When I connected with Maura Malloy, I knew we were destined to be pals! With a TedX talk on minimalism under her belt, a beautiful home where she so eloquently executes a minimalist, yet creative style and a mutual love of capturing way too many photos in life, there was no stopping our conversation.

She shared that she made annual heirloom albums and how she approached combing through the madness of iPhone photos in digestible chunks throughout the year, with a yearly goal of creating something to be cherished by generations to come.

She took things one step further and created a magical course explaining her step-by-step process and I just knew I needed to share with you. Because organizing your photos is one of the most daunting organizational tasks around, one we get asked about all of the time, and this is the perfect way to finally take control.

So let’s turn it over to Maura to share the inspiration and background of her Annual Heirloom Course.

According to a Business Insider projection: People would take one hundred billion more photos than the prior year.

And that projection was for 2017.

Five years ago.

One hundred billion more photos.

Before smartphones, we didn’t carry around cameras 24 hours a day. I can list the top five photos that defined my childhood on one hand. Don’t ask me to choose the top five photos of my daughter’s first month of life.

While the number of pictures we snap is staggering, it’s so great, right?! Who cares if I blink anymore! Snap another! Sun in your eyes? Let’s just adjust our position and let the camera do the work (#portraitmode). I love love love what smartphones now offer us.

But what are we doing with those photos?! I scroll social media as much as the next person, but that’s not an album. Frankly, those collections don’t even really belong to me. Instagram could go dark again for all we know. Bye-bye, highly curated grid.

I make annual albums for these reasons and more…

I want my daughter to page through books instead of scroll my phone. I want to page through books instead of scroll my phone!

I want to chart my life – to remember not just the big moments, but also the random little segments that are so particular to us, but also so fleeting. Were we not to come across the image, maybe the memory would be lost down the road.

I want to remember the friends I got to hug. So many of mine live far, far away – banded together by college years, or graduate school years, or Brooklyn years - then off to the far corners of the country to pursue new chapters.

I want a place to display the professional family photos – but I only have so much real estate on my walls. I’d rather swap out family photos in a chosen few frames, then display the rest in my album.

For years, this goal of an annual album remained on my To-Do List. Never checked off. It felt too overwhelming even to begin. I’d start researching how to organize photos. I’d get overwhelmed by the options. The storage software alone felt daunting. Everyone’s choice is the best choice (according to them). Don’t get me started on all the album-making services. A new software would come on the market and lure me with its Newness. The overwhelm froze me.

As the years passed by, the project felt more and more daunting. I was swimming in photos – and I knew I was only aware of a portion of them. Guess what? My husband has a smartphone, too. PLUS, he even has a fancy camera. For every different device, it seemed like the photos were stored in different places. And since I didn’t know where they all were, I didn’t want to start an album. What if I worked my butt off to create one, only to then come across the folder of my baby eating solid foods after I’d ordered the album.

“Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.”

So, to create an album, I first had to know what I was dealing with. I’d build up the courage to dive in, finally find all the photos and bring them together, only to fail. I’d mess up a HUGE transfer - and then I didn’t know if I’d lost them all or just some of them... I’d throw in the towel. Defeated and afraid I’d make more of a mess than I already had. A year would go by. Rinse & repeat.

I considered hiring a professional. But they are expensive! And I didn’t just need to organize the backlog, I needed a system that I could do moving forward so that I’d never get backlogged again.

After five years of stops and starts, I cracked the code. I so believe in my simple systems and methods, that I used my years of teaching experience to create the digital course The Annual Heirloom Album. We use Microsoft OneDrive to organize, and Mixbook to create albums. When you buy the course, you get LIFETIME ACCESS to it. (Meaning, when the class gets updates, YOU reap the rewards.) Work at your pace, on your own timeline. (But trust I’ve built-in accountability methods so that you reach the finish line.) Broken down into step-by-step instructions, I offer tips and tricks to methodically work through your collection. Then I teach you how to make a simple, stylish album a year that includes all your favorite images without it becoming the size of an encyclopedia.

But there’s more! In relaunching the course, I’ve added a whole new section for home videos. I created a system to organize and log the videos, with tips & tricks to create an annual home video a year. (Or any highlight reel of any theme of your choosing!) It’s easy once you’re organized.

I’m on a mission to ditch digital clutter once and for all. I can’t WAIT to see you do the same.

The Baer Minimalist helps busy families create ORGANIZED + STYLIZED spaces throughout Indianapolis. She’s been a longtime fan of an annual album and got caught up while nesting/awaiting twins. And then promptly fell behind in 2021. So let’s all do this thing together.

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Introducing The Annual Heirloom Album