Sort and Discard Unnecessary Books and Files
If you have hired a moving company to handle your transit and are moving quite a long way, you’ll often find that moving companies will charge your cargo by weight as opposed to by volume. In this case, we suggest that you quickly go through your books and files and determine what items you no longer need, and what is worth paying for. Files, books, and documents are generally heavy and when combined with other household items such as furniture and appliances, the total load might rack up quite a moving bill. To avoid this, it is always best to find a good home for your books such as donating them to a local library, children’s home or other organizations that are keen to offload you of your precious cargo and take care of it. As for files, it is always best to destroy documents that may bear confidential information and the best way to do this is lighting a good old fashioned bonfire and if you’re concerned about the environment, taking your files to a professional incinerator should do the trick.
Choosing the right box
Once you have decided the books and files to move, choose the right box for the right items. Generally, small boxes work best for heavy items and whether you have five huge volumes of fifty, it’s always best to pack them into small boxes because books tend to be heavier than expected. By investing in small boxes, you’ll ensure that the boxes will be full before they become too heavy to break under the excess weight. Medium sized boxes can also be used and it is recommended that you check whether they can hold the weight, and also ensure they are not damp. Checking for dampness ensure that the box does not break, and also prevents the books from coming to any harm caused by wetness.
Preparing boxes for packing
if you chose to use new boxes to pack your books and files, then you should probably know that boxes are sold while disassembled to make them less bulky and you’ll need to first put them together. Therefore, ensure you assemble the box in the illustrated manner and seal the bottom properly using an adequate amount of tape. If the box is recycled or used, you can double the amount of tape required to seal the bottom to ensure it will hold.
Protecting the books and files
Books are generally priceless and need to be protected. You can use packing paper to bundle a bunch of similar sized books together to create a rigid structure and also place crumpled packing at the bottom of the box to ensure to books and files do not dirt from the boxes especially if they had been used earlier to move other stuff.
Consider books and files’ size and arrangement
Books and files come in a variety of sizes and build qualities (e.g. hardcovers and paperbacks) and these factors need to be put into consideration. At the very least, no one wants to play Jenga with their highly valued books and files, or risk having them crumpled and dog-eared due to a bad arrangement. It is thus necessary to group the books and files according to their sizes, and if you should vertical packing, it is best to ensure that the book spine points downwards just like arranging them on a shelf. This arrangement ensures that more books and files fit into a box, and also helps protect the items while in transit.
Packing special books and files
If you have any unique or valuable books and files such as priceless first editions, autographed copies, collector editions, and valuable files such as diplomas, deeds and so on, then it is advisable to wrap each book individually with packing paper. Paper files should be put into a folder to protect them and also make it easier to find them all in one place. After wrapping the items, the next step is to fill all extra spaces in the box with crumpled packing paper or bubble wrap to cushion the items against movements during transit. Additionally, you can use stiff cardboard between layers of books and files to keep them straight and prevent crumpling especially if the items are old and brittle. Hardcover editions are best packed by vertically arranging them in the box with the spine facing downwards just like in a shelf. This makes it easier to pack and unpack them. Paperback editions can also be packed vertically but this time, they are placed into the box spine first with the paper edges facing upwards. Packing paperbacks like hardcovers with the spines up and the edges down could cause the pages to bend.
Securing the box
After choosing a box and packing your books, you’ll need to seal both the top and bottom using packing tape and label it using a marker to easily identify its contents.
