Fly Away

Advice sought from you kind people.

Despite having a massive clear out and getting rid of hundreds of books, we still have hundreds more. We are moving into a rental - please God if we ever exchange () in the UK until we fly out. As there is no point unpacking them while we are in the rental, I am planning to pack them up ready for the container.

So I was wondering if any of you had any tips. What sort of boxes are best. Do I need to wrap them in plastic or does that make them rot????

Thanks.

ausi dream

Hello Fly Away.
We have relocated twice before to Brisbane, and on the first time our books e,c,t were packed in the boxes standing up with the removers paper round five or six at a time.
When we unpacked the boxes we lost a few photo albums which had brown staining running through, like you see with very old books that have been kept in damp places.
So on the second move, i packed the books myself and wrapped each book individually with acid free tissue paper that i got from John Lewis, and did not have any problems when we unpacked them.
I picked up on the idea about the tissue paper from a programme on television.
I was told by the removers only to pack in cardboard boxes so it lets them breath, but i packed some in plastic containers the second time (which i got from home base) and did not have any problems.
Best of luck.

Fly Away

Thanks Ausi dream. I have heard that the packers pack like that and have heard several people say their books have been damaged. I will have to go to find some acid free tissue paper - although we have so many books it will be a mammoth task!

I have some of those plastic containers with lids too - I was going to ship our papers in them. Sounds like that should be OK.

Thanks again.

quercus

With books, because of the weight, you have to pack in small 'book' boxes, as there is a maximum weight the carriers will accept. You can also put a layer of books at the bottom of less dense items, so as to make the most of the weight you are allowed in those and keep the total number of boxes to a minimum.

I have sent books on the trip three times now (don't ask!) and had no problems with damage. It's probably luck of the draw, ie, how water tight your container is. Most I'm sure are fine. To save time and also be on the safe side you could place a layer of books in tissue with plastic around them, that would deal with sweating and also possible leaks.

Happy packing!
Q x

GinaUK

We got special book boxes from our shippers.

We packed our books ourselves (over 2,000) so that we could then take the shelves off the walls, fill the holes and re-paint the walls for our buyer. (Solicitors forms said that walls must be undamaged.)

Into each box I put a large silica sachet in case of any moisture during transport.

The shippers gave us lots of acid free paper. We put a layer in the bottom and top of each box as well as balled up bits into any gaps to prevent movement while in transit.

In our rental, the boxes are stored indoors in a nice warm sunny room with plenty of air ciruclation (doors open).

We've unpacked about 100 books. They were fine. The rest will stay in their boxes until our own house is built.

Gina

curly

Hi N,
I packed all my books and photo's; loose and in albums, in those plastic crates and sprinkled quite a few of those silica gel sachets, (bought them online really cheaply) amongst them. Absolutely no damage whatsoever

Wol

Our books were packed in card book boxes - about 20" x 12" x 15" - with no silca, acid free paper etc. All the books were fine and undamaged. I wouldn't pack them in plastic.

Fly Away

Thanks all for your tips and time. I will have to get some proper book boxes. We only moved 4 years ago but gave all our packing boxes away. Otherwise we would have the ones we bought last time. I'm on the hunt for acid free paper now!!

egghead4

this is interesting as like you, i have hundreds of books.
i also have hundreds of photos, which are not yet in albums and unlikely to be put into an album as we leave soon.
i would be gutted if anything happened to them, i have read nearly all my books, but i just cant part with them
if anyone has to have a lot of photo's developed before leaving we used a company called foto.com, they were great - £50.00 for 1000 photos
thats one task i have to do this weekend
bec

minibelle

I have packed all my books loose in book boxes, shippers are coming in the morning, its to late now so wish me luck.

minibelle

Lenmil

I had pictures in boxes shipped to NZ and they were fine as were some of my books. Shipped the stuff back to the UK a year later and some of my books lost their photo's. I had an Oxford (huge book) book on astronomy. The text was all there but all pictures were turned black. No details at all. My beige PC turned a tobacco colour, but that changed back to it's original colour over time. I can only guess it was our stuff going through the equator. The books were wrapped in tissue paper, then in heavy cardboard boxes.

GinaUK

Ask your shippers for them.

If you buy boxes it's likely they won't be thick enough. Boxes for international shipping are much thicker (i.e. stronger) than boxes for moving house within the UK.

Gina

Possums

I brought loads of books, shippers packed ours into the the same boxes they used for all the other stuff, arrived fine, no silica, no tissue or owt.

not sure where the OP is moving to but at this end if you are in a tropical climate dont store books against an outside wall, will make them mouldy.