Packing Materials for Moving House
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Fully Insured Crews
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What you actually need
The packing materials for a house move come down to five things: boxes, tape, bubble wrap, packing paper and a marker pen. Everything else is optional. We deliver all of it to your door before the move and collect whatever is left afterwards, so you are not left with a garage full of flat-pack cardboard.
The materials are included in your move. There is no separate bill for boxes, and no trip to a warehouse on a Saturday morning.
| Item | What it is for | The mistake people make |
|---|---|---|
| Double-walled boxes | Books, crockery, anything heavy | Using supermarket boxes, which split at the worst possible moment |
| Packing tape | Sealing the bottom as well as the top | Buying one roll. A three-bedroom house gets through four or five |
| Bubble wrap | Glass, ceramics, screens and picture frames | Wrapping things that do not need it, then running out for the things that do |
| Packing paper | Filling the gaps so nothing shifts inside the box | Using newspaper, which transfers ink onto anything pale |
| A thick marker pen | Room name and a one-line note of what is inside | Writing “misc”, which you will regret on day one |
How many boxes will you need
This is a rough guide rather than a promise. How much you own matters more than how many bedrooms you have, and a free home survey is what turns this into a real number.
| Home size | Standard boxes | Large or wardrobe boxes |
|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom flat | About 25 to 30 | 2 to 3 |
| Two-bedroom house | About 40 to 55 | 3 to 4 |
| Three-bedroom house | About 60 to 80 | 4 to 6 |
| Four-bedrooms or more | 90 and upwards | 6 and upwards |
Cardboard, plastic or wardrobe boxes
| Type | Best for | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Standard double-walled cardboard | Most of the house: books, kitchen, ornaments | Needs taping properly, and it is single use once it gets damp |
| Large cardboard | Bedding, cushions, lampshades, towels | Very tempting to fill with books. Do not. Nobody will be able to lift it |
| Wardrobe box with a hanging rail | Suits, coats and dresses that must not crease | Bulky, so take only what you genuinely need |
| Plastic crates | Short local moves, and anything going into storage afterwards | Heavier when empty, and they cost more than cardboard |
How you get them from us
You do not have to go and find any of this, and you are not paying extra for it.
If you are packing yourself, we deliver the boxes, tape and wrapping materials to your door, you pack at your own pace, and we collect everything when you are ready to move.
If you would rather not, our packing service sends trained packers who wrap, box and label the whole house before it leaves. On an overseas move that is usually the sensible choice anyway, because your insurance and your customs inventory both depend on how the boxes were packed.
If you are shipping overseas, the sums change. Sea freight is priced on the space your belongings take up, so how tightly a box is packed affects what you pay. That side of it is covered on shipping boxes.
One thing worth saying plainly: materials come as part of a move booked with us. We are a removals company rather than a box shop, so if you only want to buy boxes on their own, a packaging supplier will serve you better than we will.
What we would not bother with
Specialist mattress bags, unless the mattress is going into storage. Vacuum bags, which save space but leave clothes creased half to death. A label printer, which is a lovely idea on a Sunday and an abandoned one by Wednesday.
Two things are worth every penny: wardrobe boxes for anything that has to arrive uncreased, and one more roll of tape than you think you need.
What cannot go in the boxes
This is the part people find out too late, usually while a crew is standing in the hallway. A removal van is not a skip and it is not a chemistry set. Most firms, ours included, cannot carry the following, and an overseas shipment is stricter again because customs and the shipping line both have a say.
| Item | Why not | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Aerosols, paint and solvents | Pressurised or flammable, and a sealed van gets hot | Use them up, or hand them in at a household waste centre |
| Petrol, gas bottles and fireworks | Genuinely dangerous in a loaded vehicle | Empty the mower and the strimmer the week before |
| Open food and anything frozen | It leaks, it spoils, and on a container it attracts pests | Run the freezer down in the last fortnight |
| Plants and soil | Most countries refuse them outright at the border | Give them to a neighbour. It is kinder than the alternative |
| Passports, jewellery, medication | Not banned, but never worth putting in a box | Keep them in the bag that travels with you |
If you are not sure about something, ask before you pack it. A two minute phone call is a great deal cheaper than a container being held at the port because of a tin of deck stain.
Why people trust us with a move
These are not our words. They are our customers, on a review site we do not control.
- 4.6 out of 5 from 110 reviews on Trustpilot, rated Excellent
- Over 10,000 moves completed
- Typically replies within 24 hours, as shown on the Trustpilot profile
- Our own yard and storage at Riverside Industrial Estate, Fazeley, Tamworth
- Members of Approved Movers in the UK, and we only work with overseas agents who are members of BAR or FIDI
- Reviewing since October 2020, and still collecting them every month
From contact to collection everything has been really smooth. All emails were answered promptly. The three guys that came and collected our things were super friendly, helpful and extremely careful with our belongings.
Vanessa, May 2026 – verified Trustpilot review