If there is one thing I have become an expert in over the past decade or so, it's how to move books efficiently from one place to another. And I'm not just talking about a few books or even one box of books. We're talking about an entire home library here, hundreds if not over a thousand books packed and transported from one location to another. My expert advice? Get someone else to do it for you. It's absolute torture.
Welcome back to Vlogbrothers Rewatch -- an ongoing series of short articles in which I document my long and treacherous journey through the entire Vlogbrothers YouTube archive, share my thoughts and feelings as I go, and attempt to make connections between these videos and the evolution of the social internet over the past 18 years. Using this playlist, I am rewatching everything one video at a time, one day at a time, in chronological order from the very beginning.
In all seriousness, John Green discussing his move to a different U.S. state and pondering how he's going to get all of his books from here to there has brought back a few core memories for me. You see, I own a lot of books. I don't think I've gotten rid of a book since childhood. At one point, I had every book I owned in one room, and there were over a thousand of them then.
When I moved from the Midwest to New York -- the reverse journey of 2007 John -- I could only temporarily take what I could fit in the back of one car, in addition to other essential possessions. Over time, I have gradually acquired many of my books back from where they still reside with my parents. I still don't have all of them, and it's a tragedy, but I'm working on it.
There are a few things you need when preparing to transport large quantities of books. You first need as many SMALL boxes as you can get. Books are heavy, and you do not want to pack large boxes full of them because you won't be able to carry them. Treat book packing like a game of Tetris -- there is always a book small enough to fit in that weird space other books leave when you think you can't fit any more into one box. Finally: Do not try to organize as you pack. You'll end up wasting time. You will most certainly reorganize everything when you get to your new book storage space anyway. Save the fun part for later.
Or, ideally, get someone else to do all this for you. It's not fun, it's just necessary.