What Are Three Quick Preservation Tips?

Here’s three quick photo preservation tips to save your family’s treasured photos, film, memorabilia and more.

One – Start Today

As the American Library Association states, “the most important part of a preservation effort is taking the first step.” Here’s a few reasons why you want to start today!

• Too often, families wait until someone has passed away to go through old albums and bins. By starting today, you may be fortunate to talk with your older family members about the stories in those photos and pieces of memorabilia.
• When you get a glimpse of the history you are preserving, you may get the motivation and inspiration to get you through organizing it all!
• You will feel an immense sense of relief and maybe even joy!

Two – Protect Your Photos, Film & Memorabilia

By moving old photo albums, bins, etc. to a safer place, you may prevent further damage to old photos. This includes fading, water or humidity damage and general disintegration.

• Get your photos, film and memorabilia out of the attic and/or the basement.
• Handle items gently while still fully supporting them
• Use acid free boxes, folders or archival sleeves. Our favorite archival box is the Legacy Box.

Three – Label Your Items

Even if you don’t have the time to go through everything, it’s important to label what you do know. If you can sit with an older family member who can help with this that’s even better. Here’s a few ideas to help with labeling.

• Use archival file folders and labels for batches of items that can be reviewed in detail later. We recommend Archival Methods for their File Folders.
• Gently write with an archival pencil (Stabilo Pencil) on the back of photos
• Use full names when identifying items (simply writing Dad or Mom could be confusing to future generations.)

These are just a few tips to get started with photo preservation and preserving your other media like film, video, memorabilia and important documents.

If you’d like to tackle all of your photo collection, consider watching our Photo Estate series. We provide step-by-step directions to organize your family memories once and for all!

Need routine motivation to keep on track with your memories? Click here to learn about our PixJourney Group.