Recommended Resources
These are some products that I recommend when organizing your photo collection.
Labeling Pencils:
If you are working with printed photos, these are a must. The soft, waxy lead will ensure that there is no indentation on your photos and if you are stacking photos, nothing will bleed onto the fronts of your pictures.
Spatula:
If you are removing photos from albums, the spatula will help easily pop the photos out.
Glue Eraser:
The glue eraser will get any residue off the backs of your photos which is essential before scanning and important so your photos do not stick to one another.
Archival Storage:
This box by Archival methods is perfect for storing 4x6 photos. It measures 6 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 4 1/2.
Archival Methods 4x6 Short Top Box
If you’ve got 5x7 as well as 4x6 photos to store together, this box will do the trick! Holds 4x6 and 5x7 photos. It measures 8-1/8 x 10-1/2 x 5-1/8''
Archival Methods 5x8 Short Top Box
External Hard Drives:
These external hard drives can work with either Mac or PC.
Not sure which one is the right size? Take a look at how much space your current photo collection is taking up. Double that amount. So, if you are currently using 1 TB of space, get a 2 TB hard drive.
Hard drives are a much more reliable medium for storing data than flash drives, CD’s, SD cards etc. They are also portable so you can store them in a secure location.
2 tb western digital external hard drive
SSD External Hard Drives:
If you want to invest in a more durable product, a solid state drive might be what you want. Without the moving parts of an HDD (Hard disk drive) these are thought to be more reliable. Certainly not a must have but not a bad idea if you are going to store your entire photo collection on it.
If you’d like to read more about the difference between SSD and HDD, I found this article helpful.
SanDisk 2TB Portable External SSD
Photo Scanners
This is the flatbed scanner that I use. It is relatively inexpensive for the quality you get. It comes with inserts that enable you to scan slides and negatives as well.
Epson perfection v600 photo scanner
I have not used the scanner below before but it is from the same line as the one I use and less than half the cost. It does not scan slides or negatives which is one of the reasons why it is priced lower.
Epson perfection v39 photo scanner
If you have a great deal of photos to scan you might consider a high speed scanner. It is a much bigger investment.
Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.