packing advice

[Steve and Nancy Rice]

Ok, so we're planning our move and was wondering how to pack photographs and other thermal/humidity sensitive items.  We're old school, dozens of shoe boxes full of photos!  How should these be packed?  Keep in mind the obvious, they'll be in a shipping container for at least 2 months and then perhaps in storage until we find a place.

[Dina Herrick]

I would recommend putting the shoe boxes in plastic storage tubs and then place a few charcoal briquets in pantyhose inside each tub to absorb the humidity and smell. If you have any more questions about moving to Boquete, contact Tom at [e-mail].

Good luck with your move!

[Richard Bryan]

Have you thought about getting digital copies made.  that is what we are doing.  My daughter is using her apple and coping them onto my thumb drive.  Holds about 6000 extremely high quality pics.  I can just reprint them at any time or put them into my digital photo album and let them run 24/7.  I have copied them to my computer also and to my 2TB external hard drive.  Copied to Three places and should never lose all three copies. 

[Pets Want Homes]

It's a good time to sort through them and put them in albums.  If you leave them in boxes, they will stick together.  If it doesn't happen during shipping, it will happen over time when you're living here. 

[PanamaRon]

The best way to handle shoe boxes full of photos is buy a good scanner and digitize them.  

I have 2 ScanSnap scanners and recommend them without reservation.  Of course you can bring the photos and the scanner to Panama and it will give you something to do on those rainy afternoons.  ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-Instant-Sheet-Fed-PA03603-B0...

http://scanners.fcpa.fujitsu.com/scansnap11/s1300.html?utm_term=fuj...

[Lynne Van der Kar]

I packed my artwork in boxes made especially for pictures and frames. I got them at a U-Haul place. It was the only place I saw them when packing. Then put lots and lots of bubble wrap around the pictures/frames and slip them into the boxes and tape them up. I had my boxes in storage for 5 years and when I finally brought them down here everything was good.