Six Simple Steps: Improve Your Collections Storage for Just a Few Dollars!

A few dollars can help you make a big difference. Be sure to ask your local hardware store for donations or a discount on some of these items. Take photos of your progress!

Purchase acid-free storage boxes, files, envelopes, etc. as needed, and test old paper-based storage materials with a pH pen to ensure they are still acid-free, replace them with new ones.
Take a look inside your storage boxes. Are documents, file folders, books, objects, etc. leaning against one another or sliding down in the box and curling? Make acid-free rigid supports/spacers to put inside the boxes so that the contents stay upright and are fully supported.
Line wood shelf units with a barrier of acid-free mat board or inert foam sheeting; use barrier materials of acid-free mat board or inert foam material as needed between objects.

Add dust covers to your open shelf units by covering them with polyethylene sheeting, but leave openings for air exchanges.
Begin an environmental monitoring program: purchase an inexpensive digital thermo-hygrometer (temperature and humidity measuring device) for your storage space; record temperature and humidity levels at approximately the same time each day; keep the records in a logbook. Make adjustments to the climate control system when problems with spiking humidity or temperature are identified.
Monitor the area for pests; purchase inexpensive sticky traps and place them around your storage area where you can reach them beneath storage units, in dark corners and on window sills; inspect them each month, throw away the old traps and replace them with fresh ones; keep a record of your captures. Don’t know what you’ve caught? Ask a local naturalist or high school biology teacher to help you with identification. Have the area treated as needed if destructive pests are found.