed, unattractively out of focus shots, and ones that are just wrong.

2) After downloading your shots to the computer, go through all the pictures and delete the ones you don’t like. Be as brutal in your editing as you can.

Usually, I stop after step #2, but the real beauty of cleaning the clutter is taking it to a step #3. This is the glorious de-cluttering step I embraced today…

3) Go through your old shots from last year or as recent as a few months ago and delete delete delete. I become very attached to pictures right after I’ve taken them. Chloe was never as cute as she is right this minute, so I want to keep all the current shots, even if I have cuter ones saved in other folders. But after a couple of months, I become more detached about the pictures. I can see that my daughter has continued to get cuter and cuter and can be really aggressive in deleting unnecessary, duplicate or uninteresting shots from the past.

Ask yourself these questions - “Is this shot worth printing?,” “Do I have better shots of the same thing?,” “Would I hang it on my wall?” “Will this inspire a really special memory years from now?”

Today I found that half the shots I took of my daughter 6 months ago can be let go. So much has happened since then, so many great pictures have been made, so I can afford to keep the stand-out shots and chuck all the rest. Hundreds of pictures have gone into my recycle bin today, and now I can move on to backing up my documents and pictures without a drain on my system.

4) Back-up your pictures. We have two computers, so it’s is fairly easy for us to back up our work. If you don’t have 2 computers, burning CD’s is another solution. Because this can be a time consuming process, you’ll be all the more ruthless when editing your pictures. I keep a single folder of my favorite pictures so I can find the shots I want to look at, and it’s very easy to drag and drop that folder onto a CD. A good idea is to take those CD’s and put them with your important documents in a safe deposit box.

Many people back up their pictures onto the internet. Sites like Flickr are great places to do this, but it will cost an annual fee to post a lot of pictures for an indefinite period of time.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been cleaning the clutter in my house. You should see my closets now! It feels great to get rid of all that stuff. The same principle applies to computers. Clear out the clutter so your machine works its best and you don’t suffer a real loss if you get a fatal error.