Save Your Letters: Deciding Which Pieces To Work On First

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The first documents you should work with when you're ready to actually look at your pieces and see what really needs additional attention is -- first look at the pieces that are in the most deteriorated condition. By that I mean objects where pieces are missing, where there are tears, where the piece may fall off, where the edges are very brittle and yellow. Those pieces should be looked at individually and isolated. You should also look to see if you see any rodent damage or insect damage and isolate those pieces to make sure that they're well cleaned up, that there's no more insect eggs that could infest the rest of the material that you have there. Also, any material that you see any sign of mold, especially active mold. Say you've just brought a box up from the basement, where it's been exposed to moisture, and maybe it's just the bottom pieces you'll notice that there's mold on there, and it's got color, it's moist. That's active mold. What you want to do is separate that immediately from all the rest of the documents. For the time being, put them in a zip-lock bag. Lock them up so the mold spores don't spread any farther and you should, if they're important documents, you should really take them to a conservator and have them deal with the issue of the mold. I don't advise people to deal with the issue of mold just because of the health concerns that can be involved in that.