To answer this question let me start with a story. This story is both happy & sad. In 2018 my mother-in-law passaed away. My wife and I were faced with the task of going through her belongings to sort them out. Making the tough desisions of what to keep, donate or discard was the order of the day. By day I mean month. I did what could to make it easier for my wife. Understandably it was a diffacult for her and for me as well.one afternoon I was sorting thought what appeared to be junk stored in cardboard boxes on the back porch exposed to to our Bossier City weather. If you live in Louisiana you know how hot and humid it can get here. Not idea storage conditions for something both fragile and precious. I started to toss the whole box but something stopped me. I’m so glad I did’nt because tucked inside was a photo album made of my wife when she was a baby. It was a tiny DIY portrait album with tattered, torn, and yellowed photos of my wife’s first years of life. We did’nt even know this book existed. It instantly became a family treasure to me because it documented events and photos of someone I love dearly. I’m so thankful my mother-in-law created this for me and my sons. Of course at the time she thought it was for herself but she did’nt realize what a gift it would be to us one day. Had she known she would likely of taken better care in making it and preserving it. Now the job falls to me to try and repair and preserve what is left of this family heirloom to insure it’s around for our grandkids to enjoy.

what could she of done differantly? For starters if you choose to create a DIY album be sure the pages you create are acid free. Acid is the enemy of longivity and sadly most albums that claim to be acid free are not. by the time the damage is obviuos it’s to late to do anything about it. restoration can be diffacult and expensive if it’s possible at all. So go with a repetable company when choosing a source for your DIY album pages if you want your tresure to last for generations. Light can also damage your albums so proper storage out of dameging UV rays can add to your albums longivity.