Old film is not all the same. Nitrate burns differently from acetate, and acetate breaks down into a smell of vinegar. Neither belongs in a box in the attic, "until someone looks". In the overview Security for collectors, this is a holding in which the safety of the home and that of the piece are the same subject.

What breaks without a thief

Heat, damp, the wrong can, an attic in August. Acetate that smells of vinegar infects the neighboring film. You separate what smells. You identify nitrate before you store it. If it is nitrate, you ask a place that accepts film stock whether it may stay in the home or must go into specialist storage. This text is not a license to stack nitrate next to the heater.

When someone comes

Film cans are heavy and look like clutter. The damage from tipping and from fire is greater than resale. The locked, cool place and the list are the protection. A digital viewing copy lies outside the home, the original not only on the one shelf.

The folder

Format, base in your words after identification, title, length, smell or condition, origin. What you cannot identify stays separate until someone can.