As we grow older, we start to cherish memories more than anything. That’s why it’s so important to start preserving your memories as soon as you can, so that you always have them. Preserving memories also preserves your legacy, family history, and most beloved experiences.

So, how you can preserve memories for future generations including old photos, keepsakes, home movies, and more? Capture has preserved over 12 million families’ memories for nearly a quarter century, which is why we’re here to help you do the same with DIY memory preservation methods.

Keep reading to learn why preserving memories is so important then discover various methods for preserving your cherished memories including scrapbooks, journals, digital photos, memory boxes, and more. 

Jump to:

• Why Preserving Memories is Important
• Traditional Methods of Preserving Memories
• Digital Methods of Preserving Memories
• Creative Ways to Preserve Memories
• Tools and Technologies for Memory Preservation
• Best Practices for Memory Preservation

Why Preserving Memories is Important

There are many reasons to preserve memories. First, we have strong emotional connections to our memories and the events of our lives.

Whether you’re thinking about your first kiss, your favorite 80s cars, or meaningful events like weddings, graduations, and 40th anniversary gifts, these memories will eventually fade but the emotional attachment we have with them will last forever.

Preserving those emotional and nostalgic experiences ensures you can always revisit them or even pass them down to future generations. They also include your life’s journey and legacy, making them an important part of your identity. Plus, family memories contain traditions, allowing future generations to keep the same culture that you’ve had.

But there are also practical reasons for protecting memories, including documentation and educational reasons. Most of us live through tons of historical events that shouldn’t be lost in time. When you preserve memories, you’re preserving those events and documenting both your family’s history and everything you’ve lived through. 

So, clearly memories matter, but how can you preserve your memories and document your history?

Traditional Methods of Preserving Memories

There are some traditional methods for preserving family history and important moments of your life including albums and scrapbooks, diaries and journals, and print photos.

Physical Albums and Scrapbooks

One of the best ways to preserve your memories is using physical albums and scrapbooks. With a scrapbook, you can add stickers, colors, designs, journal entries, family quotes, and anything else.

Even if you don’t know how to scrapbook, you can start collecting memories in an album. This can include print photos and Polaroid pictures, of course. But it can also include tickets to events, wedding invitations, graduation announcements, newspaper articles, and other keepsakes that preserve your memories and history.

Whichever type of book you want to use, we strongly recommend organizing it in a way that makes sense. That could be chronologically, by event, or anything else that makes sense to you and your memories.

Diaries and Journals

Keeping a daily journal can preserve your entire journey, preserving memories, events, and your own personal thoughts throughout your life. While it would have been great to start writing a diary years ago, there’s no better time to start than right now.

Similar to other DIY memory crafts, you can include memorabilia in your journal. Whether you add a photo you took, event tickets, or other keepsakes & mementos, this is a fantastic way to preserve your most cherished heirlooms.

Printed Photos

Finally, having printed photos of your memories means you have something that ensures your family’s legacy is protected for younger generations. Just make sure you keep taking photos to continue preserving those amazing moments of your life.

You can also use print photos for creating wall art or simply frame them to put on your desk, around your home, or to give as great gifts. However, physical photos will eventually fade, so we also urge you to use a photo scanning service to ensure the images last forever, no matter what happens to the print copies. You should also use best photo preservation practices.

Capture offers the highest quality digitize photos service as well as unmatched security for your memories. We even deliver your original print photos as well as your digital copies in less than 30 days!

Digital Methods of Preserving Memories

While traditional methods like scrapbooks, journals, and print photos are wonderful, these days many people opt for digital options. You can create a virtual scrapbook or journal, but there are also other digital memory storage options to consider.

Digital Photography

Taking digital photos and storing them properly can pretty much guarantee those moments last forever. Make sure you store them properly in multiple locations like a hard drive and the cloud. Then you can use them for digital scrapbooking too!

While most phones have a camera these days, you can get better quality images with a standalone digital camera. However, you probably always have your phone, which means you can capture all the moments that happen no matter where you are or what you’re doing.

Social Media and Online Platforms

Social media, blogs, YouTube channels, and other online platforms are a great way to preserve memories. By uploading them to these websites, you preserve the memories while also making it easy for your family members to see them and relive the special moments you’ve shared together.

