One of the biggest enemies of a vinyl record is contamination. Dust, pet hair, airborne particles and even residue from household sprays can eventually find their way onto the precious playing surface. While careful handling, sunlight and storage conditions all play an important part in looking after your records, this simple tip is about one thing: keeping airborne nasties away from your LPs.

Before you start, we recommend giving your records a good clean. Ideally, use a professional record-cleaning machine to remove the dirt and residue that may have built up. Once clean, pop the record into a new, good-quality inner sleeve. You’re then starting with a nice, clean foundation.

Now for the simple bit.
Before the newer style of resealable outer sleeves became readily available in New Zealand, particularly those championed by MoFi, many collectors used a more traditional resealable plastic sleeve. They were inexpensive, practical and, as we recently discovered, remarkably effective.

We had the opportunity to professionally clean a buddy’s record collection recently. Most of the records had been stored in the older-style resealable sleeves since the 1980s. After all those years, the collection was, by and large, in surprisingly smart condition.
That got us thinking. Perhaps those humble plastic sleeves had been quietly doing their job all along.

By keeping the records enclosed, they had provided an extra layer of protection from airborne dust, pet hair and the general contaminants that inevitably find their way into our homes. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones that work best.
So, if you're looking for a very affordable way to protect your collection, why not give them a try?

At around $2 per album, is that really too much to spend to help keep your records clean and protected? When you consider the money many of us have invested in our collections, a few dollars per record seems like a sensible insurance policy.

They’re also particularly useful for oversized albums, gatefolds, double LPs and triple albums, where standard outer sleeves can sometimes feel a little cramped.

We found suitable resealable plastic bags at StorageBox, with packs of 50 available for around $25. That's a very small investment compared with the cost of replacing a damaged or contaminated record.

Of course, no sleeve can replace sensible storage and careful handling. Keep your collection away from direct sunlight, store records upright, use clean hands and make sure the records themselves are properly cleaned.

But sometimes protecting your collection doesn't have to be complicated or expensive.
A simple resealable sleeve, costing around $2 per album, could help protect thousands of dollars' worth of vinyl. Not a bad little tip for such a small investment.