Storing Family Photos and Documents

Even when most of your family photos and documents are disorganized, and perhaps tucked away in shoe boxes, there are some simple steps that can be taken to help preserve them until you have decided about how to best organize and share them.

Understanding some of the major factors that impact the useful life of photo images can help you to take some very simple and inexpensive steps to better preserve your collection until you decide on additional organizing and sharing projects.

Temperature and Humidity - Museums strive to maintain stable and moderate temperatures and humidity levels to protect all sorts of items in their collections, including photos. Extremes can accelerate natural and harmful chemical reactions that lead to deterioration and discoloration. Although museums monitor and target for specific levels of temperature and humidity, the rule of thumb is to store photos and documents at temperature and humidity levels that are comfortable to humans. Therefore, attics, basements, and garages should be avoided. Rather, it is far better to store photos and documents in living spaces.

Ventilation - Certain natural chemical reactions result in chemical fumes that, if not ventilated, may accelerate ongoing reactions and overall deterioration. Therefore, storing collections in areas that have some level of ventilation can be helpful.

Exposure to Light and Pollutants - Clearly exposure to certain types of light can be harmful. Somewhat less obvious is the damage that can be done by pollutants including pollen, dust, mold, smoke, chemical fumes, and others. Some pollutants can scratch or damage surfaces, while others can react with chemicals natural to photos.

There are many additional factors to consider such as the acidity of the boxes in which photos or documents may be stored, and the potentially harmful effects caused by foreign materials often stored with photos and documents such as tapes, glues, rubber bands, paper clips, and other items.

For more information and quick tips on storing photos to delay natural image deterioration, and to avoid preventable deterioration, see the Storing section at LocalArchiver.com. The Preservation Resources section at LocalArchiver.com provides links to a couple of leading sources of archival quality storage solutions.