Moving Box Count Estimator
Moving box counts by size from your rooms, room size, packing method and how much you own, plus the wardrobe boxes and dish packs to add. How it works
Use the Moving Box Count Estimator
About the Moving Box Count Estimator
A 2-bedroom house of seven medium rooms needs about 80 moving boxes if you pack it yourself: 49 small, 22 medium and 9 large. Each room counts as 300 cu ft (150 for small rooms, 500 for large) times a factor for its type, from 0.5 for a bathroom to 1.6 for a kitchen; the total × 8% packed contents × 1.10 spare is split into 1.5, 3 and 5 cu ft boxes. It also lists 4 wardrobe boxes (2 per bedroom) and 4 dish packs (4 per kitchen), 88 boxes in all if you tick the box that adds them.
Boxes for each preset with medium rooms
| Preset | Rooms | Self-pack (small / medium / large) | Self-pack total | Professional (small / medium / large) | Professional total | Wardrobe / dish packs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio Apartment | 4 | 27 / 12 / 5 | 44 | 10 / 13 / 9 | 32 | 0 / 4 |
| 1-Bedroom Apartment | 5 | 35 / 15 / 7 | 57 | 13 / 18 / 12 | 43 | 2 / 4 |
| 2-Bedroom House | 7 | 49 / 22 / 9 | 80 | 18 / 25 / 17 | 60 | 4 / 4 |
| 3-Bedroom House | 11 | 75 / 33 / 14 | 122 | 28 / 37 / 25 | 90 | 6 / 4 |
| 4-Bedroom House | 12 | 83 / 36 / 16 | 135 | 31 / 42 / 28 | 101 | 8 / 4 |
A medium room is 300 cu ft times its type’s factor (the studio’s four rooms add up to 3.8, the 3-bedroom house’s eleven to 10.6), with Average belongings. Small rooms give about half these counts and large rooms about 1.7 times as many. Wardrobe boxes and dish packs are not in the totals unless you tick the box that adds them. Each row is the tool’s own result.
How much you own: the 2-bedroom house, self-pack, medium rooms
| Belongings | Factor | Small / medium / large | Standard boxes | Wardrobe / dish packs | All boxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Few things | × 0.75 | 37 / 16 / 7 | 60 | 3 / 3 | 66 |
| Average | × 1 | 49 / 22 / 9 | 80 | 4 / 4 | 88 |
| Lots of things | × 1.35 | 67 / 29 / 12 | 108 | 5 / 5 | 118 |
The three factors, 2 wardrobe boxes per bedroom and 4 dish packs per kitchen are the planning figures in A+ Moving and Storage’s box calculator, a moving company’s rule of thumb rather than a measured average. Updater gives wider ranges: 2 to 4 wardrobe boxes per bedroom and 4 to 6 dish barrels per kitchen.
How to use this tool
- Press a preset or set the count of each room type. A room counts by its type: a kitchen as 1.6 rooms, an office 1.3, a bedroom 1.2, a living room 1.1, a dining room 0.8, a hallway or closet 0.6 and a bathroom 0.5.
- Choose Small, Medium or Large rooms (150, 300 or 500 cu ft) and Self-Pack or Professional. A preset leaves these two settings as they are.
- Choose how much you own: Few things (× 0.75), Average (× 1) or Lots of things (× 1.35). This scales every count, wardrobe boxes and dish packs included.
- Read the small, medium and large box counts and the total. Wardrobe boxes and dish packs are listed beside them; tick “Add wardrobe boxes and dish packs to the total” to count them in.
Frequently asked questions
- How many boxes do I need for a 2 bedroom house?
- This tool gives 80 for seven medium rooms packed yourself (49 small, 22 medium, 9 large) and 60 with professional packing. Two Men and a Truck’s Canadian guide lists 70 standard boxes for a 2-bedroom house (40 small, 20 medium, 10 large) plus 3 dish packs and 3 wardrobe boxes, so the tool comes out somewhat above that list.
- What size are small, medium and large moving boxes?
- The tool counts a small box as 1.5 cu ft, a medium as 3 cu ft and a large as 5 cu ft. Self-packing puts 40% of the volume into small boxes, 35% into medium and 25% into large; professional packing uses 15%, 40% and 45%, which is why it needs fewer, larger boxes: 60 instead of 80 for the default house.
- How many boxes for a studio apartment?
- The Studio Apartment preset has four rooms (kitchen, living room, bathroom, hallway or closet). By type they count as 3.8 rooms, and with medium rooms and self-packing that is 44 boxes, far above the 14 standard boxes the Two Men and a Truck guide gives a bachelor apartment. Set Room Size to Small and choose Professional and it gives 17 (5 small, 7 medium, 5 large), closer to that list.
- Does a kitchen need more boxes than a bedroom here?
- Yes. A kitchen counts as 1.6 rooms and a bedroom as 1.2, so on its own a medium kitchen packed yourself gives 18 standard boxes and a medium bedroom 14; a bathroom or a hallway gives 7. These factors are the tool’s own planning assumptions, set so the 2-bedroom house still adds up to seven rooms. Each kitchen also adds 4 dish packs and each bedroom 2 wardrobe boxes.
- Are wardrobe boxes and dish packs counted?
- They are listed separately: 2 wardrobe boxes per bedroom and 4 dish packs per kitchen, scaled by how much you own. The default 2-bedroom house gets 4 of each, and ticking “Add wardrobe boxes and dish packs to the total” raises the total from 80 to 88. The per-room figures are A+ Moving and Storage’s planning numbers; Updater suggests 2 to 4 wardrobe boxes per bedroom and 4 to 6 dish barrels per kitchen, so treat them as the low end.
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