1. Most importantly, you want your items to be around longer than you!  Let your great grandchildren see what was important to you and important to their heritage.  Putting them in a shoebox won't do this.  Leaving them around in a loose pile is even worse.
2. An archival box provides a protective barrier from dust, dirt, and light.  Besides being difficult to remove, airborne contaminates are often acidic, which causes long term damage to paper and other materials.  Fading from UV light (such as sunlight) is permanent.  Except for occasional viewing, keep objects inside a dark archival container.
3. Structurally, a sturdy archival container supports its contents. Accidental damage from other objects resting or falling is minimized.
4. An archival box provides some barrier to infestation from mice and the like.
5. A box that is not archival can be harmful to the items it’s meant to protect.  Vapors out-gassing from non-archival materials could be acidic and result in damage from concentrated build-up around your memorabilia.  Items touching the non-archival material risk even more serious damage from acid. Archival boxes are made of materials that will not damage its contents.
6. Some archival boxes are buffered.  This means the board used to make it had a basic compound added, such as calcium carbonate, which can absorb stray acids.  Stray acids can come from the environment surrounding the box, or even the box contents.  This buffering, therefore, provides added protection.  (Note that buffered boxes should not be used to store animal products, like wool or silk.)
7. An archival box provides a foundation for a layered preservation technique. 

Download a copy of this article.
For permission to reprint this article,visit our "Reprint" page.

Use archival storage boxes and supplies to preserve your heritage: