Hi! Sorry if you've answered something like this before and I missed it. I was entrusted with my family's stamp collection and would like to improve how it is kept. What recommendations do you have for stamp storage that are both convenient to access the stamps and store the stamps safely?
Hello and thanks for the question! I'm going to do a broad kind of all situations answer in hopes that an aspect will cover your situation and the rest will be helpful to other collectors, but feel free to message back if you need more specific advice.
Stamp storage is one of those everybody has a different opinion things in philately - it's mostly about starting with proper paper storage and working from there to figure out what's the best solution for you, your collection, and your space.
Top tip is to make sure your stamps aren't being kept in a humid or overly hot or cold area - damp can bring mold or disturb the gum on the back of the stamp (or even make your stamps stick together), and extreme variations in temperature can compromise the stamp as well. Many a stamp collection has been lost to basement or garage storage - which reminds me, you'll need to be aware of the pest situation wherever you choose to store it, because they do love to nibble on old paper.
If the stamps in your collection are largely loose in boxes, the next step up would be to get one or more stockbooks to store the stamps in. Stockbooks let you organize your stamps and make it easy to see what you have and what you don't, without having to mess around with mounts or hinges (more on that in a second). They also keep your stamps flat and come with leaves of either some kind of plastic or a wax-paper-like material between each page to keep your stamps from interacting with each other chemically. If you have a stamp store in your area, you can almost certainly purchase stockbooks from them, or you can buy directly online from the various brands (just search for stamp stockbooks). You can also often find new or lightly used stockbooks on sites like ebay - just be sure to check the price against going rates for new stockbooks so you're not overpaying.
Stockbooks are my personal favorite option - they're not super fiddly, you can see your collection at a glance, and you can be as organized as you like, plus they have built in stamp protection features. They also store a lot of stamps for their footprint, and most fit comfortably on a standard bookshelf. The major downside in my experience is that depending on the material the little sleeves are made of, your stamps might slip around a bit.
If your stamps are in stockbooks already and you want to kick it up a notch organizationally, you'll want to invest in a stamp album. Albums are typically organized by subject (for example, you might have an album featuring U.S. stamps from 1900 to 1950) and have spaces reserved for each stamp. You can then adhere the stamps using hinges (which are sort of like light strips of waxed paper with an adhesive that's designed to not damage the stamp) or mounts (which are little plastic windows, sort of? I'll put a picture below).
I believe these days most albums are in binder format so you can add additional pages as needed, but sometimes you can get an actual bound book. You can purchase albums from stamp stores/online providers, but some are available for free to download and print out (including a lot from our parent org, the American Philatelic Society). You can also make your own pages to fit your collection, in a word processor or a graphic design program (or with pencils and pens, the old fashioned way!). Just be aware that if you're making them for anyone but yourself, stamp copyright is real and complicated.
Regardless of whether you go with albums or stockbooks, you'll want to keep them either upright and supported (i.e. on a bookshelf) or flat (like in a desk drawer or a bankers box), and again, nowhere damp or with extreme temperatures. That's more about general book care than the stamps themselves, but it also keeps things from being jostled and your book/album from getting damaged.
There are also a variety of short term solutions for a small collections or portions of, including glassines (which are envelopes made out of that waxy paper), regular envelopes (but make sure the paper's acid-free/archival-ish if the stamps will be in there for any length of time, and regardless it wouldn't be my top recommendation), stock pages (which are individual stockbook pages with sleeves that you can put in a binder or use to send stamps through the mail) and a big favorite with philatelists, cigar boxes. I've also seen people use matchboxes, which is very aesthetic but a little fiddly.
Edit: You can also find a much more in-depth look at stamp storage from the APS here.
I hope that (very long) answer helped, and please feel free to reach out with any more questions!
