How many moving boxes do you need? What 6,033 moves tell us

The average household moves with 96 boxes. That is what the surveys our account managers carried out for 6,033 private moves since 2021 show. That comes to 79 standard moving boxes, 15 book boxes and a few XL boxes. The well-known rule of thumb of one to two boxes per square metre only holds for small homes. The larger your home, the fewer boxes you need per m².

Boxes needed by floor area

Based on 3,505 moves where the floor area is known.

As a rule of thumb, count on 60 boxes for 50 m², 95 for 100 m², 115 for 150 m² and 125 for 200 m². A large home has more space, but that space is more often taken up by large furniture than by things that go into a box.

Boxes needed by type of home

Where people own the most

In absolute numbers, residents of Wassenaar (135 boxes) and Amstelveen (123 boxes) move with the most boxes. But those are also places with large houses. So we looked at how many boxes a household needs compared with what you would expect from the floor area.

Residents of Amstelveen and Voorburg own 10% more than their home would suggest. Haarlem follows with 6% more. In Tilburg and Katwijk people travel lightest: there, 19% and 17% fewer boxes are needed than you would expect from the home.

The table lists every place with 35 or more moves. ‘Vs expected’ shows how many more or fewer boxes were needed than you would expect for that floor area. ‘Boxes’ and ‘Home’ are the averages per move.

Based on 2,617 moves in these places where the floor area is known, so the average number of boxes differs slightly from the figures above. Expected is the trend across all private moves: about 60 boxes for 50 m², 94 for 100 m² and 113 for 150 m².

Amstelveen has the most books. On average 22 book boxes go along there, compared with 11 in Tilburg and 13 in Katwijk, Hillegom and Rijnsburg.

Tips from our movers

• If you work it out yourself, add 10%. People often have more belongings than they think, and a few boxes left over is better than running short on moving day.
• Use book boxes for anything heavy: not just books, but crockery and tools too. A large box full of books is impossible to lift.
• Only use XL boxes for light items, such as duvets and pillows.
• Start in good time. Two weeks before the move, begin with the rooms you use least.

Want to work it out for your home? On Verhuisdozen.store the box calculator shows how many boxes you need, and you can order a moving pack straight away.

About this research

Oomen Movers & Storage analysed the surveys of 6,033 private moves between February 2021 and October 2026, mainly in South Holland, North Holland and North Brabant. The number of boxes is the number our account managers recommended during the survey. For moves where we also supplied the boxes, that advice was on average 8% above the number actually used. Business customers, commercial premises and moves with fewer than 10 boxes were not included. Places were only included with 35 or more moves.

Feel free to use these figures, with a reference to this research.