People underestimate this by roughly a third, every time. Here are working numbers, and more usefully, which sizes to use for what.
Carton counts by property size
| Property | Cartons | Wardrobe cartons |
|---|---|---|
| Studio | 15–25 | 1–2 |
| 1 bedroom | 25–40 | 2–3 |
| 2 bedroom | 40–60 | 3–5 |
| 3 bedroom apartment | 60–85 | 5–7 |
| 3 bedroom villa | 70–100 | 6–8 |
| 4 bedroom villa | 100–140 | 8–12 |
| 5+ bedroom villa | 140–200+ | 12+ |
Two things push these numbers up faster than anything else: books and kitchens. Both are dense, both need small cartons, and both take far more boxes than their floor area suggests.
The other multiplier is time in the property. Eight years in a two-bedroom flat produces a three-bedroom carton count.
Which size for what
Small cartons — books, files, crockery, glassware, tinned food, tools. Anything heavy. A small box of books is liftable; a large one is a back injury and a burst base.
Medium cartons — kitchen items, small appliances, toys, shoes, folded clothes. The workhorse size, and about half of any move.
Large cartons — bedding, cushions, towels, lampshades, soft toys. Light and bulky only.
Wardrobe cartons — hanging clothes, on their hangers, with the rail intact. Do not empty your wardrobe into boxes; it wastes an evening at each end.
Purpose-made cartons — televisions, mirrors, framed pictures. These exist for a reason and are worth using.
The one rule that prevents most damage
Heavy things go in small boxes. Light things go in big ones.
It sounds obvious and it is the single most-broken rule in self-packing. A large carton filled with books weighs more than a person can safely carry, and what breaks the contents is almost never the packing — it is the drop that happens when someone loses their grip on the stairs.
What else you need
- Bubble wrap — plan on a 100m roll for a two-bedroom flat. You will use more than you think.
- Packing paper — for wrapping crockery and filling gaps. Newspaper works but transfers ink.
- Stretch film — for drawers, doors and keeping furniture blankets in place.
- Packing tape — six rolls for a two-bedroom. Buy more than you need; running out at 11pm is a rite of passage nobody enjoys.
- Marker pens — two, because one always disappears.
- Mattress bags — one per mattress. A mattress dragged unbagged down a stairwell picks up everything on the way.
Label for where it is going
Not where it came from. Write the destination room on the top and on two sides — the top is invisible once boxes are stacked.
Add a one-line contents note for anything you will want quickly, and mark fragile cartons on all four sides.
Do not fill every box to the top
A half-empty carton collapses when something is stacked on it, and a bulging one will not stack at all. Fill to the top, pad the gaps with paper or towels, and make sure the lid closes flat.
If we are packing
Then the count is our problem, and we bring more than we expect to use. Materials are included in the quote — see packing services, which also covers the partial split that saves the most money.
And once you have unpacked, tell us and we will collect the flattened cartons.
