First of all, click refresh. You should see an color update to my website. It’s grey. And overlapping super-skinny rings. Two of my favorite classic things in design. In fact, that grey is really close to the neutral paint on our walls at home. It’s only appropriate that it’s my website background too, right? I love, love, love grey with just about any color.

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Okay, the real reason you’re here today — Inspiration.

I wanted to share with you something that I do when we travel. It’s the organizer in me. It’s the photographer in me. It’s the documenter in me. I don’t care which part of me it is … I just do this because it makes sense to me and helps with my digital photo organization. Maybe it’ll help you too.

I call this { VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS }.

Here’s what I do: When we travel for multiple days, I simply take a picture of the date** first thing in the morning, before I take any pictures that day. You know how, on longer trips, the days sometimes run together or you get them mixed up? Especially as time goes on and your memory gets a little fuzzy? I realize I’m talking to the chronologically-minded crowd here. The rest of you won’t care.

The result of doing this? When you import all your pictures on your computer, and you see them all there, you’ll also see those VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS that help separate your days/events. This may not really matter years later, but it can really help you keep it all straight when you are preparing to add some photos to a scrapbook or if you’re organizing a slide show or … you get the idea.

**By taking a picture of the date, I mean taking a picture of anything that indicates what day it is. A calendar page, your cell phone, iPad, hand-written on paper or post-it note … anything at all.

I know you’re visual. I am too. Here’s a look at some VIRTUAL BOOKMARKS from our trip to Alaska last week.

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From our recent trip to Maryland/D.C./Pennsylvania:

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You get the idea. See? So simple.

I’ve been doing this for the past couple of years and there’s a reason I keep doing it on our trips. Oh! If you can, add a note about what you’re planning to do or where you’re planning to be, with the corresponding date. Even just a general idea. Helps with the whole organizing thing. I’m going to be better about that from now on.

For example, I wrote the port for each day, and that really helped with our cruise picture organization. It’s amazing how quickly you can forget some things.

One more thing: You’ve noticed my handy dandy notebook a lot. It goes everywhere with me. I like my technology but some things just have to be pen-to-paper for me.