Scrapbooking: Getting Organized Is As Easy As ABC
A. Acquire archival quality photo boxes for all your scrapbooking photos. Decide on a negative storage system and purchase it before you begin. At this time you might want to have index prints made of your photos. An index print shows a thumbnail of each shot on a roll. You can take your old 35mm negatives and have an index print made for a reasonable fee ($1-$2.00). Start with the last roll of film you pick up after it was developed and put it into a storage box, then put the next one in back of it and then nest and then next. If you do not have time to go back and organize all of your old photos yet, at least let this be your starting point.
B. Begin working on getting all of your photos and scrapbooking memorabilia into one place. This task may take some time depending on how many places your photographs are stored. Look in the garage, attic, drawers, files, closets, old and new albums, frames around your house, old Christmas cards and letters from family members. In addition, think about all the photos that you have framed in your home. These photos will be the first to fade and deteriorate. Do you need to get copies made to put in a safe place, if so this is a great time to have the copies made. Lastly, If you know that there are family members that have photos that you would like copies of, now is the time to ask for copies.
C. Continue with any magnetic albums that are less than 5 years old. The majority of damage done to a photo is in its first 5 years. If you have multiple years of photos in magnetic albums, tackle the newest ones first and work your way up. Are your photos stuck in the magnetic albums? Try dental floss to remove them safely, or you may release the glue with a blow dryer on LOW HEAT for just a few minutes. The last option, if cannot be removed is to have copies made of the page. Kodak makes kiosks that will make a photo from a photo without having a negative. Now you will have all scrapbooking materials to begin.
Remember, that negatives stored inside of a fire-proof box may not withstand the heat of a fire. Do not rely on a fire proof box stored in your home to protect your scapbooking materials. In a fire-proof box, photos and negatives may survive the fire but could melt. If you live in an area that has earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes or other natural disasters, please consider extra safety precautions:
1. For a small monthly fee you can store photos on-line or store on in a safe deposit box.
2. Transfer the photos on to CD ROMs and store them in a safe deposit box.
3. Make an electronic scrapbook and place it on CD ROM.
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