Photographs are memories that we have and they capture a moment in time that will never happen again. Without photos, you will only be able to visualize what you remember from the event and you will not have any piece of existence of that memory.
Many people look at photos as they reminisce about their life or they show photos to others when they want to let someone know what their relatives looked like or what they looked like as a baby. You can document any part of your life from a failure to an achievement through a photograph.
Since photos are so important, it is vital that you properly store them to ensure they last over the years. If you do not, then you will find that the image is faded and sometimes completely gone by the time you recover the photos.
- Gather Your Photos and Sort Them
The first step in the process is to gather all of your photos and place them into one big pile. You should grab any photo albums you have and remove the phots from them, especially if they are the sticky album sheets. The glue on these sheets often eat through the photograph and ruin it over long periods of time.
Once you have all of your photos, separate them into memories or time periods. For example, you could have a pile that is from when you were an infant and then a pile from one of your achievements.
- Upload Them to Your Computer
Since today has moved into a digital age, it is common to store items on your computer or even on an external hard drive. If you upload your pictures to your computer, you will have them forever, even if you lose the hard copy.
There are photo scanning machines that you can buy or rent. These machines will take the photo, scan it, and place it on your computer where you can then save it and place it somewhere you can access it later.
- Protect Your Photos
Now it is time to protect your photos. To do this, you should place them in an appropriate storage box that is designed for pictures. The best boxes include acid-free, archival boxes, as these are specifically designed to keep your photos protected for many years.
You can place your photos in a storage unit, but you do need to make sure you choose a climate-controlled and humidity-controlled unit that is checked and monitored regularly. You do not want your photos to be exposed to sunlight, humidity, or dust, as these things can ruin the quality of the image or completely ruin the photo itself.
If you have photographs that you want to store, it is important that you store them properly to ensure their quality and to preserve your memory. If you are concerned about your photos in storage, simply check on them often to ensure they are still intact. If you notice any signs of damage, remove them and restore them after you have had time to properly protect the photos.
