Books Are Heavier Than You Think
A standard hardback weighs around 0.7-1.5 kg. A medium-sized moving box stuffed with hardbacks can easily hit 30-35 kg — well past the safe lifting limit for one person, and past the structural limit of a single-walled supermarket box.
This is why books are the most common cause of two things on moving day:
- Burst boxes — bottoms falling out as the box is lifted off the floor
- Lower-back injuries — both for you and for the removal team
The fix is simple: use the right size box, cap the weight, and don't fill it with books alone.
The Right Box for Books
Use a medium double-walled box, approximately 18" × 13" × 13" (about 46 × 33 × 33 cm). The double-walled construction is essential — single-walled boxes are not designed for heavy, dense loads and will fail at the bottom seam.
You can buy a suitable medium 18×13×13 double-walled box from MyMovingBox. Estimate roughly one box per 30-40 average books for paperback-heavy collections, and one box per 20-25 books for mostly hardbacks.
Don't use large boxes for books. Large boxes filled with books become impossible to lift safely and almost always fail.
The 20 kg Rule
Cap every book box at 20 kg maximum. This is:
- The HSE's "occasional lifting" guideline for adult males close to the body
- The point at which most double-walled cardboard boxes start to deform
- About the weight at which one person stops being able to safely lift, walk and place a box repeatedly throughout a moving day
If you have bathroom scales, weigh a couple of full boxes early on to calibrate your eye for the rest. Once you've felt 20 kg, you'll know when you're overpacking.
The Clothes-and-Books Trick
Books are dense and small. A medium box is rarely full at 20 kg of books — there's usually 30-40% empty volume left at the top, which is wasted space and lets the books shift in transit.
The fix: fill the remaining volume with light, soft items that you'd be packing anyway. Good combinations:
- T-shirts, jumpers and other folded clothing
- Towels and bedlinen
- Soft toys
- Cushion covers
This balances the weight-to-volume ratio of the box (you're getting close to 20 kg, but the box is also full to the top), and the clothing cushions the books so nothing shifts.
It also reduces total box count, which matters if your remover charges by volume or item count.
How to Stack Books in the Box
There are three accepted ways:
- Spine-down, upright — books standing as if on a shelf, but with the spine resting on the bottom of the box. This is the safest for hardbacks and protects the binding.
- Flat stacks — books lying flat, alternating direction so spines aren't all on the same side (which would tilt the stack).
- Mixed — flat at the bottom, upright on top. Often the most space-efficient for an awkwardly-sized collection.
Avoid:
- Spine-up — pages sag, bindings strain, and the book may permanently warp.
- Random/dumped — pages bend and dust jackets tear at the corners.
Special Cases
Valuable, signed or first-edition books. Wrap each one individually in a sheet of acid-free white wrapping paper, then pack into a smaller box (no more than 12 kg) with crumpled paper around them. See our guide on packing fragile items for the right paper.
Old leather-bound books. These dislike sudden humidity changes. Pack them away from anything damp, and unpack them within a few days of arrival rather than leaving them sealed for weeks.
Cookbooks and reference books. These are often oversized and don't fit standard boxes neatly. Pack them flat in two stacks side-by-side at the bottom of a medium box, with paperbacks upright above.
eBook readers, tablets and Kindles. Treat as fragile electronics, not books — wrap in bubble wrap and pack with the small fragiles, not in a book box.
Labelling
Every book box should be labelled:
- "BOOKS — HEAVY" on the top and two sides
- The room it goes in (e.g. "STUDY", "LIVING ROOM")
- A short content note ("cookbooks", "fiction A-M", etc.) — your future self will thank you when you're trying to find one specific title in a stack of 30 boxes
A Quick Sanity Check
Before sealing each box:
- Pick it up about 10 cm off the floor.
- If it feels like a real effort to keep it there for 5 seconds, it's too heavy. Take some out and add clothes or towels to fill the space.
- Gently shake. If you hear movement, add more soft filler.
- Tape the bottom seam and the bottom edges (an "H" pattern of tape). The bottom is what fails first under book weight.
Done right, you can move an entire bookshelf in 4-6 boxes that you and the removers can actually lift.