Why a House Move Is the Hardest Thing Your Records Will Ever Do

Records spend most of their lives in the safest place they will ever know: a shelf, upright, at room temperature, untouched. Moving day shatters all of that. Your LPs will be lifted, stacked, tilted, driven over speed bumps and left in a hallway while someone decides where the sofa goes. In a single afternoon, a collection can pick up warps, split seams, scuffed sleeves and corner dings that took decades to avoid.

The good news is that almost all of this damage is preventable with a bit of planning. Vinyl is surprisingly tough in the right conditions and surprisingly fragile in the wrong ones. What follows is the practical routine I would use for any collection, from a modest shelf of charity-shop finds to a crate of treasured first pressings.

Pack Them Upright, and Pack Them Snug

The single most important rule is the one you already follow on the shelf: records travel upright, never flat. A stack of LPs stored horizontally places the weight of the whole pile on the bottom few sleeves, which is exactly how you create warps and crushed spines. Keep them vertical and the load runs through the edges of the sleeves, where the card can take it.

• Choose rigid plastic crates or sturdy double-walled cardboard boxes. Flimsy supermarket boxes bow outward and let the records lean.
• Aim for roughly 50 to 70 records per crate. A full crate can weigh 15 to 20 kilograms, so smaller and more numerous beats one back-breaking box.
• Pack them snugly. Records should not rattle or slide when you shake the crate gently, but do not force them in so tightly that you bow the sleeves.
• Fill any remaining gap with bubble wrap, foam or rolled cardboard so nothing can slump sideways in transit.
• Never leave a part-full crate with records leaning at an angle. A long drive with a leaning stack is a recipe for bowed vinyl.

Cushion the Corners, Protect the Seams

Corners take the knocks. A single drop onto a hard floor can turn a sharp corner into a crumpled one, and on a valuable sleeve that is money gone. Line the base and sides of each crate with a layer of bubble wrap or foam board, then add a cushioning layer on top before you seal it.

Seam splits are the other quiet killer. Vibration in a van makes the record shift inside the jacket, and the disc saws through the bottom seam over the course of a journey. For anything you care about, take the record out of the jacket and place it behind it, inside the outer sleeve. The disc then cannot rub against the seam, and the jacket stays crisp. If you use polypropylene outer sleeves, keep them on — they add a useful layer of protection and stop sleeves from abrading each other.

Check your inner sleeves too. If any records are still in old PVC sleeves, swap them out before packing. PVC can off-gas and leave a greasy residue on the vinyl, and it is far easier to deal with on a kitchen table than in a new house full of unopened boxes.

Keep Everything Dry and Cool in Transit

Water is the enemy of sleeve artwork and cardboard, and heat is the enemy of vinyl. A sealed van parked in the sun can easily reach 50°C or more, which is well past the point where records begin to warp. Plan the journey around the weather.

• Line each crate with a plastic rubble sack or sheet before packing, folding it over the top before you tape the lid shut. This keeps out rain and splashes without sealing in damp.
• Add a couple of silica gel packets per crate if you are moving in humid or wet conditions.
• Load crates off the floor of the van and away from doors, where leaks and road spray tend to gather.
• Never leave boxes in a car boot or a conservatory overnight. Take them indoors at both ends of the journey.
• If you are driving them yourself, keep the car cool and park in the shade. Treat the crates as you would a box of chocolate.

Mark every crate clearly with FRAGILE — VINYL RECORDS, KEEP UPRIGHT on all four sides. Removers are careful people, but they cannot respect what they cannot see.

The Records You Carry Yourself

However good your packing, some records should not go in the van at all. Your most valuable pressings, anything irreplaceable, and any small runs you would genuinely mourn belong in the car with you, in a padded crate on the back seat rather than the boot. If it is a short move, this might be your whole collection — and that is fine.

Unpacking Without Undoing the Good Work

Do not unpack straight away. Boxes that have sat in a cold van need to acclimatise; open them in a warm room and condensation can form on cold vinyl and sleeves. Give them 24 hours to reach room temperature before you start pulling records out.

Then choose the destination carefully. Shelves against a damp external wall, a garage, a cellar or a loft that swings between extremes will undo every bit of care you took. Vinyl wants a stable, dry, moderate room. Set the crates down, work through them a shelf at a time, and give each record a quick brush before it goes back in its place. By the evening, your collection will be exactly where it was before — upright, intact, and ready to be played.