The reality is that most of us find navigating through the chaos of utility bills, financial reports, receipts, legal papers, certificates, newspaper cuttings, magazines and family photographs an endless nightmare!
According to The Institute of Conservation (ICON), the average person accumulates new documents on a daily basis and it is no surprise that it is a struggle to provide a manageable and efficient system to care, archive and retrieve these documents when needed. There is no greater time than at the end of a year to put order to the mayhem. Here are a few ideas of how you might be able to protect and store some of your most important documents to help you retrieve them for future use, build a legacy that you can share with others as well as stop unnecessary anxiety and fear of losing some of your irreplaceable information, or it becoming compromised by some wandering eyes.
Storage boxes and containers
For photographs and all printed material consider investing in a few solid acid-free storage boxes that will stop any corrosion, dust and dirt from affecting your documents. Ranging in size, colour and materials, these transportable containers can also be used to store anything from artwork to those small collectables and heirlooms to reduce the risk of damage. Storage containers are usually great to stack freeing up much-needed floor space. Make sure you take time to label them accordingly for easy reference and identification of the box contents when needed.
Industrial shelving in Ireland
By fitting in a few durable shelves purchased from your local or industrial hardware store rackzone.ie in your garage, warehouse or office, one can instantly provide an efficient storage system that allows for easy access and visibility of your documents.
Bins
It’s time we expanded our thinking around bins singularly being used to discard refuse, and consider investing in well-labelled tilt and part bins as great tools in your archival management.
Go digital
With the impressive advancements in technology over the last two decades, we now have the opportunity to manage our electronic and paper documents digitally. Simply scan hard copies of your documents as PDFs and upload and index them on your Google Drive. Alternatively, simply email yourself the documents in question. By regularly changing your email passwords the security of your documents remains intact.
