C’mon, ‘fess up. You’ve got a big ol’ stack of old VHS tapes lying around somewhere, haven’t you? Or 8mm tapes, Super 8 tapes, even those old reel to reel tapes. Or you’ve got a BIG stack of paper photos or negatives that you’ve been meaning to do something with. Am I right??? Don’t feel bad. Me too!
We’ve ALL got stuff like this lying around the house gathering dust and probably deteriorating. I know I did. I had a 3 foot high STACK of old VHS tapes with all my kids’ baby pictures and videos on them. I’d been planning to do something with them for years, but it seemed like too much hassle and effort to deal with them. But you know what? I found a company called iMemories to take care of them for me – quickly and easily with almost NO effort on my part.
Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by iMemories.com, but as you know, I only share my honest opinions about products and services I use.
Why iMemories was the Company I Chose
I have looked into services like this before, but I was particularly impressed by iMemories. They have a few extra things that other companies don’t offer.
- They never send your precious memories out of their facility in Arizona. Some companies send your materials to Mexico or overseas for processing. That was a big concern for me.
- They send you a weather-proof box all labeled up and ready to go and all your shipping is done by FedEx at no extra charge. It’s part of the service. And iMemories has NEVER LOST A PACKAGE. I found that very impressive. And they even include lots of bubble wrap and plastic bags to keep your memories safe in all weather.
- You don’t have to sort or label or do any prep work at all. I’ve used other services where you have to sort all the photos by type and size and label them together. And they wouldn’t take funky things like Polaroid photos or negatives. Nope, with iMemories, you just pop it all in the box and they sort it out for you.
- They return all your originals to you safely after processing. Some companies don’t do that.
- You’ve got tons of options for how you want to receive and share your finished products. They have a private website area set up for you to login and use. It’s completely private and you can control the access for your friends and relatives to only let them see what you want. You can sort, label, and share videos or photos right from there. OR you can have them put on a flash drive. OR you can request them on DVD.
- They are as helpful as can be to make it easy to share your precious memories with your friends and relatives. You can even post them to Facebook or YouTube. That’s probably what I will do with mine because I have family all over the US.
Here’s How You Get Started
Here’s how EASY it was for me to pack up my old VHS tapes for processing:
FedEx dropped off the box. Open the box. Instructions, bubble wrap, lots of plastic bags, and the shipping label are inside.
OR the instructions are also printed on the front of the box.
Grab your old VHS tapes, or photos, or whatever format your memories are in. Just for the record, I had 18 old VHS tapes and I managed to fit every one of them in the box. It’s a pretty big box.
There you go. 18 old VHS tapes all snuggled up safely in layers of ziplock bags and bubble tape. No sorting, labeling or anything else required. I did DUST THEM though. They were pretty gross and dusty – made me SNEEZE for an hour afterwards.
Then you just close up the box, put a nice piece of tape on it for extra safety, slap the pre-printed label on it and drop it at the nearest FedEx drop off location. I found one right near my house. Eeesey peesey! DONE! Now go eat a cookie to celebrate!!!
How to Access the Finished Product
It does take a couple of weeks for processing, but you’ll get Emails at every step so you’ll know exactly where your stuff is!
Then before you know it, voila! Your originals are returned to you – again via FedEx, and you’ll get your login for your iMemories account. Now the fun starts. The real genius of iMemories is their web and mobile apps. No one in the industry has anything like it. You can view your digitized memories on the go and share via text, email, Facebook and Twitter. They have worked really hard to make this process quick, fun, and EASY, even if you aren’t that good at computer stuff.
Do you know what the very BEST PART of this process is? Seeing these old memories that have been gathering dust for the last 20 years! And being able to share them with my kids and other relatives.
So many of the folks in these old movies are gone now, and it is so fun to hear their voices and see them just enjoying the everyday moments with us. Opening Christmas presents, just sitting in the backyard and playing with the babies. Seeing our old pets one more time. And to see my kids as babies again. My kids are in their 20’s and 30’s – those days are gone forever, but now I have those memories back again. That’s really priceless.
Old VHS tapes and some of these other formats are now starting to deteriorate. They were never meant to last forever, and you could lose those precious memories forever. Not to mention floods, or fires, or just losing the dang things. Hop over to iMemories.com and order your own memory box today. We spend money on fancy coffees, shoes, and tons of crap we don’t need from Amazon, but this is one purchase you won’t regret. Your unique and precious family memories are worth saving and worth digging out and sharing. Your family will be so pleased, I promise!
Here are some other posts you may enjoy:
4 Easy Steps to Organizing Your Photos
How to Downsize Your Digital Scrapbooking Pages
Amazing Household Organizing Strategies for You
The post Rescue Old VHS Tapes with iMemories appeared first on Adrian's Crazy Life.