I'm looking for ideas to preserve my prints from childhood, in a compact way. Right now, they're in a box, but I noticed over Thanksgiving when I fished out a "this is what I used to weigh" photo that some are starting to stick together. I used to have them in albums, but they took up so much room and I hardly ever looked through them that I decided not to keep buying more and more albums. I'm mostly digital now, but I still have all of these photos from over the years.

Try shutterfly.com. I use them all the time. You can upload pics to their site and you can also have prints made & delivered to your house for around .08 - 10 cents each! They're really cheap!

I'm a professional photographer, so maybe I can help.

If you have prints, the main thing you want to do is avoid moisture.
The other thing you want to do is NOT USE STICKY ALBUMS.

I can't emphasize that second point enough. Please please don't put your prints in those magnetic albums. They're death on prints.

What I would suggest is buying the acid free photo boxes you can find at Michaels or other craft stores. Make sure that they are acid and lignin free, like these:
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/d...ductNum=sb0345

Then get yourself some silica gel. That's those little packets that come in the box when you buy any electronic items. You can buy the packets or you can buy a large can of it at Michaels:
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/d...ductNum=fl0161

If you buy the can, just put 1 Tbsp of it into a small baggie and leave it open in the box with the photos.

The silica gel is a desiccant and will absorb excess moisture, which is what makes your photos stick together.

Then, finally, make sure that you store the boxes in a *dry*, but not hot location. Attics and basements are the WORST places ever for photographs. I keep mine in a cedar chest in my bedroom (cedar chests and dresser drawers are actually really good locations for boxes and albums).

That's how I store all my personal photographs and all the family photos I've inherited.

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I have several boxes of photos. They're all unsorted and messy, but fun to look through from time to time.

I have several albums of photos of my kids when they were little (pre-digital photography).

I have folders of digital photos on my computer (backed up on CD).

I have a photobucket account for those photos I want to share and I also have a few on my Facebook page.

Oh, I have some of those boxes already, but I didn't know about the gel. Excellent!

mine are mostly digital--- i'm too lazy and its too expensive to get prints so i have them online and on cds and usb so that they dont completely disappear