How many moving boxes do you need? Complete packing list for your move
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
5 min reading time
Calculate how many moving boxes you need for your home, with a complete packing list, a labeling system that will save your unpacking day, and a four-week planning schedule leading up to moving day itself.
Most people order too few boxes. This is the classic moving mistake: on moving day, you're left with half-full garbage bags and loose items in your arms. In this article, you'll calculate exactly how many boxes you need, get a complete packing list, and learn how to pack smartly without breaking anything.
How many moving boxes do you need?
There's no exact formula, but these rules of thumb work well in practice:
Studio or small one-bedroom apartment: 20 – 30 boxes
Two-bedroom apartment: 40 – 60 boxes
Single-family home, 2 people: 60 – 90 boxes
Family home with children: 90 – 130 boxes
Have you lived in the same place for a long time? Feel free to add 20%. Attics, utility closets, and that one kitchen drawer are always fuller than you think.
A useful second rule of thumb: budget for approximately 10 boxes per room, plus 15 extra for the kitchen and attic combined. The kitchen is almost always the room where you run out of boxes.
Better too many than too few
A 50-liter moving box (480 x 430 x 330 mm) costs €3.50. Ten boxes too few means an extra trip to the store on the busiest day of your year. Ten boxes too many will cost you €35 — and you'll still use them later for the attic or storage.
The complete packing list
Besides boxes, you'll need a handful of items that will make your move noticeably smoother:
Moving boxes (50 liters). One standard size works best: boxes of equal size stack stably and fit snugly in the moving truck. View the 50-liter moving box.
A good utility knife. To open boxes without damaging the contents. The Kinzo Utility Knives (3 pieces, €1.95) are cheap enough to place one on each floor.
Heavy at the bottom, light at the top — even within the box itself
This applies not only to the stack in the moving truck but also within a single box. Place plates on their edge, not flat on top of each other: porcelain stacked vertically breaks much less easily than a horizontal stack.
Books in small boxes
The classic mistake everyone makes. A 50-liter box full of books can easily weigh 40 kilos and no one can comfortably hold it. Fill a large box halfway with books and the other half with pillows or blankets — then it remains liftable and everything is held in place.
Fill all empty space
A half-empty box will collapse if you stack something on top of it, and the contents will shift around. Fill the remaining space with towels, newspapers, or bubble wrap until nothing moves when you shake the box.
Max 20 kilos per box
Even if more fits. Your back — and your friends who come to help — will thank you. If in doubt: if you can't comfortably carry the box down the stairs, it's too heavy.
Labeling: the system that saves your unpacking day
Write on three sides of each box (not on the top — you won't see it when they're stacked):
The room it's going to in the new home, not where it came from.
A general description of the contents, in three words. "Kitchen – pots, cutlery" is enough.
An asterisk for fragile items or for boxes that need to be opened first.
Also pack one "first night" box and label it clearly in large letters. In it: toothbrushes, phone chargers, toilet paper, a set of bedding, coffee, medicine, and scissors. This box goes into the truck last and comes out first.
Planning: when to do what?
4 weeks in advance: order boxes, tape, and markers. Start with the attic, basement, and anything you don't use daily.
2 weeks in advance: books, decorations, seasonal clothes, dishes you don't use.
1 week in advance: the rest of the closets. Keep one set of plates, cutlery, and pans out of the boxes.
Last 2 days: kitchen, bathroom, bedding. Pack the "first night" box last of all.
After the move: what to do with the boxes?
Don't throw them away immediately. Fold them flat and store ten in the attic — for storage, for the next move, or to keep items you're going to sell. Cardboard boxes stored dry and flat can last for years. What you truly don't keep belongs with the old paper.
Order everything at once
At Verpakkingdeals.nl, you'll find moving boxes, tape, markers, bubble wrap, and utility knives all in one place, so you don't have to visit three different stores. View the collection of Boxes and Protection & Void Fill Material, or create your own moving package. Questions about quantities? Email info@verpakkingdeals.nl and we'll help you calculate.
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