Six apartments. six moves. Hoboken, Jersey City, a Bushwick sublet that I still have nightmares about. and every single time, I did the same thing.
I packed my books flat or spine-up in huge boxes. I thought I was being "organized."
Im moving again this week and actually hired guys to help because my back is shot. One of the movers saw my boxes and looked at me like I'd just kicked a puppy. He told me that stacking spine-up or flat in big boxes causes the pages to literally pull away from the binding because of gravity/weight. permanently.
Apparently youre supposed to stand them upright like theyre on a shelf, in small reinforced boxes(thankfully they had them!) so they don't shift. Maybe this is old news for a lot of you, so just a heads-up for anyone else un-educated on the topic.
I have done this across six moves. to books I love. my copy of piranesi? probably ruined. My Shirley Jackson omnibus? the hardcover of a little life i carried home in the rain? I'm looking at the spines now and I can see the gaps.
I'm not okay. tell me paperbacks are more resilient than hardcovers
by Pouty_Princess143
14 Comments
I get why spine-up is a problem, but what’s the issue with packing them flat?
So, you’ve done this six times and not noticed any damage? Sounds to me like everything is fine!
I really wouldn’t worry about this.
I have trouble believing this is true. Especially laying them flat. How would that make books pull away from binding?
Chances are your books can be repaired. There’s a lot of excellent youtube videos on the subject.
Probably 12 moves throughout my life (I had a job that moved me around a lot) and a lot of books that are fine. I don’t think this is a problem.
Why would someone who loves books use ai to help write a post?
I think you just got sold some special boxes
And how much did the mover charge you for these magic boxes?
I’m sorry your books are not ok but I’ve moved 2 times with a lot of mine, and kept a food portion of them in boxes (often with 2 more možeš on top) – they were always flat and the have noticed exactly zero issues, both with paperback and hardcover. I used regular moving boxes.
I cannot comprehend how hours got damaged by, of all things, “gravity* and while moving specifically.. Were many boxes attacked on top of others so the bottom ones for squished, and if yes, how many were stacked?
I also did that when my parents moved but I think the duration of our move was like 30 minutes over so they didn’t really stay that way for too long and were fine.
I can’t understand the physics reason as to why stack them flat is bad though. Maybe if we’re talking about hardcovers but this doesn’t seem to be a thing for paperback.
They sold you the boxes, I assume? You just got scammed my man
AI or just a weird post? Hard to tell.
I really doubt that packing them flat is gonna cause a major problem. Spine up, probably not ideal, especially if you stack more than one layer, but flat? Nah.
Smaller boxes is a good idea for books, just because bulk paper gets heavy.
This may be true of fragile books. Regular books are fine. Stop beating yourself up.