PeteY

Sorry for such a dull question, but my shipper is out of his office until Monday, and we need to do a fair bit of packing this w/e.

How much is a teachest allowed to weigh max?

Ours currently are up to 36kgs, which is pretty damn heavy. I am a whimp however, so im hoping these tough ass removal guys won't mind. Is 36kg ok?


Also, we are shipping a huge number of books. Do you guys just lay them out in the bottom of the cartons, or do you protect them in anyway?

Cheers

Pete.

HiddenPaw

downunderpom

Watch out for nails - they can tear into books, as can splinters.

Dunno about the weight, but 36kgs isn't that heavy - we had boxes that weighed quite a bit more than that.

Bring ALL your books - apart from the fact that they're 'best friends' they're also bloody expensive in Oz, especially reference books.... If you're shipping in a container than you're paying for volume, so don't worry about the weight. I packed all of our books (a couple of '000) in smaller boxes - each weighed about 20kgs.

PeteY

LOL you cheeky sod

I think i deserve some packing tips after that little outburst eh HP

janeyray

It doesn't matter how much your tea chest weighs, It's all about the size.

We packed books as they were and they survived the journey.

Some of the things smell a bit when you get them though, clothes etc. They smell fusty from the ship!

rachels

Hi Pete

When we packed ours I'm pretty sure the max weight for the tea chests was 40Kg so you're doing okay. The removal guys have those nice trolleys anyway so it'll be okay.

I shipped alot of books as well and we were given special book boxes which were half the size of a tea chest. If you can't get hold of those then I would lay a towel in the bottom of the tea chest and then flip the end over the books so they were all covered if you know what I mean?! Failing that put a layer of bubble wrap on top. Mine travelled really well and the covering just stopped any scratches etc.

Good luck!
Rachel

PeteY

Thanks for that. Might have to ring the shipper next week to see if we can get some smaller boxes. As it is at the moment we have too many books and not enough "bulky" items to fill out the teachests.

I noticed that books were really pricy out there too, but i also saw lots of pretty good 2nd hand bookshops. Hopefully they'll keep me and the wife in reading material!

HiddenPaw

I don't own anything nearly so grand as a tea chest!!

I didn't protect the books in anything - they just went in a strong box. I guess the thing to be careful with is not to overload the box....books can be so deceptively heavy, as I'm sure you know - in fact I half-filled some boxes with hard back books and then lay things like...erm...teddy bears ...on top to keep the weight down, but fill the box!

downunderpom

Hey! You brought YOUR teddy bears, too? (Okay, so they're my wife's Millenium Bears, but we refer to them as 'the Boys'.

Strong boxes - definitely. Mine were about 16" x 12" x 6". You'll have bulging biceps (or a slipped disk!) by the time you get out here, Pete!

PeteY

I got told off for that with the first box i did. Half filled with books and then topped up with the wifes collection of stuffed toys. Apparently the stuffed toys can be "wedged", so i had to take em all out and re-fill with other bits, then "wedge" in a couple of bears, a lion and a moose.

HiddenPaw

You are obviously a SNAG!

downunderpom

Them's fighting words, mister!

Pollyana

Bring the teddies! They'll love it!! So far I have 4 bears, a tiger, 2 penguins and Eeyore, plus the furry snake! All waiting impatiently for the others, who are coming by ship - about 30 of them, various shapes and sizes! My rabbit will arrive last - he's 38 years old and my mum is doing him a new waistcoat to wear in oz 9the moths got the old one).
I did half-filling boxes with cuddlies and books and it was no problem - kept the weight down in individual boxes.
The advice my shippers gave me was to remember that someone has to be able to lift each box - so I figured if I could lift it, I'd be ok.

HiddenPaw

How did you get that lot past quarantine?

downunderpom

That's the criteria I was going to use, then my wife said 'You're a weightlifter, idiot!', so I made sure SHE could lift them!