13. Organize Your Home Movies

Gather all of you home movie and separate into two piles. Keep and Discard. From the Keep pile, sort them into media types (VHS tapes, 16mm, 8mm, MiniDV, BetaMax, slides etc.) Once separated you can label them by date and store in acid free cardboard boxes. These boxes can be found at local chains like Target, Wal-Mart, IKEA and Container Store. Make sure you label the outside of the box with the contents including dates. Keep the boxes out of light, humidity, and heat. These harsh elements can cause permanent damage to your home movies.

Another option is to have your tapes, slides etc. converted into DVD's. This will make watching home movies much easier than having to pull out your old equipment. There are several companies available that do this type of service. I use Scan Digital, http://scandigital.com/ They are fantastic! I've had several tapes converted to DVD without any problems. The DVD's come back with photo images from the video printed on the DVD case. I love this feature since many home videos contain several events on one tape. I can just glance at the DVD cover to see what is contained on the DVD instead of trying to remember dates.

ScanDigital has offered a 5% discount for my readers. Use coupon code 1826131046 when placing your order online. From the Discard pile you have the option to give to friends/family, donate to your local film school, library or charity or recycle to keep them out of the landfills. Following is a list of recycling options: GreenDisk Freecycle