BoxEstimate: free calculators, sourced figures
How many boxes, what size truck and what a move costs, from published moving guides.
A 2-bedroom home takes about 102 boxes, fits a 20 ft truck (1,016 cu ft) and costs $680 to $2,000 with local movers or about $94 with a rental truck and fuel. Three calculators, US and UK units, no account, nothing stored on a server.
The calculators
Moving box calculator
How many small, medium, large, wardrobe and dish-pack boxes a studio to a 5-bedroom home takes, plus tape, paper and bubble wrap, from a published guide.
Moving cost calculator
Professional movers (a published range for your home size and distance) against a rental truck: day rate, mileage, fuel, boxes and helpers, side by side.
Moving truck size calculator
Cubic feet or m³ of belongings from the rooms you furnish, and the rental truck or van class that takes them in one trip.
How it works
- Pick your home size, the people living there and how much you own. The box calculator gives boxes by size, tape, paper and bubble wrap from a published guide, with the source and the date under the figures.
- Type the distance and tick packing help, stairs or a busy date. The cost calculator shows what movers charge for your home size, local or long distance, against a rental truck with mileage and fuel; every base rate is editable and sourced.
- Count your furnished rooms. The truck size calculator turns them into cubic feet or m³ and names the rental class that takes them in one trip, next to the rental company's own pick.
Units follow the region you pick (US (miles, cu ft, lb, $); UK / metric (km, m³, kg, £)). The maths is the same in both; the starting rates, the truck classes and the fuel price are the region’s own, each with its source and date. Inputs stay in this browser so the three tools and the Pro plan share them.
Where the figures come from
Box counts from a 2026 storage company guide, mover hours and crew rates from a 2026 moving company guide, long-distance ranges from a 2026 mover’s cost guide, truck capacities from the rental companies’ own pages, fuel prices from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and GOV.UK weekly statistics, UK removal averages from the HomeOwners Alliance. Every starting value shows its source under the field and in the list at the bottom of each page, and every one is yours to change. Estimates from published moving guides and rate pages, each with its source and date: quotes from movers and rental companies replace them.
Moving in the next two months? Pro prints the whole plan.
An 8-week checklist, a box inventory you fill as you pack, the shopping list, the cost summary and the truck on one printable sheet, with Excel export.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the calculators free?
- Yes, all three, with no limit and no sign-up. Pro is a paid extra for people who want the whole move on one printable plan: the 8-week checklist, the box inventory, the shopping list, the cost summary and the truck, with Excel export. The free tools do not change.
- Does this replace a quote from a mover?
- No. The figures are published ranges and rates with their date, meant to tell you what to expect before you ask and whether a quote is in range. Movers price by weight, access and date; rental companies by location and day. Get two or three written quotes.
- Does it work for the UK?
- Yes: switch the region on any calculator and the units become km, m³ and kg, the currency pounds, the removal averages come from UK data, the van classes are the Luton and the 7.5 t lorry, and the diesel price is GOV.UK's weekly figure. The box counts are the same guide in both regions.
- What does Pro add?
- One printable moving plan built from what you typed in the three calculators: an 8-week checklist you tick off, a box inventory you fill as you pack (number, room, contents, fragile), the shopping list, the movers-or-DIY cost summary and the truck, plus an Excel file with those sheets and the sources. Nothing is uploaded; it lives in your browser.