Save Your Photos is a global event intended to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding our treasured photos. As digital photography continues to grow, at times it feels like we can't keep up with the digital deluge.

But, don't despair, today I'm here with some easy steps to help you save your photos.

Got ten minutes? Backup your photos!

Yes, seriously! Head to Crashplan, Backblaze, or your other online service of choice, spend less than $100, download their software, set it running and have the peace of mind that all your photos are safely backed up.

Backing up may be boring but it doesn't have to take long to get started.

I recommend having an automated system so you don't need to remember to back up.
See my system here.

You can also use a service like Flickr or Smugmug. For example, an wi-fi enabled camera can upload to Flickr direct from your camera.

When you back up, a hard drive failure can be just a blip, rather than a headache.

Got an hour? Gather your photos!

So where are your photos hiding?

Phones? Computers? Shoe boxes?

What about memorabilia, slides and movies?

I've prepared this printable checklist to send you on a treasure hunt around your house and your hard drive.

Once you have your photos in one place, you can work on a plan of action to
get them organised.

The average family has thousands of prints, negatives and slides in their home.

Got a day? Scan your photos!

If you have a collection of photos, negatives or slides your best bet is to digitize them too, so they can be easily preserved. Photographic mediums degrade slowly over time, and the acidic papers and glues in some older photo albums mean that a digital copy will last much longer than the originals.

The beauty of having a scanned photo is that you can preserve your family photo albums intact, for a long as they last, without having to remove the original photos and captions. I'm even leaving my baby photos in the original album my mum made for me, as it's precious to have her handwriting and layouts. I've got the negatives ready to scan and use, I've even scrapped a few already!

The great news is that you can use services such as Forever to get the scanning done in a fraction of the time, it would take to do them yourself - and they remain in the US. In other countries, there are local scanning services you can use. Home movies are especially fragile, but thankfully there are many services to convert them to DVD and files you can open on your computer.

Don't let your photos get lonely

It's all well and good to have your photos backed up but if you can't find them to print or scrap with them, then you are missing out on the fun of having photos in your life.

In Organizing for Absolute Beginners you will kick start your organizing process with simple, 15-minute challenges that will get you on track to manage your photos.

Now, go save your photos!