"Frank ess" wrote in message
...
Scott W wrote:
brian wrote:
Hello all

I have a project to try and organize a chest of photos, negatives
and slides that I have accumulated over that last 30 years.
Currently I have a large chest that holds all the materials.

snip serious query and useful response


This may not work for everyone but this is what I find works well for
me.

Scott

Whichever kind of scheme you settle on, keep this in mind: your negatives,
prints, and slides are treasures of great value. Once scanned, archived,
and data files stored in more than one copy, more than one place, you are
protected against loss to some degree.

The originals can be protected, also, but it is a bit more difficult. You
mention acid-free materials. Good. But that is not all. Unless you have a
fireproof safe that will accommodate the bulk, or a vault somewhere, I'd
bet they will be gathered together in a home. Homes burn down. Ask the
victims of the Cedar Fire in Southern California. Nearly 2,000 complete
losses. What was the refrain? "We can replace everything but our
photographs".

So it's reasonable to think about portability if you live in a wildfire
area. I had my most valuable materials in a half-dozen plastic storage
bins of the $6-at-Costco variety, for convenience. When the Cedar Fire
came our direction we loaded them into the back of the pickup, first. Then
shut down the computers, packed the external hard drives, data CD-ROMs and
DVDs into another bin, and had all the important stuff ready to roll,
before thinking about food, clothing, and other survival supplies. Fifteen
minutes and we could have been on the road with almost everything that was
unrecoverable.

Standard filing cabinets would be too big and waste too much space to
accommodate the same amount of stuff.

The most _most_ valuable stuff is in a bin that is quickly accessible. I
could throw it out a window in seconds. Other stuff is deeper in the stack
or farther from the exits. We now have other bins of supplies at the
ready, and rotate the perishable contents every six months or so; new into
the bin, old to the table.

None of this may be important to you, now. I didn't think much about it
until the fire was headed at us and the air was so thick with smoke the
sun barely came through and breathing was painful.
http://www.fototime.com/46CCBF5D4BE8575/orig.jpg

I am hopeful that I'll never have to take advantage of the preparation
we've done since, and that no one else will suffer serious losses, but
there is always the chance.

--
Frank ess

Incredible story! Glad to hear that your forethought and preparations paid
off.