Archiving Your Memories

Scrapbooking is a passion of mine. I started right before my eldest son was born. After getting the ultrasound, I needed a place for the pictures. Voila! Another scrapbooking maniac was born.

I live in a city where many people joke about my hobby. They do not realize it is more about archiving their family’s history and paraphernalia rather than a homemaker hobby, as one friend called it. A few years ago, I decided to interview my grandmother, her brothers, and my mom who was the eldest of the cousins in her generation. The stories they told were new to me and fascinating! Now we have them, captured forever.

Do you even know where your photographs are? I am positive that unless you are a scrapbooker, your photos are in a box, hidden from the people who would most enjoy them. Why not stick them on a piece of paper and put that piece of paper in a scrapbook? It does not have to be expensive at all, just acid-free so the memories last more than ten years. This is about how long it takes for the paper, especially newspapers, to start disintegrating. If the paper and various other elements are acid-free, the photos and any journaling you may have done, can last upward of 100 years.

So, take those Easter egg hunt pictures you are about to take and stick them on a piece of acid-free paper. After that, you can tell the story of the photo using an acid-free pen, and then stick the whole thing in a scrapbook album. Future generations will appreciate your efforts. Who knows? You may become a maniac scrapbooker, too.