As someone who works in the FOREVER digitization center, I thought I would tell you how we handle fragile photos and what you can do to make sure that your fragile photos are secure during shipping.

How We Handle Your Fragile Photos

When we come across fragile photos, we immediately separate these photos from other, typical photos and label them as flatbeds as well as which bags these photos originally came from. Labeling these photos as flatbeds essentially means that we digitize these photos with even greater care than usual (which is already quite great). We use a flatbed scanner to scan these fragile photos because they’re too fragile to move through a typical photo scanner.

Even if you don’t label any of your photos as fragile, we will still sort through your photos to see which ones, if any, are fragile. Any photos with tears or peeling surfaces are scanned on a flatbed scanner. This is because they could become damaged or ripped if scanned with a photo scanner.

If you notice that any of your photos are fragile, place those photos in a plastic bag and place that plastic bag in a small box with something like tissue paper or bubble wrap inside to prevent your fragile photos from sliding around during shipping. As always, make sure you add plenty of packing paper or bubble wrap to your box to make sure that none of your items move around in the box during shipping.

The main thing is to keep everything in your box secure. After you’re done packing your box, give it a little shake. If you can hear anything rattling around, shift some items around, add some more packing paper or bubble wrap, and soon those memories will be digitized for your lifetime (plus 100 years if you use FOREVER Storage!).