make div’s height expand with its content

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I have these nested divs and I need the main container to expand (in height) to accommodate the DIVs inside

    <!-- head -->
    ...
    <!-- /head -->

    <body class="main">
      <div id="container">
        <div id="header">
          <!--series of divs in here, graphic banner etc. -->
        </div>

    <div id="main_content"> <!-- this DIV _should_ stretch to accommodate inner divs -->
      <div id="items_list" class="items_list ui-sortable">
        <div id="item_35" class="item_details">
        </div>
        <div id="item_36" class="item_details">
        </div>        
        <div id="item_37" class="item_details">
        </div>
        <!-- this list of DIVs "item_xx" goes on for a while
             each one representing a photo with name, caption etcetc -->
      </div>
    </div>
    <br class="clear"/>

    <div id="footer">
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

CSS is this:

* {
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
}

.main {
    font: 100% Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    background: #4c5462;
    margin: 0; 
    padding: 0;
    text-align: center; 
    color: #000000;
}
.main #container {
    height: auto;
    width: 46em;
    background: #4c5462;
    margin: 0 auto; 
    border: 0px solid #000000;
    text-align: left;       
}

.main #main_content {
    padding: 5px;
    margin: 0px;
}
#items_list {
    width: 400px;
    float: left;
}

.items_list {
    width: 400px;
    float: left;
}
.item_details {
    margin-top: 3px;
    margin-bottom: 3px;
    padding: 3px;
    float: left;
    border-bottom: 0.5px solid blue;
}

The problem I have is that #main_content doesn’t stretch to accommodate all the inner divs, with the result that they keep going against the background.

How can I solve this problem considering the above scenario?

25 Answers
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