Moving boxes — where to get them and which to choose

Where to buy moving boxes

There are three places where almost everyone ends up buying moving boxes:

• Home improvement and office supply stores. They sell cardboard moving boxes one at a time or in packs, in two or three sizes. It’s the simplest option when you only need a few.
• Moving companies, truck rental places and self-storage facilities. They sell their own boxes, usually double-wall cardboard — more expensive, and sturdier.
• Online packaging suppliers. Worth it in bulk: packs of twenty or thirty boxes work out cheaper per box.

How to get moving boxes for free

Used boxes in good shape work perfectly well, and you can find them without paying. Collecting enough takes a while, so start a few weeks before the move:

• Grocery stores and local shops. Ask a day ahead, or ask a manager which days deliveries come in: they get stock on set days and throw the boxes out right after.
• Bookstores and liquor stores. Book boxes and liquor boxes are small and strong — the best ones for anything heavy.
• People who’ve just moved. Friends, neighbors, local buy-nothing groups and marketplace listings. Whoever has just finished a move wants to get rid of the boxes.
• Your workplace. Copy paper boxes are small, all the same size and have lids. Ask before they go out for recycling.

On a used box, check three things: that it’s dry, that the corners aren’t soft, and that the bottom hasn’t already been torn. A box that smells of food or damp doesn’t go anywhere near your clothes.

What size moving boxes to buy

Two or three sizes are enough, and it’s better if they’re always the same ones — they stack without wasting space.

• Small, about 40 × 30 × 30 cm (16 × 12 × 12 in) — books, dishes, tools, anything heavy.
• Medium, about 55 × 35 × 35 cm (22 × 14 × 14 in) — kitchen things, toys, the home office, most of the house. These are the ones you go through fastest.
• Large moving boxes, about 60 × 40 × 40 cm (24 × 16 × 16 in) — only for what’s light: pillows, comforters, coats, lamps.

The usual mistake is buying lots of large ones because they seem to hold more. A large box full of books can’t be lifted.

Cardboard or plastic moving boxes?

Cardboard boxes are cheap, light, stack well and are easy to get rid of at the end. They work for almost everything, and they’re the usual choice.

Plastic moving boxes with lids stand up to rain and damp, don’t need tape, and stay on as storage in the new home. They make sense for what will stay packed away — out-of-season clothes, holiday decorations, whatever goes to the basement, the garage or a storage unit. In many cities you can also rent plastic moving bins: they’re dropped off before the move and picked up after.

Many people mix the two: cardboard for the move, plastic for what stays in storage.

Cheap moving boxes: where not to skimp

You can save on the medium boxes, which carry light things. Don’t skimp on the ones for dishes and books — thin cardboard gives way at the bottom. And don’t skimp on tape: it’s what holds up the bottom of every box.

How many boxes you’ll need

It depends more on what you own than on the size of your home. Our moving box calculator gives the published estimates by home size, from a studio to a three-bedroom home, for each box size. As a rough guide, walk through the rooms and count the closets, shelves and full drawers — they’re what fill boxes, not the floor area. And get a few extra: it’s easier to give away leftover boxes than to stop halfway because you ran out.

At the end, cardboard boxes fold flat and slide under a bed or behind a bookcase — or go to whoever moves next.