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Introduction

You may not be ready to donate your collection to a museum or archive, and that’s OK! Whether you have decided to store your personal collection at home permanently, or just want to keep it safe while determining where to house it, proper storage is very important. This document provides an overview of how to properly manage and care for your personal collection at home. 

Before deciding to manage your collection at home, make sure to carefully think through the challenges of managing your home collection:

  • Properly caring for collections can take a lot of work and space.
  • Storage is an on-going process, and no medium or material is safe forever.
  • Your personal collections may be very valuable to researchers and historians.
  • Technology and storage methods are constantly changing. This guide is meant to be an introduction, not a definitive authority.
  • See the Donating to an Archive or Museum Toolkit for more information on other options.

Storing Your Collection

  • When sorting through large collections, start by sorting materials into broad groups before narrowing down.
  • See Your Personal Archiving Project: Where Do You Start? for more information on sorting through materials.
  • Proper storage conditions are very important for preventing damage to your collection.
  • Collections should be kept in darkness in a clean, dry area with consistently moderate temperature and humidity levels.
  • See Personal Archives Preservation Guide for more information.
  • Improper storage materials can damage collections.
  • Storage materials should be acid-free. Note that being labelled “archival quality” does not guarantee a material is safe to use.
  • See this guide to Storage Materials for more information.
  • See the section “Archival Material Suppliers” below for a list of reputable archival material retailers in Canada.
  • Different types of materials may require special storage considerations. 
  • See the list “Storage by Media Type” below for resources on different formats.

Storage by Media Type

Digitizing Your Collection

  • Digitizing an item does not mean it is saved forever! 
  • Always keep and care for the original.
  • Digital collections also require proper storage and care.
  • See the Digital Materials links under “Storing Your Collection Properly.”
  • Your local public library may have equipment you can use as part of your digitizing project.
  • Read Home Photograph Digitization: A Step by Step Guide to learn how to take on a home photograph digitization project.

Digitizing by Media Type

Archival Material Suppliers