Moving Box Estimator

The benchmarks moving companies use

Professional movers estimate roughly:

• 15 boxes per bedroom, roughly 5 small, 5 medium, 3 large and 2 wardrobe
• 15 to 30 boxes for a kitchen depending on how much cookware you own (small for canned goods and dishes, medium for pots, large for plastic)
• 10 to 35 boxes for a living room, which is the widest range of any room because it depends almost entirely on books, art and electronics
• 5 boxes per bathroom, 3 small and 2 medium
• 5 to 10 boxes per home office, often more if you keep paper records

Those are the figures this calculator uses. It does not have a home-office field, so add those boxes yourself if you have one.

A typical 3-bedroom house: 90 to 150 total boxes. A typical studio apartment: 30 to 50 boxes. The widely-used rule is 1 box per 15-25 sq ft of living space for a heavily-packed home.

The standard box sizes, and what goes in each

Those volumes are the dimensions divided by 1,728 cubic inches per cubic foot, so you can check any box you are offered against the list. Retailers are loose with the names, and a “medium” from one store is often a “large” at another. The dimensions are what matter.

The single most important rule: heavy items in small boxes, light items in big boxes. A large box stuffed with books weighs 100+ lb and is unliftable. A small box of books weighs 40 to 50 lb, which a person can actually carry.

Packed weight rule

• Small box: target 30 to 50 lb max (books, hardware, canned goods)
• Medium box: target 40 to 65 lb
• Large box: target 30 to 70 lb, light items only, so linens, plastic and toys
• Wardrobe box: 20 to 40 lb. Clothes really are lighter than people expect, and a wardrobe box is mostly air even when full

The calculator uses 35, 40, 30 and 30 lb respectively when it totals your packed weight, which are working averages rather than the maximums above.

A pro packer can tell at a glance if a box is overweight just by lifting one side. If you can’t lift it comfortably, neither can the mover.

Cost of boxes

The cardboard math: buying new costs $60 to $130 in materials. Hunting free boxes saves money but easily 8 to 15 hours of weekend time. Most pros say buy a small mix of new and supplement with whatever free boxes you scrounge, which saves time without breaking the budget.

The pack list nobody tells you about

Beyond boxes themselves, you’ll need:

• Packing tape, 6 to 10 rolls for a 3-bedroom move (~$30 to $50)
• Packing paper or newsprint, 2 to 4 bundles ($25 to $60). Don’t use newspaper unless you don’t mind ink transfer.
• Bubble wrap, 1 large roll ($25 to $40) for fragile items
• Permanent markers, at least 4 ($10)
• Box cutters, 2 ($15)
• Stretch wrap, 1 roll for furniture and drawers ($15 to $25)
• Mattress bags, $10 each per mattress
• Furniture pads or moving blankets. Most moving companies provide these; buy ~$15 each if DIY

Total packing supplies for a 3-bedroom move: roughly $200 to $350.

Time estimate

Most people dramatically underestimate packing time:

• Studio apartment: 6 to 12 hours
• 1-bedroom: 10 to 18 hours
• 2-bedroom: 18 to 30 hours
• 3-bedroom: 30 to 50 hours
• 4-bedroom house: 50 to 80 hours

The kitchen takes the longest by far: wrapping every dish, removing every item from drawers, dealing with the spice cabinet. Allow a full day just for the kitchen.

Hiring professional packers

Most full-service movers charge $35 to $75/hour per packer, with 2 to 4 packers per crew. A 2-bedroom apartment costs roughly $400 to $800 for packing labor alone (often as much as the move itself). For a 4-bedroom: $1,500 to $3,500.

When pro packers make sense:

• Tight timeline (can’t take weeks off to pack)
• Moving with kids or pets (chaotic to pack around)
• Long-distance moves where damage liability matters
• Owning fragile/valuable items (art, china, electronics)
• Physically can’t lift boxes anymore

When they don’t:

• Tight budget
• Most belongings are already in storage or pre-packed
• You’re decluttering aggressively (don’t pay to pack what you’d donate)

The decluttering opportunity

Every box you don’t pack saves $5 to $25 in mover time + materials + setup at the new place. Most movers report that aggressive pre-move decluttering reduces total move volume by 15 to 30%. Donate, sell, or trash anything you wouldn’t want to unpack on the other end.