Storing Cassette Tapes

Thank you for the great info about the preservation of data. I have many shelves of teaching cassettes that cost me hundreds! In Colorado, humidity is no problem, but the magnetic field is. I hadn't realized the projected lifespan of a cassette. I will start transferring. I was thinking they'd last forever. Oh, dear.

I have a cool zipper case that has dividers inside specifically made to accommodate a cassette. It holds roughly about 50-75 cassettes. I received this a long time ago when I was still married and I've been divorced now for over 20 years now. One good thing the old ex gifted to me one Christmas. It sure has held up a lot better than the old ex. It looks brand new. Sure can't say the same about the ex!

Hello,
I too, have a multitude of cassettes.I struggled with how to store them and came up with the following. (Please note, the size of the box mentioned will hold two rows of tapes, with room for a few in the middle.)

I acquired a batch of #10 envelope boxes from my mother's place of employ. The boxes each held 500 envelopes. The envelopes were of a fairly high paper stock/grade, (letterhead printed envelopes) so the boxes are also quite solid.

They were perfectly acceptable "as is", but in order to make them more attractive I spray painted them gloss black. I have some others I painted gold, and some I covered with contact paper.Painting is the easiest, as cardboard accepts paint, wonderfully well. I can stack the boxes in a corner, or on top of a shelf, and they just look like something you might pick up at Pier One.

Try some of the office stores, or local printers, or decent sized non-profit or government entities. I probably have two dozen of these boxes floating around my house. My mother has been retired for 10 years, so the boxes are definitely durable.

FREE (except for the paint) and functional - the BEST.
Good luck.

Hi, where ever you store them, you should make sure that they are not around moisture or heat fluxuations which could warp the plastic. More importantly, you should make sure not to store them around electronics. Cassette tapes, like videotapes and floppy discs hold their information using a magnetic charge on the tape surface. As all electronics have a magnetic field around them, this can wear away the information over time. 10 to 15 years is the generally accepted lifespan for this time of technology. I would consider transferring them to CD's before there is too much distortion.

Good luck!