Do Removal Companies Supply Boxes? What's Included and What It Costs

The question usually comes up the week the quotes arrive. One company mentions boxes, another does not, and a third lists them as a separate line. Underneath it is a simpler question: do I need to go and buy boxes before the removal company arrives, or will they bring them, and if they bring them, what am I paying for?

This guide answers that for London moves. It sets out what removal companies normally supply, exactly what our own crew brings and how it is charged, how many boxes come with each size of home on our published packages, which boxes suit which things, and what changes when you pack yourself, from insurance to what happens to the cardboard afterwards.

Usually, yes. The British Association of Removers, the trade association for UK removal companies, tells customers that a member mover "can supply you with all the packing materials you need at reasonable cost or within the price of the move". That one sentence explains why quotes look so different. Some companies roll the materials into one price, some list them line by line, and some only bring them when they are doing the packing.

What almost no removal company does is hand out boxes for nothing. Cardboard, tape and wrap cost money, and a quote that says nothing about them either includes them somewhere or expects you to provide your own. Neither is wrong, but you need to know which, because it changes what you have to do before moving day and what you are comparing between quotes.

Three questions settle it for any quote, ours or anyone else's:

• Are materials included, itemised or excluded? If they are included, ask how many boxes that means. If excluded, you are buying your own
• Who packs? Materials supplied for the company's own packers are not always available for you to pack yourself
• What happens to the boxes afterwards? Some companies collect flattened boxes, most leave them with you

Our rule is simple: boxes, tape, bubble wrap and wardrobe cartons arrive with the crew and are itemised in your quote, so there is nothing to buy or collect first. Materials are never hidden in the hourly rate and never presented as free. You see the boxes, tape and wrap as their own lines, priced before you book.

There are two ways materials reach a job. If you book our packing service, the package price covers the packers and a set allowance of materials for the size of home. If you are packing yourself, the crew can bring materials and they are itemised in your quote in the same way. Either way it is booked with the removal. We do not sell boxes on their own or deliver them without a move, so there is no box-only order to place.

Once materials are part of a booked job, they are reserved for it. Our quotation terms say so in the deposit clause: "The deposit secures the moving date, vehicle, packing materials and team and is non-refundable once the booking has been confirmed, subject to statutory rights." The deposit is 20% of the quote.

If you want the whole picture of a packing booking (which rooms, fragile-only or full, labelling and unpacking) read what a packing service includes. The packing and unpacking service in London page has the packages with their London details.

Rules of thumb about boxes per room vary a lot from one source to the next. Ours come from somewhere specific: each packing package on our price list carries a set materials allowance for a normally furnished home, and those allowances are what our crews pack with. They are a useful benchmark even if you pack yourself.

Read across the chart and a pattern appears. Small and large boxes always come in equal numbers, and every extra bedroom adds 10 small and 10 large boxes, from 32 boxes for a 1-bedroom home to 162 for a 7-bedroom one. Wardrobe boxes rise more slowly, from 2 to 12, because hanging rails do not double with each bedroom.

The allowances have limits, and our price list says so plainly: "Quantities are standard allowances for normally furnished properties. Heavily furnished homes, lofts, garages, large kitchens, libraries, fragile collections or unusual contents may require extra materials and/or packing time." In London that matters most for flats with a lot packed into a little space. A 1-bedroom flat with a full bookcase, a well-stocked kitchen and a bed with storage drawers can need more than 32 boxes. Anything beyond the allowance is itemised in your quote before the day, not discovered on it.

If you want to count your own home room by room rather than rely on a package figure, how many boxes you actually need walks through the method. The two approaches land in a similar place, and the package figure is a fair check on a room-by-room count.

Materials are priced as a share of each packing package. For a 1-bedroom home, the package is £400: £250 of labour and £150 of materials, so the materials are 38% of it. For a 3-bedroom home it is £1,000, with £350 of materials (35%). Each bedroom adds £100 of materials.

These are package prices for the packing alone. The removal itself is quoted separately from the hourly rate card, so you see what each part costs. If packing runs beyond the package because there is more than expected, extra packing time is £40 per packer per hour, and unpacking at the new address is £40 per packer per hour.

What is not in the allowance is worth knowing before you compare. Our price list is explicit:

• Specialist materials — TV cartons, picture and mirror cartons, specialist crates and additional protection — are not included and are quoted separately.
• Prices are from and subject to survey. Removal and transport are quoted separately according to volume, distance, access, parking, vehicle requirements and crew size.

