Magnetic photo albums are not archival. They will accelerate problems.

Do you have magnetic photo albums? Here’s a video from the Smithsonian with a neat trick on how to detach hard to remove photos.  The floss is a good trick/technique but be sure to use weights to hold down the page while detaching the photo, as she has demonstrated. It makes the job much easier!

After the photo is detached and in the interim of doing something long term with the photo, this quick video shows a good next step for cheap, quick, easy archival storage:

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Scott M. Haskins

Do you have piles of important photos, certificates, letters?

What do you do when you inherit a large box of photos and other family history items and you want to protect and preserve them, but don’t have time to get organized, make cute scrapbooks and be “everything you can be”?!

Women’s World Magazine recently interviewed me for information on what can a busy woman can do at home, on her own, really quickly, if she spills her morning ‘Joe’ or a glass of liquid on some photos. I mentioned about the process of writing the article a couple of times on my Facebook Page at “Save Your Stuff.”

Then I got an earnest request from a well-known preservation official in the Dallas City government telling me she had just received a box of family history items after the passing of a parent and what should she do to organize and preserve them? She’s a VERY busy executive with no “down time.”  See my blog post at http://saveyourstuffblog.com/scrapbook/help-i-inherited-a-pile-of-family-photos-and-scrapbooks/

That got me to thinking about writing this blog post article target for busy people who need a fast, easy, even fun way to get things out of the cardboard box, off the garage floor, out of harm’s way with the minimal amount of effort… and expense.

Not only am I going to make your life easier, help you have a warm sense of satisfaction for accomplishing a task important to you but I’m going to be simple in my explanation AND make you a video to see how its done… just for those of you who are more visual. Continue Reading “Inexpensive and Fast Archival Method For Storing Photos, Letters and Certificates the Best Way – 7 Easy Steps, A Video Testimonial and a Quick Instructional Video”»

This question (and answer) is reproduced here for the benefit of all… this is a very common situation that appeals to the heart of family history.

To Scott,

Thank you for the photo archival information that you sent to me as the Preservation Tips that I signed up for on www.saveyourstuffblog.com. It’s been very useful.

I put the info in your book to use recently. I found a ton of photos of my parents from the 1940s on… A lot of photos of my dad’s from WW2. I quickly put them in photo albums to protect them per your recommendation. I, also, found a scrapbook of my Mother’s from the 40s that’s falling apart. She wrote names on the paper pages so I need to retain those mounting pages, but they are disintegrating. The photos are attached with those corner triangular shaped things that the photos slide into. Any ideas?

Louise Elam

Park and Rec Dept. (Care of Public Art Work)

City of Dallas, TX

Piles of family photos handed down from relatives

Louise,

Congratulations of taking action! There are two things you can/should do:

Continue Reading “Help, I Inherited A Pile Of Family Photos and Scrapbooks!”»

Recently, my nephew got married to a really great girl. We are thrilled to have her in our family. Their story of how they met, how they romanced each other and how the proposal went was sooo cute and it was all illustrated in a scrapbook next to the sign-in book at the reception. Everyone got a kick out of looking through it. What a priceless piece of family history that was JUST created! I would be heart sick to know that because of moving or because of some other casual forgetfulness that this scrapbook of memories was to be lost… So, here are some tips to protect, preserve and save these treasured memories:

What do you have to do to make this photo archival? Continue Reading “Dating scrapbook, wedding photo album, family memories- 3 Survival Tips”»