Tips for Moving Your Prized Vinyl Collection

August 27, 2018

For vinyl album holdouts – and yes, there are many of them across the United States – the notion of a long-distance move can be a sad, sad song, indeed. But you need not be singing the blues. McKendree Moving & Storage has a few tips that can help assure the safe transport and arrival of your prized collection to a whole new vinyl frontier. First, head your nearest vintage vinyl shop and stock up on acid-free paper liners and poly sleeves. Take your records out of their cardboard jackets and place them in or between the paper liners. Then, place the jackets in poly sleeves. This will help to protect your records from dust, heat and moisture and your jackets from all sorts of outside wear, including discolored, depressed ring imprints of the vinyls themselves. Next, choose your moving boxes wisely. Make sure they’re sturdy and have dimensions of at least 14? x 14? x 14? (used wine boxes are a great option if you’ve got them). Bungobox and the Container Store offer boxes designed and sized specifically for moving or shipping vinyl records. Line the bottom and sides of boxes with bubble wrap or Styrofoam to provide a bit of shock absorption during the ride. When packing them in boxes, stand your records and jackets vertically, side by side rather than stacking them. This helps to protect jackets from bending on the edges and from ring wear and other superficial nicks and scrapes. Be sure to pack them snuggly, but not so tight as to risk warping. Fill any leftover space in the box with bubble wrap to assure they won’t slide or get jostled around. Once packed, make sure boxes are securely closed and mark which side is up to help assure movers know just how to handle and place them. For your own post-move sanity, also mark them alphabetically, by genre or however you’ll organize them on the shelves of your new place. Also make sure that your boxes will remain out of direct sunlight throughout the duration of the move. From Stravinsky to Sinatra to Skynyrd, if you’re planning a move to or from the Washington, DC metropolitan area, we’ve got you covered. Call 800-530-2626 to schedule a pre-move consultation with McKendree Moving & Storage.