How to Pack for a House Move: Room-by-Room Guide (UK 2026)

Updated August 2026·14 min read

When to start packing (week-by-week timeline)

Start packing 6-8 weeks before your move date. That sounds early, but a full family home takes far longer to box up than most people expect, and packing a little each week beats a frantic final weekend. If you have less time, 3-4 weeks is the workable minimum for anything bigger than a one-bed flat.

The trick is order: pack the rooms you barely use first, so your home stays liveable until the final days. Here is the schedule that works.

Packing is only one strand of the move. For everything else you need to line up, from post redirection to meter readings, our other removal guides cover the full countdown.

What packing materials you need (and costs)

Running out of boxes mid-pack is the most common packing mistake. Surveys by box retailers suggest people underestimate what they need by 20-30%. Use the table below as your shopping list, then add 10% for safety. Unused flat-pack boxes can usually be returned or reused.

Those are minimums for a decluttered home. As a cross-check, and matching the room-by-room figures further down: expect 4-6 boxes for a small room, 8-12 for a double bedroom or a living room, and 10-15 for a kitchen. Add those up and a fully furnished 3-4 bed house lands nearer 50-60 boxes than the table’s minimums. Budget roughly 2 rolls of tape per 15 boxes if you are buying long 166m rolls. Check the length on the pack before you rely on that: high-street tape is usually 50m or 66m, and on those you will need six or seven rolls per 15 boxes, not two. Add 10m or more of bubble wrap if you own a lot of glassware or ornaments.

At 2025/26 prices, individual boxes cost around £2.70 for a medium, £3.70 for a large and £4.50 for an extra-large. Bundled kits are better value: around £26 buys 20 large double-wall boxes with bubble wrap and tape, while bigger value kits run £40-£50.

Box sizes and weight limits

Removal boxes generally come in three sizes: small (roughly 318×268×318mm), medium (457×330×330mm, about 50 litres) and large (457×457×499mm, about 104 litres), with XL around 127 litres. There is no British Standard for them, so sizes vary a little between suppliers. Choose double-wall cardboard for anything heavy or fragile. Single-wall boxes are only good for light linens and soft toys.

The golden rule: heavy items in small boxes, light items in large boxes. Keep every box under 20-25kg. No law sets a weight limit for a box you pack yourself, but HSE’s lifting guideline is 25kg for a man and 16kg for a woman — and that is the easiest case, lifting at knuckle height with the load held close to the body. At shoulder height, or down by your ankles, the same guideline drops to 10kg and 7kg, which is much closer to what carrying a box down the stairs or up into a van actually involves. Treat 20-25kg as a ceiling for the most favourable lift, not a target. A small box of books hits 20kg surprisingly fast, and a large box should carry no more than about 15kg of light, bulky items.^1, 2 Some removal firms cap boxes at 30kg and will refuse anything heavier. Pack heavy items at the bottom, fill voids with paper or towels so nothing shifts, and tape the base seam twice.

Where to get free or cheap boxes (and crate hire)

Supermarkets, off-licences and local Facebook or Freecycle groups are the classic free sources. Banana and wine boxes are sturdy and a good size. Just check free boxes for damp and weak bases before trusting them with anything you care about.

Plastic crate hire is a greener alternative worth pricing up: typically around £17 a week for 20 totes (1-bed), £34 for 40 totes (2-3 bed) or £42 for 50 totes (3-4 bed). Crates stack better in the van, don’t collapse in the rain, and get collected after you unpack.

Before you pack: declutter room by room

Every box you don’t pack is a box you don’t buy, carry, pay to transport or unpack. Removal quotes are based on volume, so a serious declutter can knock a meaningful chunk off the price. Work through one room at a time with four piles (keep, sell, donate, bin), and be ruthless with anything boxed and untouched since your last move.

• Sell: eBay, Vinted and Facebook Marketplace for anything worth more than the hassle of listing it; allow 2-3 weeks for things to sell.
• Donate: charity shops take clothes, books and bric-a-brac, and many — the British Heart Foundation among them — offer free furniture collection, though whether it is available depends on the charity, your postcode and the item. Upholstered furniture has to carry its fire safety label or they cannot take it at all: that is the law on supplying second-hand furniture, not a preference.³
• Recycle or bin: book a council bulky-waste collection early; slots go fast at month-end when everyone else is moving too.
• Eat the freezer down: plan meals around what’s in the freezer and cupboards so you move as little food as possible.

