Tips For Storing Your Vinyl Record Collection
If you own a variety of vinyl records, you probably want to protect them so that you can sell them later when they are more valuable or give them to your children. You might not have room for them in your home and decide to store them in a storage unit. Here are some tips for storing your vinyl record collection in a storage unit so that you don't inadvertently damage them.
1. Stack Them Vertically
Regardless of how you decide to store your records, make sure that you purchase boxes that will allow you to stack them on their sides, rather than flat. You want to try to store them in a similar manner to how they are stored at record stores. The reason for this is that storing them any other way puts too much pressure on the sides that the record player will access and can skew the ridges, making the record impossible to listen to.
2. Splurge on the Special Sleeves
The next thing that you will need to do is purchase the special high density polyethylene sleeves. The reason why you want to use these sleeves and not the paper sleeves that the records may have originally come from is that paper tends to have chemicals in it to hold its shape or give it a certain color. You want to be absolutely sure that you don't accidentally put your records in a sleeve that has chemicals that could transfer to the surface of the record and ruin it. The special sleeves help you make sure that you avoid this fate.
3. Keep Your Records Out of Direct Sunlight
If the storage unit that you have chosen has windows, make sure that you put cloth over them to keep your records from being in direct sunlight at any time. The reason why you want to avoid putting them in direct sunlight is due to the danger of heat warping, or high temperatures causing your records to lose their shape. This can negatively affect their sound quality.
4. Find Acid Free Cardboard Boxes
Finally, go online and purchase cardboard boxes for storing your records that don't have any acid making up their dye This will prevent the acid from being transferred to your records. When you store your vinyl records, store them so that they are very close together in order to make sure that you avoid warping.
For more information, talk to a company like King Arthur Self Storage that specializes in self storage.
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