Moving soon - advice on how to best pack DVDs?

[Morbii]

Hi all,

Hopefully I'm in the right forum here. I was just going to stick this in the navel gazing section, but I realized you can't start new posts there.

Anyway, I'm moving very shortly, and like many of you I have an enormous DVD collection. My intent was to use quick set up storage boxes that are 10"H x 12"W x 15"D (such as this one here: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/3 ... -Boxes-10/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ). A box of that size fits in the neighborhood of 57 DVDs and it's not so large as to allow them to crush one another while being shipped (though, the ones sitting on the top might need some padding if you're going to get anal).

I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with a move containing a large amount of DVDs (around 2100 titles) and what they used to ship them - e.g. are there any better methods out there or am I going about this the right way?

Thanks.

[Matt]

You definitely want to use small boxes--about the size of what you selected, but maybe not that style. Something like these, maybe. Boxes with thick walls and reinforced bottoms are best to keep the sides and corners from crushing. And you want to pack the DVDs vertically, not horizontally (i.e. not stacked on top of each other). Fill any free space with balled up newspaper or whatever. I've moved my DVD collection across the country twice in the last 6 years (and another two times within town) with only the slightest dings to digipaks--no broken or cracked cases or discs. You might try checking with large bookstores or libraries to see if they have boxes you can take before you buy some. Boxes used for shipping books are often very sturdy.

The thing that concerns me most is that you are shipping them and not moving them yourself. No matter how well you pack your discs, no one is going to take the same kind of care with them that you will.

[Morbii]

Thanks for your input, Matt. It seems I am headed in the right direction with what I'm trying to do - and yes, I packed vertically for my test (with a few horitonzally on top, though that may be unwise it seems). I will check out the sturdier brand of box.

As far as your concerns, I should probably point out that my move is about 30 minutes south of where I'm at now. Looking back, I did kind of almost make it seem like it might actually go through the P.O. (scary!), but no, if I don't do it myself I will be supervising. Fear not for my "children"!

[zedz]

My moving situation was a bit different, as I had the luxury of a long transition and could take boxes back and forth myself. My solution, for what it's worth, was finding medium sized boxes which fitted two layers of DVDs, two abreast, with no wiggle room. The down side was that any odd sized packs - even slightly larger box sets - had to be packed separately with a lot more care and some jigsaw-puzzling, but the upside was that most of the DVDs were really solidly packed with no slippage allowed, and as long as I was handling them, little risk of damage (they all arrived intact).

That may not be practical in your case, but here are two general principles I'll apply to all future moves of DVDs / CDs / books.
1) Pack solid - if something can move around in transit it will. This often entails packing like with like. Anything you do to assist this is worthwhile: stuffing crevices, cutting boxes down, if necessary.
2) Don't pack boxes that are a struggle for you to lift and relift. Lots and lots of little boxes of books are much better than fewer big ones. Be very conservative with this estimate. If you can bench press 200 pounds, carting 50 pound boxes back and forth might be fine, but if not, think of your back and think dainty.

[Matt]

if I don't do it myself I will be supervising.

Ah, then you'll be fine. You may not need the sturdier boxes. During moving, I didn't stack the boxes with my DVDs more than two high. I put some very light things on top (a single box of shoes or blankets), but nothing heavy.