Permission Granted: Delete These Junk Photos
One of the reasons we are all so overwhelmed by our digital photos is that we take TOO MANY PICTURES! And so many of them are junk photos.
Say Goodbye to Junk Photos
How many screenshots did you take today? How many selfies last week? Did you take a picture of your parking spot at the mall so you can find your way back?
We all do it because our digital space seems unlimited, unlike when we took film photos and were limited to 24 shots before we had to put a new roll of film in the camera.
Don’t get me wrong. I love pictures. I love looking at other people’s family photos, but we don’t need to keep them all.
Just like the stuff that clutters up your home, having these sub-par junk photos in your collection diminishes your enjoyment of your wonderful memories.
Keep shots that tell your story, show things and people you love and bring joy to your heart. The rest are just junk.
I am giving you express permission to delete these 14 junk photos from your camera roll.
Screenshots
We all do it – take a screenshot to remind us of something later. Or maybe you came across a really cute dress on Instagram, and you want to share it with your non-Instagram-using mother, so you take a screenshot and text it to her.
Face it, 99% of your screenshots will never be needed again. I’m thankful that Apple now allows you to delete a screenshot after you’ve sent it to someone.
If you are an Apple Photos user (iPhone, iPad, or MacBook), you can find your screenshots easily. Open the Photos app, go to your albums and scroll down to Media Types. This is section is populated with pre-determined categories like Videos and Panoramas. Luckily for us, there is a Screenshots album. Click on this album and delete away!
If the screenshot is something you want to keep, especially for reference, consider moving it out of your camera roll and into another app like Evernote.
Selfies
In this age of Instagram and Snapchat, selfies can dominate our camera roll, but be honest with yourself. How many do you really need to keep? And most of them are bad angles anyway. That’s why we keep taking them!
Delete the selfies and make room for other people in your photo library.
Near Duplicates
Near duplicates are probably one of the biggest culprits for the glut of digital photos today. You try to capture just the right look on our toddler’s face as he goes after his smash cake at the first birthday party. Your husband wants to get the light just right at sunset on the beach.
We may take 20-30 pictures to end up with only 1 or 2 really good ones. So why are you keeping the other 18 bad shots? There is really no need for them, so pick your favorites and delete the rest.
Bursts/Live Photos
Burst and Live Photos take up a lot of room on your phone. Hold down the shutter button when you take a picture, and you could take 15 photos in just a second or two.
Those cool Live Photos are actually 3-second videos that clog up space on your phone.
So two suggestions, delete bursts and live photos as much as possible and turn off the Live Photos option on your phone. Learn how to do that here.
Super Short Video Clips
Have you ever looked at your videos and noticed that you have several that are super short, like 1 or 2 seconds? These are usually accidental videos. For me, this happens when I hit the video button instead of the photo button.
Look through your Videos album. On each thumbnail is the length of that video. Take a look at anything that is under 10 seconds. I bet most of them are junk photos that can be deleted.
Reminders
You take a shot of your parking spot in the mall’s garage. You snap a pic of the hours of the dry cleaning store. Most of these reminders are only good for a very short amount of time, and once you’ve “used” them, it’s time to let them go.
Informative Photos
Often you need to give information to someone else, and it’s easiest to do with a picture. When my daughter needed her banking information to fill out a direct deposit form for her new job, I snapped a quick picture of her checkbook to send to her. Besides the fact that this particular picture has sensitive financial information on it, there is no need for me to keep it past the few seconds it took me to take the picture and text it to her.
Delete, delete, delete.
Food Photos
Who doesn’t like sharing a picture of a beautiful meal, a gorgeous cocktail, or even just a slice of pizza at your favorite childhood restaurant? Ok, you’ve shared it; now what?
Will you care about that what that delicious dessert looked like in 1 year? Five years? Ten years? Probably not. Share it, then delete it.
Landscapes/Architecture
How many pictures of buildings, landscapes, or any shot without a person in it do you really need? Are you going to forget what the White House looks like if you don’t have ten shots of it from slightly different angles?
