Moving house is an extremely tricky task, with hundreds of things to organise and worry about. Finding the right house at the right price is one thing, then selling your house is another. Then there is all the solicitors to deal with and documents galore, followed by mortgage advisors and lenders all at the same time. Many house sales then often fall through if they are part of a chain, so you might have had to go through this process many times over. When you have finally been given a completion date, you now need to organise the removal process. This involves a removal company or van and helpers, as well as buying the correct packaging materials for the move as well which includes packing boxes for moving house, bubble wrap for protection and strong tape.
When it comes to boxes and packaging, it is important that you buy the correct quantity, type and size of box for the move. Failure to do so will only delay the move which will have already taken such a long time to complete, so it is good to get things right the first time around.
So how many boxes are required for a house move and why?
- There are many different factors which will help decide how many boxes that you need to move with.
- The size of box that you are using is the first deciding factor. Larger boxes can hold more objects inside of them, so you will need fewer of them. However larger boxes are more difficult to carry when full, and will require a strong pair of hands to move. Smaller and medium sized boxes will hold fewer items and you will therefore require more of them to move.
- The size of your house and the number of objects in your house e.g. how cluttered your house is, is another factor when deciding how many cardboard packing boxes you need. The more clutter you have the more boxes you are going to require, and this can vary dramatically from one household to another.
- If you are using a professional removal company to help you to move, they will likely require that almost everything it packed safely into boxes prior to removal. However, if you are moving yourself using a van, then you might not want to put absolutely everything into boxes and it might be easier in some cases to move objects on their own, as long as you are careful not to break them.
- If we take a national average, using the average amount of clutter in a home and an average house move, generally speaking you will need at least ten large packing boxes per room of the house, or fifteen medium sized boxes, or eight extra large boxes. This rule can be taken across the whole house to include each room.
- It is often cheaper to buy packs of ten boxes at a time from packaging suppliers online, as opposed to buying them individually. It is even cheaper to buy larger quantities again. For this reason, we recommend using one standard size of box for the entire house move and sticking to that size. You could mix and match but it will work out to be more expensive this way. Always use strong double walled packing boxes for moving as they will hold heavy weights of lots of objects inside of them without breaking, they will protect what you put into them, and they can be stacked on top of one another easily without crumbling under the pressure.
- In total, you’re going to need at least 70 boxes for an entire house move. You can buy them all together in bulk, or purchase them bit by bit as you use them. Flat packed boxes do not take up much room, so you can buy them in bulk knowing they won’t take up much room in your house while being stored before you use them. As long as you have a reliable supplier then there is no problem with ordering them bit by bit.
- When you have finished moving house, it is great to recycle or reuse the cardboard boxes for moving as much as possible. They can be used for storage or shipping too, so they have many great uses. Why not pass them onto a local business who will have a use for them, or pass them onto a neighbour who is moving house soon as well. If you need to recycle them, you can take them to a local recycling centre who will recycle them for you.
- When packing boxes into the removal lorry, it is important to fit as many as possible into each load of the lorry so that it takes you fewer trips back and forth. This will save you time, effort and money. Always pack the largest furniture in first, followed by smaller boxes on top and around the furniture, as this is the most economical way of ensuring you can fit the most into the lorry.
- Always use protective packaging such as bubble wrap and secure the boxes shut using some of the strongest packing tape available, when you order cardboard boxes. You may also need some packing tissue paper for extra delicate items such as glasses and mugs, and maybe a wardrobe box or two for clothing although it is not strictly necessary.
