Help me manage my iCloud storage - especially photos.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

My free iCloud storage is virtually full and I keep getting messages that my iPad and iPhone can't complete their backups a a result.

What do I really need to back up and store up there? Facebook, Twitter, kids games? What does it really mean when these apps are backed up? I'd obviously like things that I've paid for (music, books, films etc) to be kept, and my contacts need to stay but do I need anything else at all?

My photos take up a lot of space. I'm not sure how to organise them to be honest. I'd like an album for each year, then sub albums within them (eg in a 2014 album, I'd like sub albums for camping, birthdays, school events etc) - is this even possible? Once the photos are in an album - can I delete them from the my photo stream, imported photos and videos, camera roll, last import and all imported sections? Are they all duplicated in those places or if I delete them from there will they disappear from the albums?

Thanks for any help that anyone can give me - I'm pretty clueless when it comes to this type of thing!

I went with an external hard drive for photos and the like. It's wireless, so like our own personal cloud. We looked at cloud and this seemed the more secure option.
I found it easier in terms of management too.

Maybe get one for the 'forever files' - family photos etc. Then use your cloud for the more variable data?

Thanks. Can you name the name of the thing that you're using?

I'm not techy at all and DH is working mad hours atm so I didn't want to burden him with this as well.

It's a WD. We got it from Currys. I am also not technical. It's good and easy to use though.

Thanks, I'll have a look at that one.

I'm hoping it's very straightforward to link to the iPad because it sounds just the job!