What to pack first: the right packing order

Always pack from least-used to most-used. The order below keeps your house functional until the last 48 hours:

1. Storage spaces Loft, garage, shed and under-stairs cupboard: nothing in daily use lives here.
2. Spare rooms Guest bedrooms and any room that’s really a storage room with a bed in it.
3. Out-of-season items Winter coats in July, barbecue in January, holiday luggage, Christmas decorations.
4. Books, media and décor Bookshelves, ornaments, pictures, and the contents of display cabinets.
5. Home office Files and archives early; keep current documents and the router out until the end.
6. Living room and bedrooms Everything except a week of clothes and the things you touch daily.
7. Kitchen and bathroom Last, in stages: these are the rooms you use right up to moving day.

Room-by-room packing guide

This is where the real work happens. For each room you’ll find how many boxes to expect, how long it typically takes, and the mistakes that catch people out. Times assume one person working steadily; halve them with a helper.

Loft, garage and shed

Boxes: 6-10 · Time: half a day to a full day · Watch out for: hazardous liquids.

Sturdy small boxes for tools (heavier than they look), and drain fuel from the lawnmower and petrol tools before moving day. Paint, white spirit, gas bottles and garden chemicals generally can’t go in the removal van at all. See what not to pack. Bundle long-handled tools together with stretch wrap rather than boxing them.

Spare rooms and home office

Boxes: 4-8 per room · Time: 2-4 hours per room · Watch out for: cables and documents.

Photograph the back of your computer setup before unplugging anything, then bag each device’s cables separately and label the bag (“office: monitor cables”). A sandwich bag taped to the back of the device it belongs to is even better. Keep passports, house deeds, contracts and anything with your signature on it out of the boxes. Those travel with you personally.

Living room

Boxes: 8-12 · Time: half a day · Watch out for: the TV and heavy book boxes.

The original box is the safest way to move a TV. If it’s long gone, buy a flat-screen box or ask your removal company to blanket-wrap it. Books go in small boxes only, spines down. Pack lampshades separately from their bases, nested in a paper-lined large box.

Bedrooms

Boxes: 8-12 per double bedroom · Time: half a day per room · Watch out for: overpacked drawers.

Hanging clothes go straight into wardrobe boxes: 2-3 per full wardrobe and you’ll skip ironing at the other end. Folded clothes can often stay in their drawers: take each drawer out, clingfilm it, and carry it separately (check your movers are happy with this; heavy solid-wood chests should always be emptied). Bedding and towels are free padding for fragile boxes. Jewellery travels with you, not in the van.

Kitchen

Boxes: 10-15 · Time: a full day, the longest room in the house · Watch out for: appliance prep.

The kitchen has more fragile, heavy and awkward items than any other room, so never leave it until the day before. Key rules:

• Plates vertically: wrapped individually and stood on their edges like records, never stacked flat. A flat stack concentrates all the weight on the bottom plate.
• Glasses upright: rims are the weakest point; never pack glasses on their sides. Use cell dividers if you have them.
• Freezer: defrost at least 24 hours before the move, longer for a chest freezer; tape the door shut with a towel inside to catch drips.
• Washing machine: refit the transit bolts that lock the drum (usually in the back panel; check the manual). Moving one without them can wreck the drum bearings.
• Gas cooker: most UK cookers plug into a bayonet fitting, a self-sealing connector that the gas safety regulations specifically leave out of the definition of gas “work”, so unhooking one yourself is not against the law. A cooker that is hard-piped into the supply, and capping the pipe off permanently when you leave, are a different matter and do need a Gas Safe registered engineer.^4, 5 If you are not certain which sort you have, or you smell gas at any point, stop and get a Gas Safe engineer in. Book one a couple of weeks ahead.
• Opened food: bin or give away anything opened; tape the lids of anything sealed you’re taking and pack food boxes last so they’re unpacked first.

Bathroom

Boxes: 2-4 · Time: 1-2 hours · Watch out for: leaks.

