Organizing Photos

Questions:
1. do you have a lot of photos?
2. do you have them all over the place - hard drive, mobile phone external drive, etc.?
3. would you like to get this in order for how you need or would like to use them?

There is a way! Using the www.OXO123.com process. Here is their process using Levels, and how the Library feature and DAM in Lightroom (what I use) provides the tools ...

Level 1 Entry
.. Assess/Plan - what do you need, do you share, what's really important
.. Backup - use 3-2-1 photo backup (main drive - local backup - Back-blaze cloud)
.. Gather - locate where all files reside and consolidate
.. De-Duplicate - remove duplicates (Teekesselchen - free)

Level 2 Explore
.. Consolidate (Hub) - move all photos to on folder/drive (external drive)
.. Core File Structure - date, location, family name centricity (location)
.. Rename Files - modify file names for search and selection (see Empower)

Level 3 Empower
.. Keywords - searchable tags (Lr Library and DAM)
.. Face Tags - like Keywords ((Lr Library and DAM and face ID)
.. Ratings - star or code (Lr has Star Ratings, Colors)
.. Date Adjustments - correct mislabel shoot dates (Lr edits in Metadata)

Level 4 Enjoy
.. Print - OXO recommends hard print for precious pics
.. Share - your choice (Google Backup & Sync to Google Photos to share)
.. Projects/Gifts - your choice
.. Display - your choice

Level 5 Maintain 
.. a detailed and scheduled process with checklist