Who sells the cheapest boxes for moving?

 Moving home is a very difficult and costly time for every family. There are so many different costs associated with moving, which include solicitors’ fees, stamp duty, the removal company, searches, and the mortgage advisor. On top of all of this, you also need to pick up some packing boxes to help with transporting your household possessions, and this is a cost that was probably unplanned and you certainly don’t want to spend much on packaging materials. 

Finding the cheapest packaging materials can be hard, and in fact, finding packaging materials at all can be hard! Not many retailers offer packaging, and finding the best prices is next to impossible. From our experience in running a removals business in the past, we have found a number of different options. 

Where can you buy moving boxes?

- You can buy the best moving boxes from professional packaging specialists directly online. They will usually have a large range of boxes, as well as other types of packaging designed for moving house. Online companies can be found nationally, and they will usually deliver nationally to your door.

- You can buy from local packaging companies directly via phone, and these tend to be local to your area. Sometimes they will only sell to businesses, but sometimes they will be able to supply you with packaging materials for moving.

- You can buy boxes from a local retailer or supermarket. They only occasionally offer cardboard boxes, and they might have a very small range of one or two types of box for you to choose from. It is best to phone them first to double check.

- You can ask local businesses to see if they have any second hand boxes they could sell to you or give to you. This is completely luck of the draw, but if you have enough time on your hands then it can be a good option. You won’t know which size, shape or quality the boxes are going to be until you pick them up, which is the main problem here.

- You could ask your removal company if they can sell you some moving boxes. This is sometimes available if you are using a large enough removal company or they might point you in the direction of a trusted retailer of packaging that they use online. 

Which option is the cheapest and why?

- The cheapest option would obviously be getting free boxes second hand from a local business, if they have them available. It is a risky option, especially if you are moving home with a strict time frame in mind. It is a gamble because you don’t know anything about the boxes that you might (or might not) get, such as the size, shape and quality of the boxes available. Time is the main consideration here.

- The second cheapest option would be purchasing online from a packaging specialist company. They often offer the lowest and most competitive prices; because you are buying from a packaging specialist they will deal with larger quantities of boxes, and with low overheads online, they will be able to offer the best prices. Not only are the prices likely to be the lowest, but they will have the largest and most practical range of boxes for you to use, and it is much easier to simply order online and have them delivered to your door. Most offer next day delivery too.

- The third cheapest option would be to find a local packaging supplier and phone them. They will also be able to offer some great prices, however many will only deal with larger quantities and businesses rather than house movers. They might also require you to go and collect the boxes from their warehouse. 

- Finally at the bottom of the pile would be local retailers or supermarkets, buying moving boxes near me. They charge the highest price and might only offer one type of box with very little selection, if they offer any at all. You would have to drive to visit them, and if they do sell boxes they might not fit in your car to take them home either. The prices alone will be nearly double that of other companies, so this option should be avoided unless absolutely desperate. You will need to phone them first to check if they have any boxes for sale, as many supermarkets and retailers do not offer boxes at all. You can sometimes only find plastic boxes, which are triple the price and extremely bad for the environment, and cannot be recycled after you are finished.

Difficulties of finding free boxes 

- Twenty years ago it was much easier to find second hand boxes, which you could pick up for free and use for your house move. However today things are much more difficult. The reason being because of the environmental trend, where businesses are choosing to re use their own boxes rather than hand them out for free. 

- Often businesses have signed recycling agreements to remain environmentally friendly by law, and this means that they have had to commit to recycling a certain amount of packaging each month, which means they have little available to hand out for free. 

- Many businesses have cut out the packaging that they use entirely, in an attempt to become more eco friendly, and so there are less free boxes available in general.

- As the cost of cardboard has increased over the years, this has meant that more businesses have chosen to re use their strong moving boxes, which also reduces the number of free boxes available for handing out.

- If you are lucky enough to find free boxes, you can never guarantee the quality of the boxes. Boxes can vary in strength and size, quite dramatically, and some boxes are fit for purpose and others are not. Second hand boxes can often be damaged badly, and they might be dirty, and weak, which would not be ideal for moving house.