How to Better Organize Your Photo Studios

A cluttered studio turns simple decisions into scavenger hunts, and that bleeds into the work. Here's how to fix the issue.

Coming to you from Lindsay Adler Photography, this practical video lays out five studio organization systems that are meant to be used every day, not admired once and ignored. Adler starts with a blunt confession: early “organization” was cardboard boxes with labels, and it felt fine until the space and the gear grew. The real problem shows up when you know exactly what you need and still cannot find it. That moment forces bad choices, including buying a duplicate, then finding the original months later behind a V-flat. The point here is speed and reliability, not aesthetics, even if a clean wall happens to look good.

The first hack goes after the small items that get lost easiest, like filters and gobos. Instead of a “holder” that hides everything, Adler uses coin-collector pages in a binder so you can flip and see what you own, then label pockets by theme. That sounds almost too simple until you picture a shoot day where you want a specific pattern and you do not want to open five boxes to find it. She also separates “studio storage” from “take it on location,” which is a quiet but useful constraint. If the system is bulky, it stays home, and the travel kit gets its own logic.

Then she gets into charging and storage for bigger strobe batteries, using Profoto strobes as the example. The tension is real: batteries should not sit dead, and they also should not live on chargers forever, so the studio needs a visible middle zone. Her fix is a dedicated wall charging station with mounted chargers, labeled battery spots, and one power strip, so charge status is always in view. If you have ever started packing for a location job and realized you are gambling on battery levels, this section lands. It also hints at a broader idea: keep anything time-sensitive in a place your eyes naturally hit when you walk in.

Modifier storage is where most studios quietly fail, because softboxes, umbrellas, and reflectors are awkward shapes that turn into a leaning pile. Adler’s answer is the Westcott Float Mount Wall System, which is built around modular wall mounts and baskets so modifiers stop living on the floor. She mentions mount compatibility as part of the setup, including Profoto and Bowens options, which matters if you have mixed gear. The claim is not that you need her exact wall, but that a “pile” is a decision you are making every day, whether you admit it or not. She also shows a separate approach for color control: a shallow-drawer cart for gels, labeled by color families so an assistant can grab “the red drawer” without a back-and-forth conversation mid-shoot. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Adler.