12
BOOK COLLECTING: Moving Your Collection!
6 Oct, 2008
2008-10-6 3:16:51 PM UTC
2008-10-6 3:16:51 PM UTC
BOOK COLLECTING: Moving Your Collection!
Just thought I'd start a thread on moving your (book) collection; in particular moving house.
I just recently moved home. Not far; but far enough (a couple of hundred miles). Moving house/home is bad enough, but moving (or even worse -the thought of moving!) my book collection was a real headache.
I personally chose to move my collection myself. I packed the books up myself; physically moved them myself (with partner); and unpacked them myself.
As a household we had probably well over 1000 individual books, many of which only required moderately careful packing and moving. However about half of these were 'The Collection'; books I was deeply concerned about packing and moving. How best to do it?
Well I went for pretty standard cardboard boxes from a removal firm. They had some designated specifically for books. The biggest problem is finding boxes big enough to accomodate your standard hardbacks; but not so big as to be too heavy once packed.
I individually bubblewrapped every single hardback, and lined boxes (bottom, sides, and top) with bubblewrap also. This took a good few weeks. No private removal people; moved them to van ourselves. Didn't stack more than three boxes high within van (not very high), to avoid unnecessary weigh on books in bottom boxes. And got them out of boxes and back on shelves as soon as was practically possible (within a week of moving into new flat).
Some unpacked boxes sat on the cold floor of our new flat. When I opened them up some of the pages had cringled with the cold, and possible damp. Damn it! Books don't mind the cold; but damp is a real problem. I had many anxious days unpacking and examining books; particularly those right at the bottom of packed boxes.
But besides the odd concern (and occasional anxious moment) all of my collection is now housed as was, with no injury of note. There is even the upside of stumbling across many books you haven't seen in while (-perhaps even a few you forgot you had?) whilst packing and unpacking. And there is always the opportunity to rearrange your collection in to some new order.
So if moving your collection I'd advise buying several large roles of bubblewrap. Do not underestimate how many books you have, and how many boxes (just for books) you are going to require. We had a 55 box moving pack, which contained 10 book boxes. These took between 12 and 15 bubblewrapped hardbacks. We ordered another 20 book boxes, and that really wasn't enough.
Could you trust a professional removal firm? My lack of trust/faith in their ability is totally unfounded I'm sure. But I just couldn't tolerate the thought of someone else damaging any of my books.
There you have it. Also, being offline for nearly a month has been far harder than I'd imagined. Did manage to make some headway into the 'to read' pile tho'!
BH
Just thought I'd start a thread on moving your (book) collection; in particular moving house.
I just recently moved home. Not far; but far enough (a couple of hundred miles). Moving house/home is bad enough, but moving (or even worse -the thought of moving!) my book collection was a real headache.
I personally chose to move my collection myself. I packed the books up myself; physically moved them myself (with partner); and unpacked them myself.
As a household we had probably well over 1000 individual books, many of which only required moderately careful packing and moving. However about half of these were 'The Collection'; books I was deeply concerned about packing and moving. How best to do it?
Well I went for pretty standard cardboard boxes from a removal firm. They had some designated specifically for books. The biggest problem is finding boxes big enough to accomodate your standard hardbacks; but not so big as to be too heavy once packed.
I individually bubblewrapped every single hardback, and lined boxes (bottom, sides, and top) with bubblewrap also. This took a good few weeks. No private removal people; moved them to van ourselves. Didn't stack more than three boxes high within van (not very high), to avoid unnecessary weigh on books in bottom boxes. And got them out of boxes and back on shelves as soon as was practically possible (within a week of moving into new flat).
Some unpacked boxes sat on the cold floor of our new flat. When I opened them up some of the pages had cringled with the cold, and possible damp. Damn it! Books don't mind the cold; but damp is a real problem. I had many anxious days unpacking and examining books; particularly those right at the bottom of packed boxes.
But besides the odd concern (and occasional anxious moment) all of my collection is now housed as was, with no injury of note. There is even the upside of stumbling across many books you haven't seen in while (-perhaps even a few you forgot you had?) whilst packing and unpacking. And there is always the opportunity to rearrange your collection in to some new order.
So if moving your collection I'd advise buying several large roles of bubblewrap. Do not underestimate how many books you have, and how many boxes (just for books) you are going to require. We had a 55 box moving pack, which contained 10 book boxes. These took between 12 and 15 bubblewrapped hardbacks. We ordered another 20 book boxes, and that really wasn't enough.
Could you trust a professional removal firm? My lack of trust/faith in their ability is totally unfounded I'm sure. But I just couldn't tolerate the thought of someone else damaging any of my books.
