How many moving boxes you need, room by room

How to calculate how many moving boxes you need

Count boxes room by room: each type of room has a typical number of small, medium, large and wardrobe boxes, which you multiply by how many of those rooms you have and by how much stuff you own. The calculator uses the box estimating guide from A Plus Moving and Storage, a moving company: a bedroom takes 3 small, 5 medium, 4 large and 2 wardrobe boxes; a kitchen 5 small, 8 medium, 3 large and 4 dish packs; a living room 4, 6 and 4; a bathroom 2 small and 2 medium; a home office 6, 4 and 2; a garage 4, 6 and 4. If you don't own much, the counts are multiplied by 0.75; if you keep everything, by 1.35.

The guide's boxes are the standard US sizes: small 16 × 12 × 12 in, medium 18 × 18 × 16 in, large 18 × 18 × 24 in, sold as 1.5, 3 and 4.5 cubic feet. With those boxes the calculator gives the guide's counts. The four 5.2 cu ft dish packs of the kitchen are counted as large boxes of the same volume, and wardrobe boxes are counted by hanging bar, 24 in each. If your boxes have other sizes, enter them in the advanced options: the calculator keeps the volume to fill and divides it by the volume of your box.

Tape follows the H-seal on top and bottom: one strip along the center seam and one across each short edge, each running 2 in down the sides. Per side that is length + 2 × width + 6 × 2 in, 52 in on a small box, 104 in for top and bottom; then 12% is added for waste, the figures used by the box seller TeleCajas. Bubble wrap is 10 meters per room, the starting point given by HireAHelper, about 33 ft, rounded up to 35 ft. Packing paper is 0.6 lb per box of the guide.

A worked example

In feet and inches (US). The calculator opens on a three-bedroom house with a living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a garage, average amount of stuff.

• From the guide: 26 small, 39 medium, 23 large, 6 wardrobe and 4 dish packs, 98 boxes in all
• Large boxes: 23 + 4 × 5.2 ÷ 4.5 = 27.6, so 28 large boxes; the total is 99 boxes
• Tape: 26 × 104 + 39 × 132 + 28 × 132 + 6 × 152 in = 1,038 ft, with 12% waste 1,163 ft: 8 rolls of 55 yd, about 12 boxes per roll, close to the guide's one roll per 12 boxes
• Bubble wrap: 8 rooms × 35 ft = 280 ft, 3 rolls of 125 ft
• Packing paper: 98 × 0.6 lb = 58.8 lb, 6 bundles of 10 lb

In metres (UK). A two-bedroom flat with a living room, kitchen and bathroom, packed in boxes of 40 × 30 × 30, 50 × 35 × 35 and 60 × 40 × 40 cm with a 50 × 50 × 101 cm wardrobe box: 18 small, 37 medium, 27 large and 5 wardrobe boxes, 87 in all. These boxes are smaller than the US ones (36, 61 and 96 litres against about 38, 85 and 127), so you need more of them. Tape comes to 299.7 m, 5 rolls of 66 m; bubble wrap to 50 m, 5 rolls of 10 m; packing paper to 17.8 kg.

How many moving boxes for a 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom home

Standard US boxes, from the calculator. Tape rolls are 55 yd, for an average amount of stuff.

Home	Small	Medium	Large	Wardrobe	Total	Not much	Packed full	Tape rolls
1 bedroom, 1 bath	14	21	16	2	53	41	73	4
2 bedrooms, 1 bath	17	26	20	4	67	51	92	5
3 bedrooms, 2 baths	22	33	24	6	85	65	116	7
3 bedrooms, 2 baths, garage	26	39	28	6	99	76	136	8
4 bedrooms, 2 baths, office, garage	35	48	34	8	125	95	170	9

Every home in the table has one living room and one kitchen. A garage adds 14 boxes, as many as a living room.

Box sizes and what goes in them

• Small, 16 × 12 × 12 in. Books, canned food, tools: heavy things go in small boxes so one person can still lift them.
• Medium, 18 × 18 × 16 in. Most of the kitchen, toys, what sits in drawers and closets. You'll use more of these than any other size.
• Large, 18 × 18 × 24 in. Bedding, pillows, lampshades, folded clothes: light things that take up room.
• Wardrobe box, 24 × 20 × 46 in with a hanging bar. Clothes go from the closet rod to the box on their hangers; 24 in of bar takes 24 in of closet rod.

Box sealing tape is 2 in wide and comes in rolls of 55 yd, the size the calculator uses. Uline sells bubble wrap 12 in wide in 125 ft rolls. Newsprint packing paper is sold in 24 × 36 in sheets, about 160 sheets in a 10 lb bundle.

Common mistakes

• Packing books in large boxes. A large box full of books gets too heavy to carry: books, dishes and canned food go in small boxes.
• Guessing from the first room. The kitchen alone needs more boxes than any bedroom, and a garage needs as many as a living room.
• Taping only the center seam. One strip on top and one on the bottom lets the side flaps give way under load. The H-seal holds them.
• Using US box counts with smaller boxes. A 50 × 35 × 35 cm box holds about 61 litres, a US medium about 85: with smaller boxes you need more.
• Leaving boxes half full. A half-empty box gets crushed under the others: fill the gaps with crumpled packing paper.