Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion

Hi everyone! I’ll be moving abroad from my home country next February. As my belonging to this group may attest, I have a sizeable personal library. The biggest worry I have about my move is how to guarantee that my books will arrive undamaged. While my things go insured, I have decided to keep here all the non-replaceable books or those that are hard to find, fully out of print, etc. But I will be taking some (some means more than a hundred) with me. As the bulk of the move is going by boat, I’m worried about the water. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to pack everything (I assume, individually) to make everything watertight? Has anyone moved their library like this?

I've never had to to that, but if you are truly serious, you could put each book in a zip lock bag before boxing, just in case. Or, we have one of those vacuum sealer machines and that would work even better, though it could be a little pricey for the plastic.

(Zip lock bags can be had in 2 gallon sizes for the larger books on Amazon.)

Good luck.

Yeah, I was thinking in Ziploc bags, but I was unsire if they sold them large enough to house a 9x6 in book.

thanks for your recommendation!

The largest Ziploc bags are XL: 16 in. long x 13 in. deep x 10.9 in. high, and XXL: 2.2 ft. long (26 in.) x 16 in. deep x. 12 in. high. They can be purchased from Ziploc online. You should back your books in a plastic container instead of a box.

I've moved to another country, but I didn't ship anything. Since I knew I was moving to the UK my husband (who has always been here) and I started carting back an extra suitcase on every flight we've had. Over the past 4 years I've managed to get a whole lot of stuff over here, but the books are coming slowly. Right now everything is stored in my parents basement.

As books are so heavy I don't get to bring them over by the suitcase load. Instead, on each visit I have a list in my head of the ones that I want to reread the most and grab those. While sorting thru it all I always end up creating a pile of the nice to take back with me books. These are put into the bags to get us as close to the allowed weight as possible.

I don't have books that are worth a lot of money, so I have rebought some books that I know are waiting for me in the States. On my next trip I plan on donating any duplicates I've aquired and creating a GoodReads list just for my books in the US - just so I'll know whats there. My parents are getting a little tired of all my stuff collecting dust - so I need to really work on weeding down the pile - but the books will not go!

Kate wrote: "The largest Ziploc bags are XL: 16 in. long x 13 in. deep x 10.9 in. high, and XXL: 2.2 ft. long (26 in.) x 16 in. deep x. 12 in. high. They can be purchased from Ziploc online. You should back ..."

I think I'd be inclined to use the book boxes provided by movers. Plastic boxes have a nasty tendency to crack and develop broken out corners (experience here, and we only moved about 60 miles). Also, moving insurance might specify mover's boxes, if you see what I mean.

And I'd Ziploc them for sure. Even though bags are a little expensive, look at it this way, you'd have a huge supply to use once you arrive for things like meat you could leave in the original packing and just freeze or whatever. And they are great for use when traveling since one can put undies or socks or whatever into the larger ones and roll to remove air. Compresses a lot and saves space.

Good luck with the move.

Ziploc has a case for their bags. Why not put the books in a bag, the bags in the ziploc case, the ziploc case in the movers box. It is rather costly.

Thanks for giving further perspective. As an update, this is my current strategy:
- I will take valuable books (i.e. Easton Press, Folios and Everymans) in my personal luggage.
- I have an airlift allowance equivalent to 1 pallet. Apart from my clothing, I will include there books that are out of print and that replacing them would require some effort.
- Books still in print will go with the rest of my stuff by boat.

I have received the consultant from the relocation company and they sent me a catalog of their packing materials. They seem professional. Anyway, I will assess the quality of their book boxes to decide if I add additional protection (in the form of Ziploc Bags)

Let us know how it goes. I've been contemplating sending my books to me

Let us know how it goes. I've been contemplating sending my books to me