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Slide Storage Containers: What You Have and What to Do With It

How you store your slides determines how much preparation you need to do before sending them to us. This guide walks through the most common slide storage containers and exactly what you need to do with each type before shipping.

Why Storage Type Matters

Slides that arrive well-organized and properly removed from their containers take less time for us to process — and that lets us keep our prices lower than a lot of our competition. Slides that arrive jumbled, still in carousels, or packed in ways that make counting difficult slow everything down.

The good news: most storage containers require very little work on your part. We just need to know what you have.

Kodak Carousel Trays

Carousel trays hold 80 or 140 slides in a circular rotating tray. They were the most common way to store and show slides from the 1960s through the 1990s.

What to do: You do not need to remove your slides from the carousel. Send the entire tray. We will remove the slides, scan them in order, and return everything. Note the carousel number and name on each tray so we can keep sets together.

Important: Carousels are heavy. Shipping costs more when you send them. If you have many carousels, consider removing the slides into rubber-banded stacks to reduce weight and shipping cost. We have a video to show you how to do this without losing the order.

Important: Many customers opt to send us the slides in carousels and then, once they see our beautiful results, they ask us to dispose of the slides and the carousels so they no longer have to store the slides and take up a lot of room in a closet. We still have to charge a small shipping amount to send you your images on a free disk or on a flash drive. This is an option on the order form.

Watch our Carousel Identification and Organization video

Sawyer Type Trays

Sawyer type trays hold 100 slides. They are open in the middle. Instead of sitting on top of an projector and and looking like a "carousel" at an amusement park, thee trays, while also round, sat in the projector vertically and looked more like a "Ferris Wheel".

Unfortunately, slides are very hard to remove from these trays because the slides had to be held in tight so they wouldn't fall out while the tray rotated to show each slide. This "tightness" resulted in the slides actually being bent.

These slides need to all be removed and put into some form of stacks, possibly rubber banded or stacked with rubber bands holding them.

Waxed Paper Boxes

Possibly you have already removed your slides from the carousels and put them into "Waxed Paper boxes" or "Aluminum wrap boxes" or other 2" X 2" boxes that are the exact size as the slides. This saves a lot of storage space.

What to do: Leave slides in the boxes. Label each box clearly with a number or name so we can keep sets in order. Stack the boxes in the order you want them scanned and pack them securely. Do not remove the slides unless the boxes are falling apart.

Watch our Waxed Paper Box Organizing video

Bell & Howell Slide Cubes

Bell & Howell cubes are square plastic storage cubes that hold slides in a grid pattern. They were designed for use with Bell & Howell projectors.

What to do: Do not attempt to remove slides from the cube yourself — it is easy to bend or damage slides during removal. Send the cube as-is. We have experience removing slides from Bell & Howell cubes safely. Number your cubes if order is important to you. We will scan in order and match the number on the cube with the same "folder number".

Read our full Bell & Howell Slide Cube preparation guide

Watch our Bell and Howell Cube Organizing video

Rubber-Banded Stacks

Loose slides held together with rubber bands are actually our preferred format for receiving slides. They are lightweight, easy to count, and take up very little space in shipping.

What to do: Keep each stack rubber-banded together. Write the stack name or number on a 2" x 2" card and rubber-band it to the top of the stack. Keep stacks in the order you want them scanned.

Stack size tip: Keep stacks to 50 slides or fewer. Larger stacks are harder to handle without dropping. You can label the stacks so we know there are more than one stack in a group by using #4a, #4b, #4c and etc.

Plastic Slide Pages (Binder Pages)

Some people store slides in clear plastic pages designed for three-ring binders — each page holds 20 slides in individual pockets.

What to do: We know you were trying to protect your slides but, you will soon find that it is very difficult to get them out of the binder pages. We can't be slowed down by this type of storage. We need you to remove all of them and stack, label and rubber band them.

Loose Slides (No Container)

If your slides have no container at all — just a pile in a bag or box — we can still scan them but you have some work to do. However, there will be no guaranteed order to the scans since there is no way to determine the original sequence.

What to do: You need to follow our directions on Slide Orientation and Slide "direction", which would mean you have to get all the slides oriented in "landscape" position and with the side of the slide that "faces the screen" oriented "Up" in the stack of slides.

Slide Trays (Non-Carousel)

Rectangular slide trays — not the round carousel type — hold slides in long rows and were used with a variety of projectors.

What to do: Remove the slides from the trays and stack, label and rubber band them.

General Packing Tips for Any Container

Regardless of how your slides are stored, follow these packing rules before shipping:

✓ Number or name every container, tray, box, or stack
✓ Pack containers in the order you want them scanned
✓ If you have glass slides, wrap everything in bubble wrap or foam — glass slides are fragile
✓ Use a sturdy cardboard box — not an envelope
✓ Include a printed copy of your order form and your deposit check in the box

Not Sure What You Have?

If you are not sure what type of container your slides are in, or if you have an unusual storage format not listed here, contact us before shipping. We have seen just about everything in 20+ years of scanning and can advise you on the best way to prepare your specific collection.