There you have it. Also, being offline for nearly a month has been far harder than I'd imagined. Did manage to make some headway into the 'to read' pile tho'!
BH
(Stu) I think you'll hit the nail on the head regarding the dustjackets (with Modern 1st Editions). You basically want to stop the dustjacket moving; provided you can do that you've won half the battle.
Because I individually wrapped each hardback, movement of the jacket in respect to the book was prevented, and movement within the boxes was minimal (with bubblewrap against bubblewrap). And, because the bubblewrap was round each a couple of times, the overall protection afforded to the ~12/box (top, bottom, & sides) was more than adequate. I also felt there was a fair amount of protection from moisture; although it wasn't such an issue when I moved.
You've probably also got to watch that books are packed flat within each box, and you've avoided the temptation to put some in vertically to fill some gap! Then, the weight of boxes on boxes comes into play once actually moving; and those books may have weight pushing against the boards and spine in a damaging way.
I did have some volumes already tightly held in polythene bags, but I didn't employ the use of clingfilm or paper in packing. Regardless, it's going to take you a long time. But is certainly worth it for the protection of your Collection; which after all has probably taken you years to assemble.
If I was going to pack again, I'd proably have padded the bottom of the boxes better. I didn't have any problem with just plain brown sticky tape, but I suppose you'd want to use something like duct tape (as Wayne states) if not moving the boxes yourself.
I like this -no furniture! I can just imagine Christina making a little table out of a few books lying around in order to eat her dinner.
10,000+ is a bit excessive don't you think Wayne?
My one question is: do you and Christina have a (complete?) written (or more probably computer archived) list of all the books in your collection?
(In fact, no, I have more than one question!) Do you still remember what books are Christina's and what books are yours? Particularly books that you bought before the joining of the collections. Or is it definitively just 'one' collection now? And, is this (do you think/speculate) the biggest single collection of Tolkienalia in the World in private hands?
In fact just talk about your fabulous collection
...
BH
Because I individually wrapped each hardback, movement of the jacket in respect to the book was prevented, and movement within the boxes was minimal (with bubblewrap against bubblewrap). And, because the bubblewrap was round each a couple of times, the overall protection afforded to the ~12/box (top, bottom, & sides) was more than adequate. I also felt there was a fair amount of protection from moisture; although it wasn't such an issue when I moved.
You've probably also got to watch that books are packed flat within each box, and you've avoided the temptation to put some in vertically to fill some gap! Then, the weight of boxes on boxes comes into play once actually moving; and those books may have weight pushing against the boards and spine in a damaging way.
I did have some volumes already tightly held in polythene bags, but I didn't employ the use of clingfilm or paper in packing. Regardless, it's going to take you a long time. But is certainly worth it for the protection of your Collection; which after all has probably taken you years to assemble.
If I was going to pack again, I'd proably have padded the bottom of the boxes better. I didn't have any problem with just plain brown sticky tape, but I suppose you'd want to use something like duct tape (as Wayne states) if not moving the boxes yourself.
When Christina moved to the U.S. from London, she had almost no furniture but a lot of books (about 6,000 volumes)...
I like this -no furniture! I can just imagine Christina making a little table out of a few books lying around in order to eat her dinner.
10,000+ is a bit excessive don't you think Wayne?
My one question is: do you and Christina have a (complete?) written (or more probably computer archived) list of all the books in your collection?(In fact, no, I have more than one question!) Do you still remember what books are Christina's and what books are yours? Particularly books that you bought before the joining of the collections. Or is it definitively just 'one' collection now? And, is this (do you think/speculate) the biggest single collection of Tolkienalia in the World in private hands?
In fact just talk about your fabulous collection
...BH
Thank you (Wayne) for taking the time to satisfy my curiousity! Two rooms you say? That must be two of those special US rooms!
The use of technology for book lists etc should really be another topic I feel; although I hate to throw the breaks on when everyone is posting so voluminously. Stay on topic Jeremy!...
Your right Beren, this topic could really lead on to a more full discussion of storage/protection of collections (which I'm sure we've discussed before...) I really couldn't imagine moving as many times as you have; particularly when you collection (even at that time) was so large. Nightmare stuff...
BH
The use of technology for book lists etc should really be another topic I feel; although I hate to throw the breaks on when everyone is posting so voluminously. Stay on topic Jeremy!...
Your right Beren, this topic could really lead on to a more full discussion of storage/protection of collections (which I'm sure we've discussed before...) I really couldn't imagine moving as many times as you have; particularly when you collection (even at that time) was so large. Nightmare stuff...
BH
12
18
3106