The Story Behind 701 Photo Organizing: Why Preserving Family Memories Matters

People often ask me how I got into photo organizing, and the truth is that the answer didn’t happen overnight. Looking back, it feels like many different parts of my life were quietly leading me here.

Growing up, I was always known as the family “tech guru.” Long before smartphones and easy-to-use apps made everything more accessible, I loved creating photo books, slideshows, videos, and keepsakes for family and friends. Whenever someone needed a graduation slideshow, wedding presentation, class reunion video, memorial tribute, or help scanning old photographs, I was usually the person they called. That interest eventually led me to pursue a degree in Graphic Communications and Graphic Design. Although my professional career ultimately took me in a different direction, I never stopped being the person friends and family turned to when memories needed to be preserved or brought together in a meaningful way.

My dad and me. Losing him unexpectedly at just 58 years old changed the way I think about photographs, family history, and the importance of preserving the stories behind them.

Then life changed. In June 2018, I became a mom for the first time. Just six months later, my dad passed away unexpectedly at only 58 years old. Those two events completely changed how I viewed photographs, family history, and the importance of preserving memories.

Like so many families, we suddenly found ourselves searching for pictures for an obituary, creating a memorial slideshow, gathering photographs for display boards, and trying to tell the story of my dad’s life while grieving. I remember wishing that more of it had already been organized and easier to find. In the years since losing him, I have realized that the photographs themselves are only part of what matters. I wish I could ask him more questions about his childhood, hear the stories behind old family photos, and better understand the people and moments that shaped him.

Some of my most treasured possessions today are not expensive heirlooms. They are the postcards my dad mailed home while traveling for work. His handwriting means more to me now than I ever could have imagined. We also have home movies where we can hear his voice and newspaper articles that document parts of his career and the work he did over the years. Those pieces of his story deserve to be preserved for future generations. Losing him taught me something I could not have fully understood before: the ordinary things can eventually become priceless.

One of the postcards my dad mailed home while traveling for work. Today, his handwriting is one of the pieces of him I treasure most.

As meaningful as it is to preserve my family’s past, losing my dad also changed the way I think about the memories I am creating with my own children. Like so many parents, I have thousands of photos and videos on my phone, and there are times when it feels completely overwhelming. I do not need 59 nearly identical photos to remember my daughter’s first month of life, but I do want to know that the images that truly capture that season will not get lost among thousands of others.

His passing made me more intentional. I write more in birthday cards because I now understand how meaningful someone’s handwriting can become. I take videos because someday my children may want to hear my voice, or the voices of the people they love. I want to create photo books they can actually flip through someday instead of leaving their childhood buried in a camera roll. It reminded me that today’s everyday moments eventually become tomorrow’s family history.

The passion behind 701 Photo Organizing did not come all at once. It grew slowly over the years as I reflected on my own experiences and recognized that I had spent a lifetime developing skills that could genuinely help other families. Whether that means organizing thousands of digital photos, preserving old family photographs, scanning keepsakes, creating photo books, or helping uncover stories hidden inside boxes of memories, I realized this was a meaningful way I could use my strengths to serve others.

Today, alongside my full-time career, I have the privilege of helping families organize, preserve, and protect their photographs, films, videos, and keepsakes. Some families are looking backward, sorting through inherited photographs, old albums, slides, film, and family history. Others are busy parents like me who simply want to get ahead of the thousands of digital photos piling up every year before they become even more overwhelming.

Those may seem like very different needs, but to me, they are really the same. Both are about making sure the people we love, and the stories that define our families, are not lost to time or buried beneath the busyness of everyday life.

That is why I started 701 Photo Organizing. Not because everything needs to be perfectly organized, but because these memories matter. If I can help another family spend less time searching and more time remembering, then I am doing exactly what I hoped this journey would become. Because every family deserves to spend less time searching for memories—and more time enjoying them.

Ready to Preserve Your Family’s Memories?

Whether you are overwhelmed by thousands of digital photos on your phone, inherited boxes of family photographs, or a collection of old film and keepsakes, you do not have to tackle it alone.

I would be honored to help you create a plan that works for your family and preserve the memories that matter most.

Contact 701 Photo Organizing to get started.