Moving Large Book Collections

[Trinitty]

Hello,

We might be moving across the country within the next few months. Coast to Coast in Canada.

We have a lot of books. About 1200 or so. We can't sell them, they are essential.

What is the best way to move this library?

I am thinking of of crating them into rubbermaid containers or wood crates and shipping them by rail.

What about Greyhound?

I was initially thinking of packing up a moving truck ourselves and driving across the country, then I remembered that we have a two yearold and that is not happening!

So, the plan is to fly the three people and two cats and to have the rest moved.

Should I send the books in a different way? I know that it is more than a dollar a pound to have things moved by a trucking company... and all of these books would add up to way too much.

Trin.

[merpk]

We moved about that many books (over 1K) overseas about four years ago, so our lift came by ship, meaning we hired a shipping container. Shipping by rail sounds like the way to go. I think you hire a container the same way we did.

The plastic/Rubbermaid boxes idea is entirely overkill. We found cardboard boxes to work just fine. When you tape them up, though, use a lot of extra tape across the bottom, just crisscrossing it for strength. Also, label them clearly as books, so the movers (professional or otherwise) don't underestimate the weight of the boxes.



The only thing that stressed us about the cardboard boxes was the potential for water damage if there was some kind of problem like that, but insurance covers that. Make sure you have an accurate database of all your books (title, author, edition, year of publication, whether hardcover or soft) for insurance purposes; it's a big project, so make time for it. Worth it also just in case any of them go missing on the journey. And keep track of the number of boxes of books so that you know they all made it intact at the end.

And good luck.

[Storm Bride]

Just use cardboard two-cubes. Anything bigger and whoever is moving them will curse your name. (Kidding - sort of. Every professional mover I've ever known - lots, and many of them read themselves - says the word "book" is a four-letter word. They're heavy...although not as heavy as boxes of National Geographics. Yes - you pick up weird trivia as a child of a mover.)

Definitely add some extra box tape where the flaps meet the sides of the box. Label them clearly.

I can't really give you any advice on shipping method, though. I've only dealt with the moving vans side of things.


OT: You're on the east side of the country now, aren't you? Does that mean you're headed my way?

[ollyoxenfree]

Liquor boxes. The kind that hold a half-dozen wine bottles. Anything larger is a killer for heavy items like books and magazines.

[Trinitty]

Hello!

Thank you, I knew I could turn here for help!

Yes, Stormbride, we MIGHT be heading your way, and I really hope we are!!! I am so homesick for The West that I can barely stand to watch the Winter Games.

Thank you for all of the suggestions... I hadn't thought of the liquor boxes, they would be made to carry a load. Do I line the cardboard boxes with plastic (garbage) bags for fear of water damage.... or would they sweat and get musty?


Right now, shipping them all as a library-in-a-crate by rail sounds the most economical, while trucking the rest of our lighter things with movers might be best. Renting a whole 20x8x8 foot container and shipping it on the train costs about $6500, whatever we can pack into the container goes. Less for just a crate of books.

I envision packing the books into the small boxes and loading them into a crate on our ground floor. The rail company sends a truck with forklift to truck it to the railway and put it in a shipping container.

Excellent point on the inventory list... I am going to take a week and catalogue the whole collection.

We are not a "sell everything" couple, we are collectors and our items are special to us: artistic tables, photographs, statues, etc. At times like this, I wish we were different! LOL.

Thanks for the input!!!!

Trin.

Edited to add: I just eye-balled what 20 x 8 x8 looks like and I think we could fit all of our belongings into that container easily. Maybe even with room for my plants!

[Arduinna]

I'd inventory everything and hire professional movers and just ship it all at once. That is what we are looking at with our next move. We have too much stuff and are planning on moving too far to do it ourselves. Of course I'm planning on taking valuables and the most treasured items with us as we are driving both cars due to our pets.

[Trinitty]

Merpk,

Do you remember how many your thousand-plus book collection weighed?

I have figured out how much each type of book weighs, and I will then just tally them into categories while I am cataloguing them to get a rough total... but if I go the whole "container" route, the total won't really matter, they allow for several tonnes.

Trin.

[Smokering]

Yep, liquor boxes are great. We raided a liquor store before we moved and got enough to move about that number of books.

Are you planning on moving frequently? One of the best ideas I ever heard was from a pastor friend of Dad's. Because he moved a lot and had a huge library of commentaries and theological books, he built a bunch of boxes with slide-out lids. He stacked them on top of each other to make bookshelves in whatever configuration fit whatever manse he was in; and when he moved he'd just slide the lids back on the boxes and they'd be instantly "packed"! I thought it was brilliant....

[Trinitty]

Thank you Smokering,

That IS a great idea. Thankfully, we don't need to move a lot!

I shall start raiding the liquor store now....

Trin.

[Storm Bride]

Oh, yeah - I totally forgot the liquor store boxes. My dad loved them.