How Many Boxes Does Your Move Need?

Turn a property size into a carton count, a packing volume and a crew-time budget before you ask anyone for a quote.

Start from the anchor counts used across the moving industry: a studio of about 20 m² packs into 40–70 standard cartons, a one-bedroom flat into 60–100, a two-bedroom flat into 100–150 and a three-bedroom house into 180–260. These ranges assume normal furnishing; sparse homes land low, full homes land high.

For any size not on the list, count room by room. The two-bedroom range works out at roughly 25–35 cartons per furnished room — a figure derived from the standard counts — and the kitchen is best treated as two rooms because of its dense, fragile contents.

Choose sizes by weight, not by volume. Dense goods go in 30 cm cubes, general household items in 46×46×41 cm cartons and light bulky goods in 61×41×41 cm cartons; every carton should finish in the 18–32 kg band, with 30 kg as the two-person lifting ceiling.

Convert the count into time with the crew rate: 1.5–2 hours per room including furniture wrapping. That is 4–6 hours for a one-bedroom flat and 10–14 for a four-bedroom house with a two-person crew — the number that decides whether packing starts the day before or the week before.

Finish with materials: 8–10 m of 48 mm tape per large carton, 75 µm film for light goods and 125 µm for furniture. The fragile-items checklist on this site details the wrapping routine, and the truck-size guide turns the packed volume into a vehicle class.

• Walk every room with a notepad, including hallway storage.
• Budget 25–35 cartons per furnished room; count the kitchen twice.
• Split the order across all three standard sizes, heavy goods to small boxes.
• Add 8–10 m of tape per large carton and 125 µm film for the furniture.

Further reading

• Which Moving Truck Size Fits Your Things?
• Packing Checklist for Fragile and High-Value Items