One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is ‘how do you organize your videos?’ I think it’s because my title, Professional Photo Organizer, makes it sound like I just organize Photos and completely ignore that Videos exist (that’s definitely not the case).
Here’s the answer: I organize photos + videos together, in the same way.
On my computer (actually my external hard drive because I don’t want to burden my computer with my entire collection), my phones + videos are saved in simple chronological folders by year/month. [In my Backup Bootcamp course, I share how to do this automatically.]
![Should you organize videos and photos together? Check out these tips from a Professional Photo Organizer!](https://missfreddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/video_organization-1024x684.jpg)
But, shouldn’t I keep my videos and photo separate? For me, I find it’s most useful to have everything in one place. When I’m reminiscing about a certain vacation, for example, I will navigate to that folder and want to see my photos + videos of those memories all together. I don’t want to first review my photos, then go to a separate place to review the videos. The photos + videos work together so they should be stored together (in my opinion).
Both Macs and PCs make it really easy to filter by media type so if you’re in a situation where you truly only want to see the video files, you can filter the folder appropriately. On a Mac, open a Finder window, navigate to the folder you want to search/filter. Hit Command-F to open the advanced search options. Open the Kind dropdown and select Movie to return all video files from within the master folder (it’ll show subfolder contents too).
![Should you organize videos and photos together? Check out these tips from a Professional Photo Organizer!](https://missfreddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/screenshot1-1024x610.jpg)
See? All my 2019 videos!
![Should you organize videos and photos together? Check out these tips from a Professional Photo Organizer!](https://missfreddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/screenshot2-1024x610.jpg)
The search function works the same way in File Explorer on a PC! Hit Control-F and select Movie from the Kind dropdown.
![Should you organize videos and photos together? Check out these tips from a Professional Photo Organizer!](https://missfreddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/screenshot3-1024x789.jpg)
Need help getting organized?
My Backup Bootcamp online course will teach you how to get your videos (and photos!) from multiple devices into one centralized location. It also has a tutorial for how to sort your files AUTOMATICALLY into folders by year/month! It’s actual time-saving magic. Learn more about the course here.
Want more hands-on organizing help?
You can hire me to organize your files FOR YOU via screen share! Learn more about my Remote Digital Organizing Sessions here.
![Should you organize videos and photos together? Check out these tips from a Professional Photo Organizer!](https://missfreddy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/howtoorganizevideos_pinterest-683x1024.png)