So a home with a large TV without its original box, several framed pictures or a big mirror should expect specialist cartons as their own lines. That is not a catch; these cartons are sized to the item and cost more than standard boxes. If another quote looks cheaper on materials, check whether it includes them at all.

All prices are on our pricing page, and the London house removals page shows how a packing package sits beside the move itself.

Most homes need only three kinds of box, plus a few specialist cartons. The trick is to match the box to the weight of what goes in it, not to the size of the item.

The most common mistake is the large box full of books. It looks efficient on packing day and becomes the one box nobody can lift on moving day. Small boxes exist so that dense things stay at a weight a person can carry. Large boxes are for volume, not weight.

Wardrobe boxes save a whole job at the other end. Clothes go in on their hangers and come out ready to hang, so nothing needs refolding or pressing. Our allowance starts at 2 for a 1-bedroom home and rises to 4 for a 3-bedroom. If you own more hanging clothes than that, say so when you ask for a quote.

For anything glass, framed or delicate, the box is only half the answer; the wrapping matters as much. Packing fragile things covers how to wrap them.

Box strength is mostly about the board. Corrugated board is made with one fluted layer between two flat liners (single-wall), or with two or three fluted layers (double-wall and triple-wall). Double and triple-wall board is made for higher stacking strength and resistance to punctures. That is exactly what a removal box needs: it sits at the bottom of a stack in a moving van, and it gets knocked on banisters and door frames on the way.

Our large boxes are double-wall for that reason. Large boxes are the ones that end up at the bottom of a van stack and the ones most likely to be carried down a stairwell with something resting on top. A single-wall box of the same size is fine for one light load carried once, but it bows under stacking and loses its shape on stairs.

Moisture is the other enemy. A box that has been stored in a damp cellar, left in the rain or used for chilled deliveries is weaker than it looks. On a London move, where boxes can wait on a pavement while the van is loaded or travel in a lift lobby on a wet day, start with dry boxes and keep them dry.

London adds its own pressures. Flats mean stairs and lifts, lifts mean boxes stacked high in a small car, and street parking means a longer carry from the door to the van. Every one of those puts more load on the box than a ground-floor house with a van on the drive. Strong boxes are not a luxury here; they are what stops a base giving way on the third landing.

There is no legal weight limit for a box, and the Health and Safety Executive says so directly. Its manual handling guide explains that the Manual Handling Regulations do not set specific weight limits. Instead it gives guideline filters for when lifting is low-risk. For a load held close to the body at about waist height, the filter is 25kg for men and 16kg for women. It is lower at shoulder height, near the floor, or with the arms stretched out, and the guide says that lifting more often than about once every two minutes needs a more detailed assessment.

Those figures were written for workplaces, not for packing a kitchen, but they are a useful reality check. A removal involves dozens of lifts, many of them from the floor and up stairs. A box packed to the limit for a single lift at waist height is too heavy for a day of carrying. Pack so that anyone in the household could lift any box, and the crew will move them faster too.

• Fill small boxes with heavy things, but stop before they are full. Leave room for crumpled paper on top so the lid closes flat
• Fill large boxes with light things, right to the top. A half-empty large box crushes when another is stacked on it
• Test every box before you seal it. If you have to strain to lift it, split the contents
• Mark heavy boxes as heavy. The crew will plan where they go in the van

Plenty of people pack their own home and book the removal for the carrying and the van. That works well, and it keeps the cost down. The question is just where the materials come from.

If you are packing yourself and want our materials, say so when you ask for a quote. The boxes, tape, bubble wrap and wardrobe cartons are itemised in the quote. Ask when they will reach you, so you have the time you need to pack. Use the allowance chart above as a guide to the quantities; for a 2-bedroom home that is 25 small and 25 large boxes, 3 wardrobe boxes and 6 rolls of tape.

Some things you probably already have, and they save boxes:

• Suitcases and holdalls. Ideal for folded clothes, and they travel in the van anyway
• Laundry baskets and storage crates. Good for shoes, toiletries and cleaning products, carried as they are
• Towels and bedding. Useful padding around kitchen items, as long as the box stays liftable
• Small sealable bags. For the screws and fittings from anything you take apart, taped to the item they belong to
• A thick marker pen. Write the destination room on two sides and the top, so the label shows in a stack

And some things are worth getting right rather than improvising. Proper packing tape holds a seam closed through a whole day of stacking. Bin bags tear on banisters and give no protection. Supermarket carrier bags cannot be stacked at all. If you are short on time, can movers finish packing explains what to say before moving day rather than on it.

Whatever you use, have everything packed and sealed before the crew arrive. Packing on the day is the most common reason a move runs over its time, and on a London move every extra hour is paid for.