However, Myspace is a good example of how these websites can go down forever, compromising the photos and memories that you’ve uploaded. Because of that, you should store the digital photos in more than one location.

Video Recording

Another option is to capture special events and milestones to preserve your family memories. It’s a wonderful way to relive memories anytime while being able to hear your loved ones’ voices, see their mannerisms, and capture the fun, humor, and love at family gatherings.

Whether you want to reminisce over your family trip to New York, see and hear a person who passed away long ago, or have a collection of home movies to pass down, this is a great option. You can also edit, combine, and enhance digital videos with photo editing software, like Photoshop.

Creative Ways to Preserve Memories

There are other ways to preserve memories that you might not have thought of before, including memory boxes, crafts, and oral histories.

Memory Boxes

A memory box or time capsule is a great way to collect all your favorite memories in one place. You can decorate the box and then fill it with photos, old VHS tapes of your favorite memories, letters, keepsakes, and so much more.

This can become something that you can give as a gift, pass down to future generations, and open with your family to reminisce over time long passed. You can also create memory boxes for different occasions, family members, or time periods of your life.

Custom Art and Craft Projects

Custom art and photo gifts for him or her can be a lot of fun to create while doing a great job of preserving your memories. You can make a locket with a favorite photo inside, create a family tree quilt, or write the story of your family history.

Other fantastically creative options for preserving your memories include lampshades made out of photo slides, a book with an entry about each family member with their photo, custom memory art, or a genealogy book that details your family history as far back as you can trace it.

Oral Histories

Before the time when the first video was recorded or the first photo was taken, all of our memories and histories were passed down verbally. Chances are, you also have memories of your parents or grandparents telling stories.

While it’s easier than ever before to take photos and videos, this is a great option to dig deeper into your memories as well as your loved one’s experiences. You can conduct interviews with each family member and record the information. You can also tell stories to younger generations about you and their other ancestors.

Tools and Technologies for Memory Preservation

Now that you know several great ways to preserve memories, let’s look at some tools that you can use for doing so.

Photography Equipment

A high-quality digital camera or film camera can go a long way toward creating high-quality creative memory keepsakes. However, you can also get a photo scanner to digitize and preserve your print photos or a printer to create physical copies of your digital pictures.

Software and Apps

There are many apps, software programs, and memory preservation tools available that you might want to consider, including:

• MyMemoriesSuite: a great digital scrapbook creator that makes organizing memories and family photos tons of fun. 
• Day One: a fun and easy way to write down your daily reflections in a digital journal. 
• Photoshop: Edit and combine your memories using this tool. 
• Photomyne: A photo scanning app that allows you to use your phone’s camera to digitize physical photos. 
• Dropbox: Cloud storage for memories that ensures photo and video memories are preserved forever.

Best Practices for Memory Preservation

While all these are great ways to preserve memories as well as the best memory preservation apps to do so, here are a few more tips to ensure memory preservation. 

Organizing Memories

Create a system for categorizing and labeling your memories. This will make it easier to find the memories you want anytime. Many people opt for chronological storage but choose any organization system that works for you. 

Protecting Memories

This means storing physical copies in a cool, dry, and dark place to prevent fading or discoloration. For digital copies, it means storing any digital photos and videos in multiple locations, including cloud storage. 

When it comes to physical copies, we also suggest using a service like Capture to preserve them as high-quality digital images, so they are preserved no matter what happens. When organizing photos of any kind, it’s important to follow best practices. 

Sharing Memories

Like you, your loved ones also want to preserve memories, so make sure you share them with friends. You can share them online via social media and email, or even hold memory-sharing events where you gather around for a home movie viewing or flip through scrapbooks and photo albums. That also creates a new memory that you and your family will cherish forever. 

Conclusion

Memory preservation is important for passing down your legacy, being able to revisit old memories, and preserving your family stories. As you can see, there are plenty of ways to do so including physical family albums, digital scrapbooks, social media galleries, arts and crafts, memory boxes, and more. The best one for you will depend on the type of memories you have and your goals, but you can’t go wrong with any of them. 

To preserve your old photos, home movies, slides, film reels, and other analog memories as high-quality digital copies, choose Capture. Our state-of-the-art facility doesn’t just ensure the highest quality digitization, but also monitors your precious memories through every hand and all the way back to you. Click here to learn more about Capture’s exceptional services.