There are a number of things to consider when caring for your record collection. The most important, however, is simply: how are you going to use it? Is your collection valuable and meant to be an investment? Or will you be playing these records? Will you use them?
How will you store your records?
Perhaps the most common problem facing a record collector is storage space. A few records can be kept in a milk crate, or on a shelf. But once your collection count gets into the hundreds, or thousands, finding places to store records can become an issue.
A solution that was suggested to me, that I'm very pleased with, is a wall unit sold at Ikea. The shelving unit is called 'Expedit' and consists of 25 squares that are the perfect size for records. As you can see in the image below, I have filled the entire unit with records, but I still have hundreds more. In addition to storing records in a wall unit, I do keep more recent purchases in milk crates. And once the milk crates get full, I often begin to simply stack records in front. But this is not a good solution, as records stacked against a flat surface can begin to "slump" as more and more records are added to the stack As a result, from time to time, I need to move records to the wall unit, freeing up space in the milk crates, so as to move records off the floor. This often also involves boxing up some records for long-term storage. I recently did a reorganization to get records out of the crates on the floor, and in the wall unit.
Record Reorganization 2013
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The Start of the Project |
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Pulling Out the Crates |
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Beginning to Sort |
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Sorting and Organizing |
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Moving Records |
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The Finished Wall Unit |
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The Finished Crates |
Another aspect to keep in mind in terms of storage is the temperature and humidity of the space in which your records are stored. Keeping records in a basement, for example, could be disastrous, especially if it's very humid. Record sleeves can absorb moisture and become moldy. Records improperly stored can begin to warp.
Will you play your records?
While I've mostly discussed the care and storage of records at a collection level, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how to take care of individual records.
One of the most important aspects to maintaining your records, aside from climage control, is care when playing them. Always try to keep your records in both an inner sleeve as well as the outer sleever or cover. When handling records, always try to hold them by the outer edge. And perhaps most important, always play records using a sharp stylus.