That's interesting. I've had to do this 2 times in recent memory, and it's always been oddly therapeutic. I get a chance to hold every book and pack it just so, so that it's not hurt during the journey. And I inevitably find a few long-lost books -- "Oh, that's where you've been all along!" And I always surface a few that I meant to read and totally forgot about -- those jump straight to the top of my to-read pile, to be unboxed first in the new place.

I feel a similar bit of anxiety as you when it comes to fancy furniture though. I learned a few years ago that it makes sense to buy the good stuff -- but the question is looming in the back of my mind as I prepare to move again in a few months. The boxes (of books and everything else) are perhaps easier because I know I can move them myself and treat them gently, but I worry much more about the furniture getting roughed up during the journey.

Funny, I'm on the opposite side of the furniture-buying spectrum. Enough quality to last a while, but cheap enough to be a spur-of-the-moment decision and to not regret its end of life.

Probably related to life phase: my parents picked very different furniture after kids moved out. Expensive with crap quality by design - eg. slanted legs under a chair while plenty in the family are on the heavy side.

I've moved 13 times in the last 12 years. Books are really heavy. I used to have two boxes large boxes of them but over time that's wittled down to one. What I keep are two things: Stuff that's hard to read on an ereader, or stuff that I want to lend out.

The former is a mix of books that screw with the format (House of Leaves, S.) or graphic novels (Understanding Comics, Rise of the Ogre, Watchmen). The latter is mostly just formative fictions books for me (I've lent out Snow Crash ten or so times, I should really replace my copy).