Acid Free Storage Boxes for Archiving Newspapers

During the process of cleaning out the house and preparing it for sale, I came across some old newspapers that I had put away for posterity.  They were in a banker's box in the attic.  I had completely forgotten that I had these newspapers and I was most pleased to find them.  I'm sure most of us have an old newspaper or magazine that we kept for one reason or another.  Maybe there was an article or story that you liked.  Or maybe you are saving them for future generations.  Whatever the reason, you want to make sure that you store them properly so they will last for as long as possible.  In a banker's box, sitting in a hot attic is not the proper way to do that.  I found a company online that sells archival storage boxes and related items and here is what I did to preserve my newspapers.


The name of the company from which I ordered the boxes is Get Smart Products.  You can find them at www.getsmartproducts.com.  They sell quite an array of archival products.  I bought one heavy-duty large box that holds items up to 12" x 12".


Here is a picture of the box out of the plastic overwrap.  This is a nice sturdy box and it has a label holder on the front, which is always nice.


Inside, very clean.  Nicely assembled.  Oh, and they come already assembled, so you don't have to worry with putting them together.  That's very nice since most things you order online come "unassembled" to save on shipping.


In with the first newspaper.  The all-too-sad news of the death of Elizabeth Taylor back in 2011.  March 23, 2011.  Hard to believe she has been gone that long.


Since my plan is to place several newspapers in this one box, I ordered a set of 12 of these black insert pages that are also 12" x 12", so they will fit inside the box perfectly.  One of these goes between each newspaper.


These are a lighter weight material than the actual box, and naturally so.  There is no need for these to be as rigid as the box.  They are rather flexible much like cardstock you would have in your office.  I would say somewhere between 67 - 90 lb paper.  These are actually scrapbook insert pages, but they will work perfectly for this project as well.


You see that they fit perfectly inside the box.  I positioned this one so you could see the New York Post underneath.


Then, on top of the insert page, a copy of USA Today with our darling Liz on the front cover again.  I suppose I should not refer to her as Liz since she hated that.  I think the only person who could call her that without receiving her wrath was Richard Burton.  I imagine even he was met with disdain when he dared.


Finally, I measured the opening on the label holder and then created a text box in Word that was the correct size and printed the label on white cardstock.  The text box feature in Word is perfect for this project.  You just get your dimensions and enter them in the document, print, and then cut out around the outline of the box and insert the label.  I doubled the height of the text box so I could fold the label in half before inserting in the holder.  That makes for a more substantial label that will not move around easily.

So there you have a quick lesson on the proper way to store your old print materials so they will last for a good long time.  I will eventually hand these down to my niece and nephew.  I also have a stack of Life Magazines from the seventies and eighties that I will be archiving soon.  Well, as soon as I can find them in the storage locker. 

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