Unscrew every lid, lay clingfilm over the opening, and screw the lid back on. That’s the difference between a box of toiletries and a box of shampoo-soaked towels. Stand bottles upright in a plastic-lined box or a plastic tote. Medicines don’t go in the van: keep them with you, especially anything prescription or temperature-sensitive.

How to pack fragile items

Breakages come from three things: no individual wrapping, empty space inside the box, and heavy items sitting on fragile ones. Fix all three with the same basic technique, whatever you’re wrapping:

1. Build a base Line the bottom of a double-wall box with 5cm of scrunched packing paper, bubble wrap or towels.
2. Wrap each item individually Packing paper first (newspaper ink transfers), then bubble wrap for anything you’d be upset to lose. Tape the wrap so it can’t unravel.
3. Heaviest at the bottom Plates and serving dishes low, glasses and lightweight items on top, with a layer of padding between each level.
4. Fill every void Scrunched paper, socks, tea towels. If you can shake the box and hear movement, it isn’t finished.
5. Top pad, seal and label Another 5cm of padding on top, tape the box, and mark FRAGILE and THIS WAY UP on at least two sides.

Then adjust the technique per item:

The labelling system that makes unpacking easy

A box labelled “kitchen” is fine. A box labelled “Kitchen: everyday plates & mugs, box 12, OPEN FIRST” is a system. Every label should carry three things:

1. Destination room The room in the new house, not the old one: “bedroom 2” only helps if everyone knows which room that is. Stick a matching sign on each door on moving day.
2. Contents summary Three or four words is enough to find the corkscrew without opening ten boxes.
3. Box number Number every box and keep a running list on your phone: number, room, contents. You’ll know instantly if a box is missing, and it doubles as evidence for any insurance claim.

Label the side of the box as well as the top. You can’t read the top of a stacked box. Colour-coded tape per room lets your movers deliver boxes to the right rooms without reading a word, and FRAGILE / THIS WAY UP goes on two sides of anything breakable.

Pack an essentials box

Your essentials box (or “open first” box) is the last thing into the van, or better, it travels in your own car. It covers the first 24 hours in the new house, when everything else is still sealed in cardboard.

• Kettle kit: kettle, tea, coffee, sugar, long-life milk, mugs and teaspoons.
• Chargers: phone chargers, plus an extension lead (never enough sockets where you want them).
• Toiletries: toilet roll, hand soap, toothbrushes, shower gel, one towel per person.
• Medicines: all prescription medication, plus painkillers and plasters.
• Documents & keys: passports, house paperwork, both sets of new-house keys, and cash for the pizza.
• Change of clothes: one full outfit and nightwear per person.
• First-night bedding: a duvet and bedding set per bed, so beds happen before the energy runs out.
• Basic tools: screwdriver, scissors, box cutter, bin bags, cleaning spray and cloths, lightbulbs.
• Kids & pets: favourite toy, snacks, tablet and charger; pet food, bowls, litter tray, lead.

What not to pack

Some things shouldn’t go in the removal van at all, either because your removal company won’t take them, or because you’d regret it if they went missing.

• Valuables and irreplaceables: jewellery, cash, passports, house deeds, hard drives, sentimental items. Transport these yourself, in your own car.
• Hazardous items: paint, petrol, gas bottles, aerosols, garden chemicals, batteries in bulk. This is not just company policy: carrying dangerous goods in a way that doesn’t comply with the ADR rules is unlawful under the Carriage of Dangerous Goods Regulations 2009, and an ordinary removal firm won’t hold the approvals to do it. Small-quantity exemptions mean the rule doesn’t bite equally on every item on that list, but the practical answer is the same — use them up, or empty and dispose of them properly instead.⁶
• Perishables: open food, frozen food and anything that leaks or rots on a warm day in a van.
• Plants and pets: most firms won’t take either; plan to move them yourself.

The full list (including the surprises like nail varnish and fire extinguishers, and what to do with each item instead) is in our guide to what not to pack.

DIY packing vs a professional packing service

Most removal companies offer packing as an add-on: a trained team arrives a day or two before the move and boxes the entire house in hours, materials included. It costs more than doing it yourself, but the gap is smaller than many people assume once you price up materials and your own time.

Across the market, full packing services typically run £200-£600 depending on house size and how much you own, with the UK average sitting around £375-£390 as of 2026. Some firms charge hourly instead. Expect roughly £60-£85 + VAT for a two-person team. A popular middle ground is fragile-only packing: the pros wrap the kitchen and glassware, you box the books and clothes.

