A Decision About Albums

Several years ago, my favorite albums were discontinued and I couldn't decide what to do.  Try to find a style that was similar and deal with it if I couldn't find something?  Switch to something entirely different?  Transfer the existing layouts into new albums so that they'd all match?  Ugh. Finally the day came when I filled the last page protector in my last album.  For months afterward, I let completed layouts pile up my desk (after I'd scanned them, of course) because I couldn't decide what to do and didn't want to make the wrong decision.  At $15-30 per album, I certainly didn't want to replace Trevor's existing 11 albums and buy enough for the immediate future without really thinking it through.

My first dilemma: After a decade of post-bound, did I want to switch to 3-ring or D-ring?  There are pros and cons, but after looking at a variety of brands of ringed albums in person, I knew they were not for me.  The main reason?  A 12x12 post-bound album is already too deep for most of the bookcases we own and the ringed binders add an extra 2-3 inches of depth.

My second dilemma: What should I buy as a temporary stop-gap to hold the increasingly-large pile of layouts that needed a home?  I ended up buying the absolute cheapest post-bound solid-colored album I could find, figuring that if I didn't like it, it wouldn't be too expensive a mistake.  As it turns out, you do get what you pay for when you buy a really, really cheap album. It's holding layouts for now, but I'm guessing it will have to be replaced sooner or later.  No more of that brand.

With fingers crossed, I tried another of the low-priced albums, this one by Colorbok.

At $13, it was totally affordable and the quality was pretty good.  Not top-notch, but perfectly fine for my purposes.  I bought four more.  I have filled two of them and just put the post-it flags into my third using my usual system.

I should be good for another two years or so with what I have.