Backing Up Pictures Using CDs

I've been meaning to do this for awhile now.

And last week, I finally got around to it!

My photos were already organized on the computer,

so it didn't take me very long to do this. 

Deciding which pictures to put on the CD covers, and case covers took the longest ;)

Before we went to California, I had stopped at Office Max for some stuff

and found these on sale, and they worked PERFECTLY.

(Please excuse my iphone pictures)

I thought about using DVDs instead of CDs, but I've been told CDs have a 

better success rate for burning correctly and in a shorter period of time.  

On the back of the CD labels and inserts, it directs you to a Memorex website to download their 

software to use with these, and let me tell you, it made it a lot easier!

It also gives you diagrams when you print, so you can make sure to print it the right way

(I still tested it though, I'm weird like that)

On my computer, I have my pictures organized according to year.

From there it goes to month, and event. 

This system is just what works best for me,

but there are so many different ways to organize them!

When I was choosing pictures for the CD labels, and case inserts,

I tried to be consistent. 

On the labels, I stuck with more "photography" shots,

and for the inserts I used "pictures"

I just think it's kind of fun to see how we grew every year :) 

Once the CD was burned with the pictures on them, I popped them into my laptop, just to make sure the pictures were burned correctly. You could easily just pop it back into the same computer you made the CD on and get the same results though :)

I would burn the CD before putting the label on it, just because sometimes burning doesn't go as planned

(A little note: some years took more than one CDs... I guess I take a lot of pictures.. haha)

I'm looking for a cute container to store them in, but for now I just stuck them back in the little box they came in. 

How do you guys organize your photos? How do you back them up?

I'm thinking about getting an external hard drive sometime soon as another way to back up pictures.

A couple years ago, I lost most of my pictures, so now I try to keep them backed up.

(My pictures are now on one computer, one laptop, USB drive, and CDs... An external hard drive would probably be so much easier!)