While individual pieces of paper take up an almost negligible amount of space, books and book collections can very quickly take up a massive amount of space. In addition, books themselves are fairly fragile and are susceptible to both water and physical damage. In order to ensure that your book collection is transported without incident and using the smallest amount of space possible, you should take some steps to adequately prepare your books for a move.

Proper Box Packing Techniques

When packing books, the most important thing to keep in mind is that you can't overload individual boxes. If a single box is too heavy, it will be much harder to move and also increases the risk that the box itself will break open and spill your books everywhere, which can damage them and be a pain to clean up.

What you want to do is make sure that you keep your boxes to a relatively light weight, no more than 20 pounds. Additionally, make sure that you are taking advantage of highly durable cardboard boxes. To increase the stability of your boxes, you should use packing tape to seal the bottom and any seams of the box to hold it together. Finally, it doesn't matter how you position your books (lying flat or standing up), but make sure that you stay consistent so that books are not in awkward positions to each other, as that is how covers and pages become bent and damaged. Fill up any extra space with a cushioning layer of packing paper to add a secondary layer of protection.

Valuable Volumes

For more valuable individual volumes, if they aren't already vacuum sealed or otherwise protected, you should wrap them up with packing paper or even plastic wrap. Paper will protect against minor abrasions and cuts, while plastic wrap will provide an extra layer of insulation against any potential water damage that your books might experience.

Packing the Truck Properly

Finally, when you're packing your books into the moving truck on moving day, make sure that they are not sitting on top of items where they can fall over. Books are fairly heavy and durable, and make a good base on which you can stack other, lighter items. Don't stack boxes too high, and make sure that your boxes of books are all clearly labeled so that you can unpack and organize them with a minimal amount of effort.

Talk to a local moving company, such as Smith Dray Line, for more suggestions and for help with your move.