Moving Boxes & Supplies in Chicago, IL

It depends on your place and what you own, but a rough starting point: a studio or one-bedroom often runs 15 to 30 boxes, a two-bedroom 30 to 50, and a three-bedroom 50 to 80 or more, leaning on small boxes if you have a lot of books and a heavy kitchen. Tell us your move size when you request a quote and we will help you build a supply list with the right mix of small, medium, large, dish-pack, and wardrobe boxes so you are not guessing or overbuying.

A dish-pack is a thicker, double-walled box built specifically for fragile kitchen items, plates, glassware, stemware, and bowls. The heavier wall takes the bumps of a stairwell carry and a loaded truck far better than a regular box. If you own glassware or a stocked kitchen, dish-packs plus plenty of packing paper are the difference between everything arriving whole and opening a box of broken pieces. Wrap each item in paper and keep the box full so nothing shifts.

A wardrobe box is a tall carton with a hanging bar across the top. You move clothes straight from your closet rod onto the bar, so shirts, dresses, and suits travel hanging instead of folded into a box and re-ironed at the other end. They save a surprising amount of time and keep nicer clothing in good shape. Customers regularly tell us the wardrobe boxes are the part of the move they did not know they needed.

Use small boxes for anything dense, books, records, canned goods, tools, and small electronics. It feels backward to put heavy things in the smallest box, but a large box full of books gets too heavy to carry safely, especially down a walk-up or greystone staircase, and it is more likely to blow out at the bottom. Save the large boxes for light, bulky things like bedding, pillows, and linens. Keep every box full but not overpacked so it does not crush when stacked in the truck.

Both. Plenty of customers grab boxes and supplies from us and pack themselves with our guidance, and plenty have us handle the packing, full, partial, or just the fragile kitchen and glassware. Tell us what you are after when you request your quote and we will sort out the right combination of supplies and hands for your move.

At minimum: packing tape to seal box tops and bottoms securely, packing paper to wrap dishes and fill empty space so boxes do not collapse, and bubble wrap for glass, framed art, and electronics. Moving blankets protect furniture and larger fragile pieces. A good marker helps too, label each box by room and flag an Open First box with your first-night essentials so you are not digging through every carton the first night in your new place.

Rough rule we use when we walk a place: figure 8 to 10 boxes per room for a lightly furnished one-bedroom, 25 to 40 for a packed two-bedroom, and more if you've got a full kitchen or a basement. The variable that throws people off in Chicago is books and dishes, which go in small 1.5 cubic foot cartons (a full one should be liftable, not back-breaking), while pillows and bedding fill large boxes fast. When your crew does the walk-through or your binding estimate, we'll give you a count tuned to your actual square footage and your walk-up or freight situation, so you're not over-buying or scrambling for more mid-load.

On an hourly job, packing quality directly drives the clock, so the goal is boxes that close flat and stack square. Fill every box to the top (crumpled paper on top so the lid doesn't cave when it's stacked five high on the dolly), tape the bottom seam twice, and keep weight under what one person can carry up a Chicago walk-up. Label the side, not the top, with the room and a quick note like 'kitchen fragile,' because once boxes are stacked in the truck the crew can only read the sides. The cleaner and more uniform your boxes, the faster they tetris into the truck and the freight elevator, and the fewer trips your crew makes.