The Moving Planner Blog

It does not matter if you are moving and need to keep photographs safe during transport, or if you simply have some old photos laying around that you would be lost without, there are many storage techniques you can utilize to keep them safe.

Moving Framed Photos

If you have photos that are already in frames, you don’t necessarily need to wrap each frame with newspaper and stack them all in one box together. Not only will you be devastated if something happens to this one box, the weight from all the frames may prove to be very heavy. Why not place one frame in each one of your boxes or suitcases with clothing towels or blankets? Place it between two big soft hoodies and it will stay nice and secure.

Go Digital

If you have shoe boxes of old photos lying around from before you bought your new digital camera, they should be scanned and put on CD. Understand that printed photos don’t last forever. Not only that, once they endure water damage, fading, etc., you really can’t reverse this, and there is only so much photo restoration can do.

Spend a rainy day scanning all of these photos and then putting them on CDs. You can still keep the old photos, but at least you have a safe copy of them should they become damaged.

Utilize Your Safe

Do you have a safe or a lock box? Most people do! Can you think of anything more deserving of protection than captured memories that you can’t duplicate? Your safe can hold both printed photos as well as your CDs full of them. If you don’t have a home safe, it is time to invest in one. You can find them fairly inexpensive. Choose one that is fire-resistant! If you live in an area prone to flooding or hurricanes, you should make sure that it is waterproof as well.

Plastic Bags

If you have some really special photos, or if you simply want to make sure the ones you have will still be in good shape when your kids are old enough to appreciate them, then you can store them in plastic sandwich bags. You need bags, labels and a pen.

If your photos are in old albums, you want to carefully remove them. These old albums traditionally have magnetic or peel-and-stick pages that can damage photos. Remove any staples, paperclips and tape, if you can get the tape off without causing damage.

Now, place each photo in its own bag and give it a label that says who is in the picture and when and where it was taken. Store all these photos in an acid-free storage box.

Show Them Off

As long as you have backups saved on a CD, there is no reason to keep photos stored away in a closet. Scrapbooks are a creative way to display photos, and you can never have too many lying around for guests to flip through. They make great gifts too, so if you have a lot of photos with your best friend, make them a scrapbook.

If you have a new baby, you can start a new scrapbook every year. When they get older, they will love flipping through them!