Free boxes are easy to find in London. Shops that take regular deliveries often have clean cardboard to give away, neighbours who have just moved often want rid of theirs, and local giveaway groups regularly have whole sets. For the right contents, they are a sensible saving.

The catch is consistency and strength. Used boxes come in every size, which makes them hard to stack, and each move weakens them. Here is a practical way to sort them:

• Good for: bedding, cushions, soft toys, coats, plastics, anything light that will not break if a box gives way
• Avoid for: books, crockery, glass, electronics, and anything going to the bottom of a stack
• Discard if: the box is damp, soft at the corners, torn at the flaps or has held food. Damp board loses strength, and card contaminated with food cannot even be recycled
• Check the base: fold the flaps fully and tape across the seam and the edges. Most box failures start at an untaped base

There is also a cover question, which the next section explains. A free box is not a problem in itself, but a free box that is too weak for what you put in it is packing that may not be covered if it fails.

A sensible mix for many London flats is new boxes for the heavy and fragile things, and good used boxes for the light ones. You get the savings where they are safe and strength where it counts.

Every move with us includes the same basic cover and the same crew:

• Goods in Transit cover. Included on every move, not sold as an add-on.
• Public Liability cover. In place on every job, at home or at work.
• Our own crew. Every mover is employed by AFS. We never pass your move to a subcontractor.
• One named coordinator. Your single point of contact, from the quote to the last box.

Cover depends on who packed the box. Our quotation terms state it clearly: "Goods packed by the customer are not covered for loss or damage arising from insufficient, unsuitable or improper packing." In plain terms, if a box you packed fails because it was the wrong box, too weak, overfilled or badly padded, the damage that follows is not covered. The crew still handle the box with care, but they cannot see inside it or know how it was packed.

Fragile items have their own term, whoever packs them: "Fragile items, glass, mirrors, televisions and artwork remain subject to the insurer's exclusions and any declared-value requirements. Specialist wooden crating is not included unless agreed in writing." Glass, mirrors, televisions and artwork are where packing matters most and where the insurer's rules are strictest. If you are unsure, these are the things worth handing over, which is what fragile-only packing is for: you pack the books and bedding, and the crew wrap the things that break.

Three practical steps reduce the risk whoever packs:

1. Use the right box for the weight: small for heavy, large double-wall for light and bulky
2. Mark fragile boxes clearly on more than one side, and tell the crew which ones they are
3. Tell us about anything valuable or delicate when you ask for a quote, so it can be packed or protected properly

This is the part most people forget to ask. With us, a quotation can include one box collection. The term reads: "One collection of flattened, dry and reusable AFS-supplied boxes is included within 14 days, subject to an agreed collection appointment" It applies to boxes we supplied, and only when your quotation includes it, so check the terms on your own quote. To make use of it, flatten the boxes and keep them dry, then agree a time with us within the 14 days.

The same term also sets out what is not included: "Disposal of general waste or customer-owned materials is excluded." We do not take away rubbish, packing waste or boxes you sourced elsewhere. Those are yours to reuse, pass on or recycle.

Recycling cardboard in London is straightforward. London Recycles lists cardboard boxes and corrugated cardboard as recyclable, with the exception of card that is greasy or contaminated with food. Councils run their own collections, so check yours. Islington Council, for example, takes flattened cardboard boxes in the household recycling, and says that large flattened boxes that do not fit in the container can be stacked next to it.

In a block of flats, the shared recycling bins can fill quickly when a whole home's worth of cardboard arrives at once. Flatten as you unpack, store the flat boxes inside your own flat rather than in a corridor or stairwell, and put them out a few at a time. Better still, pass good boxes on to someone who is about to move.

These are real jobs from our records where packing was booked with the move. They are anonymised to the area, and the prices are what customers booked at the time under our earlier pricing, so read them for how the work was organised and how long it took, not as today's prices.

Two things stand out. First, packing a whole home is often a job of its own: the Shoreditch 2-bedroom flat was packed on day one, moved and unpacked on day two, even though the move itself was only 1 mile. Second, the box numbers line up with today's allowances. The Crewe 5-bedroom house was packed with 100 boxes, tape and wrapping supplied; today's 5-bedroom allowance is 118 boxes. "Partial packing" on two of these jobs shows how common the in-between booking is, where the crew packs some rooms and the customer packs the rest.

If you are moving a whole home, start from our London house removals page, where packing is one of the options you can add. If packing is the part you most want to hand over, the packing and unpacking in London page has the packages and how they are booked with your move.