What size moving box is best?

Medium is the size most of a house ends up in, so if you only bought one size it would be that. In practice you want all three: small for dense things, medium for general packing, large for bulky light things.

How heavy should a moving box be?

Light enough for one person to carry it up a flight of stairs without setting it down. If you have to shuffle it rather than lift it, repack it into something smaller.

Can I use supermarket boxes instead?

For some things, yes. The problem is that they come in mismatched sizes that will not stack on a trolley or in a truck, banana boxes have holes in the bottom, and produce boxes are often damp.

Box sizes

Moving box sizes, and what goes in each

There is one rule underneath all of this: the smaller the box, the heavier the thing that goes in it. Small boxes are for dense things like books and tins. Large boxes are for bulky, light things like bedding. Get that backwards and you end up with a box nobody can lift.

Last checked 16 September 2026

What goes in a small moving box?

A small box takes the dense things: books, tinned food, tools, records and crockery. It suits a study, a kitchen pantry and the garage. The rule that saves your back is that the smaller the box, the heavier the thing, and a small box of books is already about as much as you want to lift.

Rooms: Study · Kitchen pantry · Garage

What goes in a medium moving box?

A medium box holds most of the kitchen, plus linen, toys, shoes and small appliances, which is why it suits the kitchen, the bedroom and the living room. It is the size most of a house ends up in. If you only had one size, this is it.

Rooms: Kitchen · Bedroom · Living room

For a sense of scale: Storage King lists its medium at 30 × 33 × 40cm, $4.50 each.

What goes in a large moving box?

A large box is for bulk without weight: bedding, pillows, cushions, lampshades and winter coats, out of the bedroom and the living room. Large boxes are for light, awkward things. Fill one with books and nobody will be able to pick it up.

Rooms: Bedroom · Living room

What goes in a wardrobe box?

A wardrobe box takes hanging clothes, moved on their hangers and hung straight back up at the other end, so it is a bedroom box. It is the one box people skip and then regret, because the alternative is your whole wardrobe folded into bags.

Rooms: Bedroom

For a sense of scale: Storage King lists its wardrobe box with rail at 48 × 110 × 60cm, $19.90.

What size are your boxes in centimetres?

We have not published our own dimensions yet. Our supplier is not confirmed, so any centimetre figure we printed today would be a guess dressed up as a specification. The third-party sizes quoted above are there so you have something real to measure against until our spec sheet exists.

How heavy is too heavy?

A packed box you can lift comfortably is one you can carry the length of a hallway and up a flight of stairs without putting it down. Most people can do that with a medium box of kitchenware. Almost nobody can do it with a medium box of books, which is exactly why small boxes exist.

Books, tins, tools, records: small boxes only.
Kitchen, linen, toys, shoes: medium.
Bedding, pillows, cushions, coats: large.
Anything on a hanger: wardrobe box.

Work out how many you need · See the kits · How to pack a kitchen