I'm packing books into boxes, to be stored and then shipped to another country. How should I pack them and what materials should I use to ensure they remain in good condition?
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Brand X
ANSWERS: 2
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The packing stores can sell you bubble wrap on a roll, that's handy to have. The basic strategy is to establish the risk to each item, the value of each item, and wrap accordingly. Books are pretty durable, you can't really break them, you just pack them as tightly as you can and make sure the box is very sturdy, because they're heavy. Same with clothes or other soft things. By contrast, something delicate like a crystal vase needs at least several layers of bubble wrap, and it needs to be packed in a sturdy box so it can't be "bent" by other things in the container. Basically, you should be able to take any box you've packed, give it to a strong man, and have him throw it at a brick wall repeatedly as hard as he can. The box should not break open, the contents should not be damaged. That's about what will happen to it in shipping.
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Bubble wrap and "peanuts" work well. I would put some thin Styrofoam (I forgot what it is called) that I would put between each book. You do not want to have any free space in that box for things to shift. I have shipped books from the West to the East Coast that way very successfully.
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