7 Easy Home Movie Organizing Tips

Do you take home movies?  What do you do with them after you make the movie?  Do you transfer them to your computer (affiliate), or do you upload them to social media?  What is the use of having home movies if you don't watch them again? I have done home movies since I was a teenager.  I took after my dad; he would always have a Sony video camera in his hand.  And I see myself doing the same thing: every event, family gathering, and vacation I have on DVD.  To prove to you how crazy I am about home movie organizing, here are my DVD binders (affiliate).  I have three of them!

Jump to:

• Key Takeaways
• Gather all the DVDs, VHS tapes, and digital files together and determine an order: 
• Not all footage is good quality footage:
• Convert VCR tapes to digital yourself by buying a software package:
• Converting Super 8 or 8 mm silent movies to digital can be tricky, but it can be done.
• Save these Home Movies to DVDs or use a secure personal cloud drive.
• Use a journal to keep track of all the special moments and video events you want to note.
• Back up the home movie videos:

Yes, I know; I have made my fair share of movies. Depending on how busy I was in my life, the film would reflect how glorified a home movie was created. But it can be overwhelming if you have home movies on other platforms that you can't access easily. Today, I am sharing tips to organize your home movies.

Below are seven easy tips to help you with your home movie organizing:

Gather all the DVDs, VHS tapes, and digital files together and determine an order: 

Doing this at the beginning helps you decide what you want to keep and what you want to discard. Some orders that may help you organize your thoughts on how to create a system for these home movie conversion processes are:

• Place videos in order by event dates.
• You can also order them by the featured person in the video.
• Order by recurring trips if you go to the same place each year. Having all these trips in one video allows you to see the transformation of everyone, especially kids.
• By events that happen that recur with each kid. A graduation party, a recital, a sports event, etc...

Now, let's make a spreadsheet like the one below that includes the following fields:

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The first section includes fields for the type of video and where it will be stored next.

• Name of Movie/Event  
• Original Format Type
• Sound/No Sound
• Converting On Date
• Digital Filename
• Backup To Place              

The following section will be about the movie and its details.

• Description of Video
• Date Made
• Location
• Occasion
• Leading Person
• Supporting Role
• Who Made It

Adding all this information about the home movies will help you when you need to stop and start up again. It will give you a place to track what you did and what you still need to do. You will need it when you are knee-deep in movie conversions.

Not all footage is good quality footage:

As you examine the footage, remember that not all footage may be transferable. Some may have been stored in areas that have accelerated the film's degradation. Allow yourself to get rid of this footage. It is sad, I know. You do not need to use all the videos to create a lovely home movie collection for your family.  If you can only use some of the footage, it is OK.

Another option, if there is footage you cannot use, is to substitute a slideshow of images from that same event. If someone is taking a video of a happy event, someone is probably taking pictures.

Convert VCR tapes to digital yourself by buying a software package:

If you want to convert your VHS tapes, buy a software converter that plugs into your VHS and your computer (affiliate) and converts the footage. Sending it out to get converted is quite expensive, especially if you have a lot of footage to convert. Below is an example of one I found on Amazon (affiliate) (affiliate).

Movie Converter -ClearClick Video to Digital Converter 3.0 (Third Generation)

Buy Now →

(affiliate)

Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon (affiliate), and at no additional cost, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase.

If you decide to choose a company to convert the images, be sure to check their copyright restrictions. You may not be able to edit the footage after you get it back, which could mean you get some not-so-flattering or low-quality footage right in the middle of the video. Be sure you know the scanning resolutions. Ask them to give you an idea of what resolutions they would be using.

Converting Super 8 or 8 mm silent movies to digital can be tricky, but it can be done.

I used the Real-time film transfer method. First, you need a white background, like a white tri-fold poster board. Then, I set up the Super 8 or 8 mm projector facing white tri-fold presentation cardboard and a whiteboard. In front of it, I placed the video camera with an SD card and zoomed in to adjust it, taking only the inside edges of the home movie instead of the white background.

It was a little blurry but pretty clear when we watched it on the computer (affiliate). If the movie is silent, we could add the music to the background with a song from that year or decade.

Update 2025: Since I did this, they came up with other options; below is one option to convert home movies to a digital format I found on Amazon (affiliate).

MovieMaker - Wolverine 8mm & Super 8 Reels to Digital MovieMaker Pro Film Digitizer

Buy Now →

(affiliate)

Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon (affiliate), and at no additional cost, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase.

Save these Home Movies to DVDs or use a secure personal cloud drive.

I plan to gather the kids' footage, place it on the drive, and give each kid their own collection of videos as a high school graduation gift (affiliate).

Use a journal to keep track of all the special moments and video events you want to note.

I had a little red journal (affiliate) where I would write all my videos, favorite moments and their time spot, and notes in the video when I had a lot to convert a home movie to digital. This helped me keep track of events and share those parts with another person in their special video, which held snippets of their life. This made my video conversion easy. A simple app like Premiere Elements by Adobe could take these snippets of home movie footage and collect them to create a whole new video for my family member. These notes also helped write up the DVD cover for the case and menu.

Home movies allow you to bring back special moments in your wonderful life. ~ Sabrina M Quairoli Share on X

Back up the home movie videos:

If anything happens to the DVDs, you will have a backup. Try keeping the digital files on a server that automatically backs up to an external cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive.

I have finally completed my parents' silent movie collection.  It has taken me several years, and about two specialty bulbs, and a lot of hard work and time. But I did it, and now all the silent movies are on DVDs. Now I can get rid of the Super 8 projector that has been in my house for years. So happy to get it done.

Do you love making movies for your family events? Check out our 7 Easy Home Movie Organizing tips for tips and inspiration. Share on X

I hope these tips help you with your home movie organizing. Now it is your turn. Do you have a family home movie collection?  How do you store it?  Do you make a movie or keep the raw footage on your devices?  Do you have any time to organize your home movies? Please leave a comment below.

I found other posts that may help you if you want more information.

How to Organize, Preserve and Digitize Home Movies

5 Tips for Organizing Your Home Movies

Visit my other keepsake articles for more tips:

Please note these are affiliate links through Amazon (affiliate), and at no additional cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase.