I've used the search function to read all available threads about how to transport DVDs while moving across the country, but still have a couple of questions. (I'm a first-time poster here, but I've been lurking on this site and others for about three years now. I enjoy the DVDTalk community the most, as I feel you folks are the most practical...pragmatic, but not anal.)

My wife and I will be moving from the Twin Cities to Washington, DC, in early January (technically, right about Dec. 31-Jan. 2). We're planning on renting a "pod," but there's no way I feel comfortable enough with that whole process to leave my DVD collection (about 500-some discs) with the movers, etc. And I don't want to put my discs into any type of binders, as past threads have indicated that they might scratch.

So, I'm going to follow the advice I read from other posts and pack my DVDs tightly into boxes, with plenty of styrofoam peanuts and bubble packs, and take them with me in the car. I thank previous posters on this subject for their advice; here are my follow-up questions:

1) Other people have frequently mentioned storing their DVDs spine up in the boxes...is there any reason for this? Are the discs more likely to bust out of their hubs if they're laid out horizontally rather than vertically? Can anyone explain the logic behind this?

2) Because we'll be taking our two cats with us also, and we have a small Hyundai, I will need to put the boxes w/ DVDs in the trunk. Will they be more likely to be damaged by increased movement in the trunk? Would you recommend that I mitigate this somewhat by putting a blanket around the boxes or something?

3) We'll be stopping at my in-laws' house in Madison, WI for one night, and then in some sort of hotel/motel for another night along the way. What can I say -- my cats hate road trips. I don't like the thought of leaving my entire collection just sitting there in the trunk, so I'm thinking it might be better to move the boxes in with me at night. However, they'll be sitting for about 5-6 hours at a stretch each day in the cold of the trunk (and I mean COLD...travelling from MN to DC in the dead of winter!), and then getting moved into the warmth of indoors. Will this damage my discs? Or does one need to expose them to much more frequent hot-cold transitions before any damage is done?


I appreciate any advice that you can offer me. In case you have absolutely no power of deducation, I'm an extremely anal person. But I don't care that much about any of my material possessions other than my DVDs. I've spent too much time and money on my collection to damage them by doing something stupid during my move. I'm sure many people here have the same worries.

So, yeah, let me know what I should do. Binders are out. Expensive storage cases are out (even if they look cool). Putting my discs in the "pod" with my other stuff is out. Nicely packed boxes seem like the way to go. What do you think?

You're worrying too much about this. I'd be more concerned if you were moving in the summer and the DVDs were going to be exposed to high heat, but cold isn't a big deal. As far as moving them from the cold to a warm room, no it won't hurt them.

Pack the DVDs in boxes so they're tight enough they won't move around and slide against each other, but don't jam them in too tightly either. Vertical is better, because then the center of the cases won't bow under the weight of DVDs above them. Any special cases that are prone to damage (such as the "Band of Brothers" metal tin), you should probably wrap in some sort of padding or bubble wrap.

Other than that, it's just a two-day journey and they'll be in your possession the whole time, so quit sweating it.

I'd be more worried about your cats.

I think your being just a little too cautious on the matter. It's not like moving glassware, or any kind of fragile materials. Generally, there is not a specific position to store your DVDs temporarily during transit when moving them to another location. When I moved into my new town house, I used standard corrugated boxes to pack my DVDs in, and sealed the flaps with clear mailing tape without any problem at all afterwards. But I made sure they were packed tight against each other to eliminate movement when being transported. And for the hot, and cold weather climates, should not be a problem either because, by the time you unpacked, and permanently stored you DVDs indoors, they will already be room temperatured sufficient enough for viewing without any possible damages to the disc.

Welcome to DC. I don't have any advice, but good luck transferring your dvds.

Go Wizards?

I packed like 300 or 400 dvds a few years ago in boxes and shipped them UPS from Florida to New York and I had no problems at all...(and you know how UPS treats boxes)....I'd say you're going to be fine, especially if they're in your car (and your control) the entire time..

You could always get slim CD cases and put the DVDs in them. It will take up a lot less room and you would be able to keep them in the cabin of the car with the cats.

PS. You could always store the cats in the car and keep the DVDs up with you. J/K P)

I did a double move earlier this spring with about 450 or so DVDs and three cats. It was all local, but I still made sure to pack the regular DVDs in boxes spine up, with packing. Special cases were done separately.

Something else though, don't label them "DVDs". I had a box of games disappear, about 30 PS2 and six Sega CD (good ones too). Guess what I labeled the box? "PS2".

i moved over 2000 disc from TN to OK earlier this year...let me see if i can help/explain.

to your questions

1.) If the disc falls off the hub, There isn't any space for it to fall, it may roll a little, but the disc won't scratch against the hub. it also helps with the weight, and will keep the cases from bowing.

2.) The Trunk is a pretty safe bet. I wouldn't worry so much about moving them into the motel room...I would however request a room on the bottom floor, and then back your car in front of your door. If you don't have an alarm, buy a large cowbell and tie it to the inside of the trunk when you park...if someone bust in you should hear it ring a few times. Its not a bad idead to pad them with a blanket, or use twine to tie them up, keeps them from sliding around and makes it tougher for a burglar to get out of the trunk.

3.) Cold won't hurt them. Ease your mind. Unless they were buried under wet snow.

a few helpful tips

buy some saran wrap, and get some paper bags. Anything that is extra special to you wrap up. Things that are not replaceable, or fragile (schindler's list box set, and tin boxes) wrap them in paper and then tightly wrap them with saran wrap.

inventory everything. Use an online catalog to track your collection (click the dvdaff link in my dvd collection sig at the bootom to check it out) In the unlikely event that something did happen you would have a full record of your collection. Might not be a bad idea to take out full coverage insurance for the month that you are moving. that way if anything goes bad its all payed for. I numbered all my boxes, and on a sheet of paper it read comedy 1-f box 1 comedy g-p box 2. you just sharpie the number on to the box. it will make it much easier to reorganize on a shelf when you get there.

welcome to the forum, enjoy your move.

Try stopping at a Blockbuster or something and getting some of their empty boxes on Tuesday after the releases are put out. They are the perfect size and there will be very little extra packaging to do. We are currently putting an addition of our house that will include my home theatre area and most of my dvds are still in these boxes since I moved a year ago.

when i moved from Maryland to Texas all i did was pack them in boxes tight enough that they didnt move around. at that time my collection was around 400 ish. every single one made it okay, you will be fine

What is your license plate number, make, model and color and when is the exact date of the move and of course, the location to which you are moving?

Realistically, I wouldn't worry about it. The best advice that I've seen onboard is the labeling of the packaging - as in, don't mark them as DVDs, media or anything remotely similar for those transitional periods.

Vertically, or horizontally, I wouldn't even worry about that as long as they are packaged well enough. If you are worried about horizontal packaging, just cut up some cardboard boxes and layer them. You shouldn't have a problem at all either way. As long as there is nothing obviously digging into the lower level of DVDs due to irregular packaging, I wouldn't worry about. If horizontal is the way to go, I advise that any flipper cases just get placed on top of everything else. That would be about it.

You'll have enough concerns during your move than DVDs .. so, just package them with common sense and enjoy your new journey, period. Good luck ...

If you're that concerned about your discs popping out and getting scratched on the hubs (which will happen whether the disc is standing up, laying down, spine up, spine down, whatever... cars bounce them all over), purchase some cd envelopes - either on Ebay if you have a lot of DVD's or at your local office supply shop if you don't have many. transfer your discs to those envelopes and pack them safely.

Thanks for the advice so far. I really appreciate it.

I'm definitely worrying about this too much...but that's how I function. If I didn't stress out, I'd go insane. I think it's part of being a grad student. Or so I like to pretend.


Anyway, for those of you who have moved your collections via packing together in boxes, did you experience any discs slipping off their hubs? From reading your posts, it sounds like nothing got really damaged...but did you put anything inside of the cases also? On another thread, I saw someone say that they put soft paper towels (w/o scratchy texture!) folded up inside of each case, to protect the discs in case they jumped off of the hubs. I wouldn't try this necessarily with any of my DVD-18s, but they're mostly from Universal so they probably won't play anyway! heh heh...

The last person to post before me mentioned CD envelopes...I've always had scratches on my CDs when I've used those, even when I've tried my hardest to remove all dust, etc. Should I stay away from using those envelopes/binders? Maybe I could just build myself a cleanroom, and transfer my discs only in a sterile environment!

Of course, with this level of worrying and planning, I might not be married by the time I move! That would mean more room in the car, I guess....

out of 2000 disc i had two....thats 1/1000....so you should have less than half a dvd come off the spindle.

I own a store that sells used DVD's, and I store all my discs in the back room in paper cd envelopes. In the year I've been open, I have never had an envelope cause damage to a disc. If you leave them in the cases, you're going to have to accept that some will pop off the hub. Potholes, bumps, dips, railroad tracks, there are so many things that will jar your vehicle and the items inside it.

CHILL OUT, RELAX! You've gone way to the extremes worrying about your DVDs man, and your worrying yourself sick over nothing. Seems like you care more about material things, than you do about the people in your life, with this compulsive obsession with DVDs that you have. For your sake, I hope nothing happens to them, because if they do, you liable to commit suicide over DVDs. In your situation, DVDs has become a form of idolatry to you, and that's not good at all. Please don't let it get THAT serious man. There only movies.

I'm relaxed, don't worry. I'm just trying to get this nonsense out of the way so that I can worry about the bigger, more important things. Such as how I'm going to afford a decent apartment in DC! Seriously though, I don't mean to convey that this is some obsession...that I'm hovering over my pile of DVDs in dark shadows, cackling and stroking them like Gollum. I'm just trying to find the easiest, safest way to do this. And my questions might seem more "uptight" because they're follow-up details to previous threads.

I'm taking care of the "people in my life," trust me. And the cats, too. They're priority number one, and I've already figured out how to transport them. I've covered how to move my computer...my dishes & glassware, etc. Now onto the next thing -- media. I could give a shit less how my books and CDs are moved. They're getting tossed into boxes and that's that. But DVDs are much more touchy about scratches than CDs, in my experience and according to all testimonies I've ever read. It makes practical sense to take more precaution with moving them. To not do so would be a little too flippant with items that I've paid a lot of money for.

Obsessing about DVDs, to me, would be posting constantly about "does _____ have an insert?" or "no original trailer, no sale!" Everyone has their own quirks, mine just happens to center around taking care of stuff that I've spent money on. I think that makes sense, but to each their own. No need to be insulting, though I do appreciate the advice.

The paper envelope idea that MovieExchange mentioned sounds promising. I was hesitant to use the large zippable binders, due to numerous horror stories I have read about them and just the sheer cost of buying enough of them to transport my collection. But those paper envelopes might work. Of course, I don't know if they'd be any more or less prone to the horror stories that people have told about the binders. (i.e. dust or bits of dirt getting stuck in the page, and then scratching the disc)

However, if I did decide to go with them what's the easiest/cheapest way to pack them safely? I imagine you wouldn't to just stack a bunch of them in a box, in case the added weight does something funky...I'm thinking I can just get some smaller boxes, plenty of bubble tape for the edges, and then just start packing them up. The cases I could then put in with the rest of my crap in the "pod," provided I package them nicely for the paper cases, etc.

Moving sucks so have fun!!!!

If it's a concern, I'd just get some cheap paper towels and fold one up inside each case. That could take a small assembly line, though.

No kidding! And I'm afraid of what the employees at the grocery store/Target/whatever would think as I bought 30 rolls of paper towels.

I totally agree. OP, I'm not trying to rag on you but what are the odds that some thieves are going to rip off your DVD collection? People move and ship stuff every day. With all the actually VALUABLE stuff being moved, the mover thieves are going to go after your DVDs? I did all the same things as a poor college kid-- packed up sports memorabilia and took it with me because the movers would want to steal some autographed pictures. I also pre-packed some boxes and labelled as "books" or something boring so the movers wouldn't want that box.

If you are that stressed over the DVDs, I agree with the earlier suggestion to buy some insurance. You'll have the piece of mind and the money is spent to protect you rather for exotic packing schemes.

Best of luck with the move.

Nowhere in my posts did I express any fear that someone was going to steal my DVDs. Before you get on my case, try reading what I actually wrote.

My concerns are physical damage to my DVDs, which is why I'm planning on bringing with me rather than pack them up in a "pod" with all the rest of my crap. There are no movers involved here, and no chance for any thieves to come across anything I own (other than when the pod is sitting outside of our eventual home in DC).

Please, I came on here asking for advice. And many people have kindly assisted me so far. The least you could do is to read my posts before you try to act as a freelance stress counselor. Thank you.

I own one of the moving companies that actually knows what they are doing....and don't rip people off. I pack and move dvd, LD and music collections all the time and my system is most simple and effective. I sell dvd/case sleeves to my clients and seal each dvd that will fit inside one. This takes care of scuffs and it's how I store my dvds in my library. Take a box, keep it light in weight and double tape the bottom. If you really have to strain to pick it up...it's too heavy and prone to damage. Double stack the dvds....spine up. Pack tight for a snug fitting. Wrap each box is shrink wrap for a 100% seal.

I sent 2 shipments of dvds to Brazil once....with everything including their furniture all packed in a freight container that was then loaded onto a train. Ever taken a trip in a container/box car on a train...then via a cargo ship? Talk about rough rides.

As the owner of a #1 rated moving company, may I just say....most of us back-breaking workaholics who move peoples crap every day of every year, really don't want your shit. Movers usually are not thieves. We are working too hard to care. And if you use a company that likes to hire convicts and bums of the street...well...you did not do enough research on companies.

Please people...call the BBB and save yerself the hurt. I think many people use the mover who is the cheapest. Bad move, Tonto

That is what I said... When I was fresh out of school and poor and foolishly worried about some collectables, I did the stealth labelling packjob. In hindsight, it is funny to think anyone would want some autographed pictures and import CDs.

As you just proved, most movers don't actually read what is on the box since you didn't actually read what was in my post.