Have you thrown out your negatives yet??

[JESW]

I am still in the middle of a MAJOR clean sweep throughout our house as we are getting some renovations done. I am cleaning every nook and cranny and every closet - it is AMAZING all the stuff I am getting rid of! Anyhow...one thing I am not so sure what to do with is over 20 years of negatives. I *know* that I will most likely not ever use them again (we have the equipment at home to reproduce any photos we have) but I just can't get myself to throw them away! I have a large storage box full of them and several notebooks with sleeves full of them. Should I just take the plunge, close my eyes and throw them out???

What have the rest of you done?

Jill

 

[Twigs]

Negatives are one thing that I cannot get rid of. I always think if anything happened to my photos, then I could not reproduce the picture. I even keep my negatives in a fire proof box. I keep telling myself that one of these days I will go through them to only keep the negatives of the pictures that mean the most to me, but that day never comes

 

[DooDahDay]

I still have mine sitting in a box,I can't throw them out either.

Jeanne

 

[pattyT]

I have a BIG plastic big full of copletely unorganized negatives (only ones I know what they are - the wedding negatives - the rest are in a big heap)
and I will not throw them out
what if - god fobid- our house caught on fire...
I am going to eventually take that bin to my mother in laws house just in case I may need them someday!

 

[pjlla]

Before you go dumping them, consider this. I gave most/all of my negatives to my Mother to hold on to, in the event that something were to happen to my house (i.e. fire, flood). You may want to consider doing something like this. Or maybe putting them in a fire safe or a safe deposit box. Yes, you would lose your scrapbooks ( ) and photo albums, but at least you wouldn't lose everything. We duplicate all of our photo CDs now that we are digital. We keep one copy and leave a copy at my Mom's. It makes me feel "safer".......................P

 

[Disneyland_emily]

Thats what I also do- I sent all my negs and copy of Cds to my dads so if something were to happen- I wouldnt loose them all


-em

 

[Limmer]

I put all my negs in sleeves in a big binder. It does not take up much room (in comparison to boxes) and negs ALWAYS make better copies and enlargements. Any little mark on a photo when scanned (fingerprints, small creases etc) show up on scanned photos. I work at a photolab and we hear complaints all the time about the quality of scans and we have very high end equipment. Also remember that CD's can get scratched or corrupted and not all scanning to CD programs are equal. If you use a cheap scanner or program your enlargements will NOT have the quality of neg enlargements.

 

[diznygirl]

Question: What if something happens at your mom or dad's? Then you are without negatives.......

I like the fire-proof safe idea if you really are concerned about keeping negatives. I still have a bunch that are all labeled nice and neat in photo boxes - from the pre-digital days. I have the room for them, so I hang on to them for now.... I guess I should be looking for a fire-proof safe for them and my cd's...

I send out a lot of pics to family and friends anyway, so I figure if my house burns down and I lose everything I know I will be able to get copies returned to me. That's one benefit to sharing photos.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

Well whats less of a probability- That a) your house burns down b) your parents house burns or that c) both you and your parents house burns down?

So if my dads house burns I still have my books, if my house burns I still have my negs. either way I have something, rather than having my house burns and I loose it all..

Yeah I know if something heaven forbid happens to both our houses I wouldnt be totally without pictures but well frankly how many pictures do I not send out, and how many get "filed" beyond finding or get lost/dirty/abused at others because they dont care as much as I do?

-em

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Not going to happen! The one thing I will not get rid of is negatives. They don't take that much space, and if something happened to the actual photos you have those. However, I do agree they need to be protected better than they are at the moment. Mine are filed in the shoebox style boxes for the most part. I'm not sure there is a firesafe big enough to hold them though. Actually my dad has a fire file cabinet that isn't a bad idea...should do some checking on the options.
Deb