Running an organized and totally tight ship is key to getting a family of five through the week. Drop one kiddo off here. Pick another one up there. Feed the toddler a (usually) healthy meal in the quick 30-minute window before the next kid shuttle run. Drive. Feed. Repeat. Nothing to it.
But under the surface, I need a little more help than I let on when it comes to organization and tech. During the workweek, you’ll find me lugging my laptop to swim lessons, desperately trying to connect to WiFi so I can work poolside and frantically hitting the “save” button every so often on all my documents (you just never know with technology).
These are all so many steps for an already-busy parent. Cloud storage seemed the logical place to look for a solution, and OneDrive helped me simplify and organize my tech hot mess in more ways than one.
Mornings are always a blur at our house, especially when there’s a birthday party in the mix. On the morning of my mid-kid’s 11th birthday party, I didn’t have time to do much more than sign up for OneDrive’s basic free cloud storage and download the app on my phone, before heading out to the pottery painting studio. That gave me just enough time to pick up the cake, balloons and two extra kids with only minutes to spare.
Once the party was in full swing, the kids got down to the serious business of painting ceramic mugs, gnomes and woodland animals—and I got to work capturing it all on my phone. Candid shot here. Posed smiles there. Sixty-three pictures later, the kids are singing Happy Birthday and making sure they get the exact piece of cake they want (no, not that one, that one) while I clean up.
Back at home, my newly minted 11-year-old broke into their gifts. I sat down with my laptop to see what this OneDrive personal cloud storage was all about. It didn’t take long to realize it’s about ease, organization and tech that works behind the scenes so you don’t have to. Lightening the load for busy parents? Yes, please!
With one click, I found all 63 pics from the party in My Files. After a few more clicks, they were sorted into an album I could save to look back on for years to come (cue the tears!). Hint: you can securely back up just about anything with OneDrive—images, videos, even documents (next birthday invite, anyone?).
Creating a doc of who gifted which “Mom, I can’t believe they got me this!” toy was just as simple. I’m also pretty sure this is the first time ever I’ve finished sorting through presents and documenting a thank you card list faster than my kids have finished off the birthday cake leftovers.
Spoiler alert! After my photo-storing and document-editing success with OneDrive Basic, I upgraded to a premium plan so I could securely access and edit files using Office apps between my devices, too. And that 1 TB of cloud storage…let’s just say it laughs in the face of my 5,772 photos and 76 videos.
The upgrade has also streamlined working on-the-go. Before heading out, I upload docs to the cloud and find them waiting for me on my tablet when I get to my destination. I can wave to my toddler as she swims by, and still finish up my workday without interruption before swim lessons are over (if I’m lucky). Plus: my team members can even access my working articles with a secured sharing link, where they can add comments and edits in real-time. Talk about a win-win.
After everyone’s fed and to bed, I turn on my laptop, open OneDrive and voila—find all the changes I’ve made there. All that’s left is to turn on Bedtime Backup, plug in my device and drift peacefully off to sleep.
In the morning, I know everything I need will be backed up to the cloud, safely stored and available on my devices wherever and whenever I need them, thanks to OneDrive.