Yes, the Grand Canyon is gorgeous, but outside of a picture or two, you don’t need the 27 you actually took. Buh-bye!
Bad Photos
Let’s face it, even in this age of stellar phone cameras and fancy DSLR cameras; we still take a lot of duds.
Trying to get a good picture of my dog is next to impossible. Half the time, she isn’t even in the frame, or she looks so blurry you can’t really tell she’s a dog.
Maybe you have a habit of cutting off people’s heads. Perhaps you took a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and the flash didn’t go off, resulting in a dark mess.
This type of junk photo is the low-hanging fruit of the photo-deleting process. Delete away!
Recipes
Are you really going to make that recipe for French Onion Soup that has been on your phone for six months? Really? Are you sure? How hard would it be to find it again?
Be honest with yourself. If you really want to keep them, move your recipe photos to a folder on your computer or into Evernote. Otherwise, delete it.
Memes
Who doesn’t love a good meme? Hilarious, right? But I think we can classify this under the category of who will care about it in 5 years or even next month. Laugh, then let it go.
Kids’ Papers
It’s so hard to keep up with all the papers that come home with our kids from school. Schedules, class rosters, lunch menus, and so much more. I know a lot of people that take pictures of the papers and then either toss the papers or set them aside. I completely understand wanting to have that information close at hand, but when the school year is over or the season is done, it’s time to delete it. Or better yet, move those photos into a note-taking app like Evernote.
Unintentional Photos and Videos
How many times have I taken a picture of the ceiling of the car or of my leg? Too many times to count! I’ve also been known to hit the video button on my phone instead of the still photo button. This has resulted in lots of nausea-inducing videos of no value. Does this sound familiar? Let’s delete them all.
Take 2 minutes a day to scroll back through your camera roll and delete some junk photos. Let those precious memories shine! How many can you delete?
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What a great blog! This is something I rarely think about. I try to delete unneeded emails but don’t think about the photos.
Those digital pictures are sneaky. We don’t think about them taking up a lot of space, but over time they do.
Those digital pictures are sneaky. We don’t think about them taking up a lot of space, but over time they do.
Oh, I have so much to do on this topic! Those “burst”photos are such a pain. I’m not even sure how I get those. I never put that setting on, but you are so right that they take up so much space. I always delete them when I find them in my photos. I could work on this every week I think!
Thanks, Seana! Bursts usually happen when you leave your finger on the button too long. They are a pain! Work on this a few minutes at time and you’ll make great progress.
Wow, Andi! These are such amazing tips. I didn’t know about the screenshot deletion feature on the iPhone. I don’t take that many screenshots, but I’m going to check it out and see what can go. Great suggestion. The main takeaway from your post is the idea of “giving me permission” to delete stuff. I hear that so often with clients. It’s not necessarily about digital photos, but other physical belongings. They express how liberating it feels to have that permission. And after reading your post, I’m feeling the same way. Just hearing your logic around how to make a decision in these various categories is so helpful. Giant THANK YOU!
Thanks, Linda. Screenshots are low-hanging fruit that are easy to deal with. I think granting permission makes people feel more comfortable to delete without guilt.
You are so right! I just traded in my iPhone 6S in December. It only had 16 GB of memory, total, and much of that was taken up my the system, so if I wanted to take more that a few photos, I had to offload a lot of other apps! I was constantly taking photos and then texting them to myself so I could delete them off my phone and have them when I got back to my desk! Trading up to a 12 means that for the first time in years, I don’t need to rush to delete imperfect photos. But I have to admit, since COVID started two years ago, I’ve hardly had any photos I’ve wanted/needed to keep — no group events, no restaurant meals.
I don’t think I’ve ever saved a meme to my phone. But I sure do plan to learn how to stop taking bursts and live photos!
I have a routine where I go through my photos every couple of weeks – any longer than that and it’s too big a job. These tips will be very helpful!
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