Carryforth · Binder Materials

The things we carry forward.

A home for the photographs, recipes, notes, and ordinary objects that became important because someone kept them.

Binder spines

02

Spines for the shelf.

Choose the width closest to your binder. Cut on the dotted line, fill in the archive name, and secure under a clear spine sleeve or with archival tape.

½ inch binder
1 inch binder
1½ inch binder
2 inch binder

A useful practice

Name the binder by the family, place, or collection it holds—not by a date alone. A simple title leaves room for the archive to grow.

Section dividers

03

Leave room between the chapters.

Print on heavier paper if you can. Trim each divider and place it between groups of records.

Objects & keepsakes

For quilts, tools, furniture, clothing, and the small things with a long life.

Objects

Photographs

For named and unnamed images, copied photos, and the questions they still carry.

Photographs

Recipes & gardens

For recipes, seeds, growing notes, and the things made again and again.

Kitchen & Garden

Letters & papers

For correspondence, certificates, clippings, and fragments that locate a life.

Papers

Stories continuing

For additions, questions, new memories, and details found later.

Continuing

Category tabs

04

Small markers for what gathers here.

Cut each tab on the dotted line. Fold or mount it at the edge of a divider page.

Objectskeepsakes, clothing, tools
Photographsknown and unnamed images
Recipeshandwritten and remembered
Gardenseeds, cuttings, growing notes
Letterspapers, cards, clippings
People & placesfamily branches and homes
To researchnames, dates, questions
Stories continuingnew discoveries and additions

Make it yours

Blank space is intentional. Write a category your family actually uses on the reverse of a tab, or print this page again for a second set.

Record & photograph labels

05

Give each piece a place to return to.

Record number labels

Use one on each Heirloom Record, envelope, or protective sleeve.

Record no.
Record no.
Record no.
Record no.

Object photograph labels

Place on the back of a copied photograph, protective sleeve, or photo envelope.

Object / image
Object / image
Object / image
Object / image

Archival box labels

06

For the things that will not fit in a binder.

Use these on an archival box, a plain storage box, or a large envelope. Print more whenever a collection needs a clear home.

Carryforth family archive
Carryforth family archive
Carryforth family archive

Additional page

07

This story continues.

Use this page whenever another memory, correction, question, or small detail belongs with an existing record.