What’s the best way to store old photos?
For years I’ve had two big scary boxes of old photos stuck at the back of a closet and I have finally decided to organize them all this weekend. The plan is to take them all out of their various envelopes and put them in about half a dozen shoe-boxes (or something shoe-box size) in different categories. But I’m not sure if the boxes should be plastic and airtight (rather than cardboard) or if the photos should be stored upright like file cards (rather than flat).
Help? 😕
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I’m not sure if plastic boxes are better for photos than cardboard- I purchased some photo boxes several years ago which appear to be made of hard cardboard covered with contact paper- but plastic tends to be better for storage in general, because many insects (including those of the gaaa! vareity) feed on glue and paste used on cardboard boxes and paper envelopes. Using plastic boxes could help protect from potential damage to the photos.
If insects aren’t an issue, cardboard should be fine.
In my personal experience, I’ve found that photos store better on their edges if they’re stored in some sort of plastic sleeve. Many of my photos have curled edges from being stored standing on edge. I’ve since switched to storing the photos I do not have in sleeves in lying flat in their boxes.
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I don’t think insects are a problem. I mean, they’ve been stored in a couple of those plastic stacking crates, in the envelopes from the photo shop or in plastic bags, for years now. None that I’ve gone through so far appear to have been eaten, but some have become stuck together (from the HEAT?) and so I thought that since I am finally organising them I should store them properly.
I suppose I could re-use the photo shop envelopes once I get the pics reorganised. It’s turning out to be quite a big job! Also a bit of an emotional one … strolling down memory lane, as it were.
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Going through old photos is indeed an emotional task. One can really run the gamut of emotions and it can be a bit exhausting. Viewing family photos- even other people’s- always makes me really sad.
Insects haven’t bothered any of my photos, either. A couple of years ago, I finally got them all into photo boxes and have since stored the boxes inside of my cedar chest (a dowry chest my grandma gave me). Small cedar chips or shavings, if the smell doesn’t bother you, might help eliminate some of the humidity-related sticking and deterioration.
I would think re-using the photo shop envelopes would be perfectly fine as well. you should then have no problem storing them either standing on edges or lying flat, either way.
Other than that, my only other suggestion would be to store the photos in as dark a place as possible when not viewing them, as UV rays fade photos.
Apparently, you should also try to avoid storing black and white and color photos (and negatives) too close to each other, as color photos deteriorate more rapidly. I did not know that!
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I just have all my photos shoved into a shoebox, which sits nicely in the cupboard next to the two empty photo albums. One of these days I’ll merge these entities.
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Well, we finally got our spare room organised and user-friendly once again, and so I’ve now got all the photos out on the table ready to be properly sorted.
I think before I buy boxes I need to find out how many categories there will be.
I also think this is going to be rather a poco á poco type job as the emotional stuff can get a bit overwhelming at times.
I’ve never been one for putting photos into albums … until Fotki came along. So after everything is organised I think I’ll be starting a few more albums there (though not looking forward to all that scanning! )
Do you think it’s worth saving the negatives at this point? After they’ve spent more than ten summers in a closet at more than 45º? I’ve always heard they should be stored in a cool dry place.
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