The insurance point is the real decider for many people. Most firms’ terms draw a line between boxes their crew packed and boxes you packed yourself, so paying for professional packing may buy cover for your breakables as well as saving you a week of evenings. Ask for both positions in writing on your quote before you decide, because the wording differs from firm to firm. If your home is full of china, glass and art, that difference is worth pricing properly.

Running out of time? How to pack a house fast

Move date crept up on you? Triage. With days rather than weeks, the goal is a safe, loadable house, not a beautifully organised one.

1. Get help and materials today Call in friends, buy a full box kit in one trip (or same-day delivery), and assign one person per room.
2. Pack the essentials box first, not last Set aside documents, medicines, chargers and a change of clothes per person before the chaos starts.
3. Stop sorting, start boxing Decluttering time is over. Pack everything and sort at the other end. Bin bags are fine for clothes, bedding and soft toys.
4. Protect only what breaks Give the kitchen and glassware proper wrapping; everything else gets speed-packed. Towels and clothes become padding.
5. Label rooms only Skip the contents lists. A marker-pen room name on every box is the minimum that still works.
6. Throw money at the worst of it Many removal firms can add a fragile-only or full packing team at short notice. One phone call can save the day.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to pack a 3-bed house?

Spread over normal life, allow 3-4 weeks packing steadily, about an hour a day or one room per day. Working flat out, a 3-bed house takes most people 3-5 full days; a professional two-person packing team does it in around a day. Start 6-8 weeks out and you’ll never feel the pressure.

How many boxes do I need to move house?

Roughly 18-20 boxes for a 1-bed flat, 25 for a 2-3 bed house and 35+ for a 3-4 bed, and those are minimums for a decluttered home — a fully furnished family house runs nearer 50-60. Count on 4-6 boxes for a small room, 8-12 for a double bedroom or living room and 10-15 for a kitchen, then add 10-20% because nearly everyone underestimates.

Can I leave clothes in drawers when moving?

Often, yes. Remove each drawer, wrap it in clingfilm or stretch wrap, and carry it separately. Check with your removal company first: some prefer furniture emptied, and heavy solid-wood chests should always be emptied so they can be lifted safely. Hanging clothes go in wardrobe boxes.

What should I pack first when moving house?

Start with the rooms you use least: loft, garage and shed, then spare rooms, out-of-season clothes, books and décor. Leave the everyday kitchen, bathroom basics and a week of clothes until the final few days, and pack your essentials box last of all.

How heavy can a moving box be?

Keep every box under 20-25kg. That is an upper bound rather than a safe limit: HSE’s lifting guideline is 25kg for a man and 16kg for a woman in the easiest lifting position, and far lower for an awkward lift such as carrying a box downstairs. Some removal firms cap it at 30kg and may refuse heavier boxes. Put heavy items (books, tins, tools) in small boxes and light bulky items (bedding, lampshades) in large ones; a large box should carry no more than about 15kg.

Do removal companies pack for you?

Yes. Most offer a full packing service, typically £200-£600 depending on house size (around £375-£390 on average as of 2026), with materials included. Many also offer cheaper fragile-only packing. One thing to check: most firms’ terms treat boxes packed by their own crew differently from boxes you packed yourself, so ask what your quote covers each way before you choose.

When should I start packing for a move?

Six to eight weeks before your move date, starting with decluttering and the rooms you rarely use. Three to four weeks is the realistic minimum for a family home. Any later and you’re into speed-packing territory.

Sources

Figures, deadlines and rules in this guide are referenced below. Each source was checked on 10 August 2026. Links open in a new tab.

1. Health and Safety Executive, Manual handling at work: A brief guide (INDG143), Figure 1 – Lifting and lowering risk filter (2020).
2. Health and Safety Executive, Simple manual handling risk filters (2024).
3. legislation.gov.uk, The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, regulation 3 (Interpretation) (1988).
4. legislation.gov.uk, The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 3 (Qualification and supervision) (1998).
5. legislation.gov.uk, The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 2 (Interpretation) (1998).
6. legislation.gov.uk, The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009, regulation 5 (Prohibition on carriage) (2009).