Photo Storage

Hey there!

I always mention projects that use photos in them. Flipbooks, mini albums, scrapbook layouts, even some of my sentiment cards have photos or photo spots in them. I do this because I take a lot of pictures. That means that I print out a lot of photos. If you are like me and take a lot of pictures, you might have the problem of where on earth should you keep all of those pictures once you print them but before you use them in a project.

I have several types of photo containers. I have tried many things over the years and have decided on two favorites but I’ll tell you about everything that I have used.

Basic, basic is keeping your photos in the envelopes that you get when you order them from the photo processor. It’s not a good idea though. Many of those envelopes are not acid free and could ruin your photos over time. It’s okay to keep them in these envelopes temporarily but I wouldn’t keep them in the envelopes long.

I have purchased several acid free photo envelopes from the Container Store. I use them when I have printed out photos and plan to use them within a week or two or, if I am going to peek through the pictures for a weekend of scrapbooking or project life. If I am working on, let’s say birthday weekend project life layouts, I’ll add several photos to an acid free photo envelope and choose them as I work on my project. Normally there will be fewer than 50 photos. I paid about $1.99 per envelope. The Container Store has smaller and larger ones.

Many stores sell photo boxes. You can hold over 1000 photos in them and they are compact and easy to store on shelves. Most of them are acid free but I’d definitely read each box just to be sure. The photo boxes go on sale a lot ($2.50 - $5.00) and you can match them to your decor.

If you are working on a project you can also invest in these plastic photo keeper. They are my number 2 preferred photo container. The Container Store sells them but so do the craft stores. You can get them individually or in a set. I purchased a 16 case box but I plan to use these boxes for ephemera sets. Each case is supposed to hold 100 photos so each 16 case box will hold about 1600 photos. They are also acid free. I purchased my box on sale for $19.99 but individual boxes can go for $2.99 (or half of that if you wait for a sale).

Sometimes I go fancy. You know that. Sometimes I want my photo holder to reflect the photos inside. So, I have several boxes that I have picked up at stores like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Ross and the like. I try to find ones that match the photos that I have. This box is clearly for my London pictures! It’s my number 1 pick for photo containment.

It does matter where you keep your photos. You want to make sure you have an acid free container but you also want to make sure that you know what photos you have. There are very few things that are worse than printing a bunch of photos and then loosing them. Make sure that you have a container that lives in a space that you will remember.

And, make sure you do something with those photos. The only thing worse than loosing those photos is not displaying them for everyone to enjoy!