Photo albums and books may look like regular books, but they are not, as they preserve special moments such as wedding photos, engagement photos, graduation photos, or pictures from other important occasions.
Anyone who owns one would want to keep it safe for a lifetime, for future generations, or as old memories (A priceless memories). If the photos of the special occasion or event in your album get damaged, they cannot be easily restored. For this reason, we have created an expert-level guide to help you protect your album for over 100 years. Let’s explore the different methods and techniques!
Tips to Keep Your Albums and Photo Books Safe
These six methods provide nearly complete safety coverage. By following these techniques, you can eliminate any fear of album damage, photo damage, album loss, or other potential issues.
Handle Photo Books and Albums Carefully
It’s simple logic—if we don’t take proper care of something, it will gradually get damaged over time due to external factors. The same applies to photo albums—if we don’t handle them with care, their pages can get damaged.
The key points to ensure proper care are:
- Don’t turn the pages quickly, as this can cause tearing. Always take your time and turn the pages slowly.
- Clean your hands or use cotton gloves when handling photo albums, as our hands often contain dirt, salt, or oils that can easily transfer to the album pages, affecting their quality over time.
- Store the album in a separate, personal space where no heavy objects are placed on it.
- For extra protection, consider placing your album’s pages in glass sleeves or frames—this will provide added peace of mind.
- If any dirt, oil, or other substances get on the photo album’s pages, we advise you to gently clean them with a dry, soft cloth.
Keep Them Away from Humidity and Sunlight
The air contains water, known as humidity, which can be harmful to our albums as it can lead to mold growth, fading, discolouration and other issues.
Therefore, always try to store your albums in a place where the humidity is balanced. Both low and high humidity can affect the pages equally, so balanced humidity is good to consider for your album.
In short, both of these conditions, humidity and sunlight, are harmful to your albums. If you want to preserve your albums for your kids, childrens, or as priceless memories , these are among the factors to avoid.
Avoid High-Activity Areas
Photo albums are rare as they contain priceless events, occasions, and milestones that can’t be recovered if lost from the album. So try to keep your album in a place where human activity is very rare. If you can’t take care of it, accidentally, your album can get damaged by someone.
Store Them Flat for Longevity
Keep your albums horizontal and try to avoid storing them vertically, as over time, the album pages may warp if kept in a vertical position. Storing albums horizontally applies slight pressure on the pages, preventing them from warping. This way, you can preserve your albums in the same condition for a lifetime.
Use Archival Boxes
If we call it the best and most effective method or way to keep your album safe for years, we’ll be right because these archival boxes are specially created to protect photo albums from UV rays, dust, humidity, and other environmental conditions. This makes them ideal for photo albums, as they help prevent common damage caused by environmental factors.
The important thing to note is that we also offer boxes with our photo albums to keep them safe for decades. So, you can also order a box while ordering any photo book such as a pro album, wooden album, glass cover known as acrylic cover album and softcover album.
Keep a Digital Copy as Well
No one can say that they’ll keep a specific album safe for a lifetime, as changes are beyond our control. For example, it could get damaged by a child, an accidental fire, or other possible situations. Therefore, everyone should keep a digital backup of the album.
Firstly, scan your album photos using Google Photoscan or Microsoft Lens. These are the best options for this task. After that, organize the photos into a specific folder, sorting them by dates, events, and other categories.
The next step you should take is to use digital storage platforms such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and others to save your photos for a lifetime. This will help you avoid the fear of losing your album, the only thing you should remember is account credentials and that’s it, your album will be safe forever in digital form.
Conclusion
Photo albums hold special memories, like pictures from weddings, graduations, or other important moments. These memories are priceless, so it’s important to keep them safe for years to come. Damaged photos can’t be easily restored, so careful handling is key—turn pages slowly and use clean hands or cotton gloves. Store albums flat, away from heavy objects, moisture, and sunlight, as both can harm the pages.
Using archival boxes protects your albums from dust and environmental damage. Additionally, keeping a digital backup of your photos ensures you won’t lose them. Following these simple steps will help keep your albums safe and your memories alive.