Moving without the help of a professional can be stressful, especially when you remember all of the odds and ends you’ve collected over the years. If you’re an avid reader, you might have already experienced the challenges of transporting a personal library. So today, we’re going to discuss the best practices for packing and moving books efficiently and safely. Let’s jump right in!

Take Inventory & Purge Unwanted Books

Packing and moving is the perfect opportunity to declutter your belongings. While some books can be read repeatedly and feel fresh every time, others may not be to your taste. This can be the perfect opportunity to say goodbye, and you can donate or sell any books you no longer want to keep. Plenty of online buyback programs will take your used books for compensation.

Any books you decide to keep should be carefully accounted for. Knowing exactly what you’re bringing with you will make the unpacking process much more straightforward, as you will have the perfect idea of which books are where. Furthermore, you may not have the same shelf space in your new home. Downsizing your book collection before moving can help you get through those hard decisions and open up space for some future favorites.

Pack Books in Organized Categories

Consider the space you are moving to and how you plan to organize your catalog at your new place. You might consider packing your books so they are simple to organize when you pull them back out again.

Check out a few ways to pack your books based on their organizational order in your new home:

• By Genre
• Alphabetically (Author or Title)
• From Most Read to Least Read
• By Color
• Chronologically By Date Read

As you finish packing boxes, label them. Consider adding numerical and descriptive labels to make unpacking later simpler.

Filling Your Boxes with Books: Dos & Don’ts

Boxes filled with books get heavy, fast! Luckily, you can take some steps to avoid unmovable boxes or even injury.

Do: Triple-check that your box is secure. Check the bottom of the box and reinforce it with heavy-duty packing tape to prevent books from falling out.

Don’t: Overfill your boxes to save area space. We understand that moving boxes can become tedious, but that’s not a good enough reason to put yourself in a possibly strenuous situation. Only fill boxes to a comfortable weight to avoid injury.

Do: Pick a way to arrange your books in the box and stick with it. Whether you stack them on top of each other or prefer to set them side by side, purposefully arranging them can help protect them.

Don’t: Leave your boxes without specific labels. “Books” is an acceptable label, but for organized unpacking, add some additional descriptive labels based on how you organized them for packing.

Do: Fill empty or unused box space with lightweight packing material (bubble wrap, packing peanuts, packing paper, etc.) to prevent books from shifting during the moving process.

Efficiently Unpacking Your Library

Once you’ve reached your new place and gotten your footing, it’s time to start unpacking and settling in. You’ll be glad that you took the time to pack with some organization because now unpacking will be a breeze. First, make sure all of your book boxes are accounted for. If there are any books with significant or personal worth, you should put eyes on them first to guarantee they made it safely.

Once you have your books, start unpacking. This may take some time, but because you prepped your boxes, you should be able to organize them on your new shelves one box at a time, in the order you like.

No matter how large your book collection is, following this short guide will make moving it easier than you could’ve imagined. Remember to pay special attention to the dangers of moving anything in abundance, and if you’re not up for the job, let us know! We’d be happy to move your books to your new home safely. Happy packing!