Where to Find Free Moving Boxes and When to Skip Them

Where to get free boxes for moving

Most businesses receive more cardboard than they want and are glad to see it leave. Ask a manager, be polite, and offer to come back at a time that suits them. The most reliable places to look:

• Liquor stores. Liquor store boxes are small, thick, and built to carry glass. Many come with cardboard dividers that are useful for glasses and bottles
• Bookstores and office supply stores. Book cartons are strong and a good size for heavy items
• Offices. Copy paper boxes with lift-off lids are sturdy, uniform, and easy to stack
• Grocery stores. Ask for boxes that held dry goods, paper products, or canned food
• Pharmacies, hardware stores, and other retailers. Ask which days the trucks deliver and come by that day or the next morning
• Friends, neighbors, and coworkers who just moved. These are often real moving boxes, used once, in matching sizes
• Online classifieds and community bulletin boards. People post used moving boxes for free after they unpack. Post your own request too
• Recycling drop-off centers. Some allow you to take clean boxes. Ask before you help yourself

Start collecting three to four weeks before the move. It takes several trips to gather enough, and the best boxes go quickly.

Are used boxes safe for moving? How to check each one

A used box is safe if it still has its strength and has nothing living or spilled in it. Cardboard gets weaker every time it is loaded, folded, or exposed to moisture, so check each box before it goes in your car.

1. Press on the sides and corners. They should feel stiff, not soft. Crushed corners will not hold up a stack
2. Check the flaps. All four top flaps and all four bottom flaps should be attached and uncreased
3. Look for water marks. Rippled, stained, or wavy cardboard has been wet and has lost much of its strength
4. Smell it. A box that smells of food, smoke, or mildew will pass that smell on to your things
5. Look inside the seams and under the flaps for insects, droppings, or grease

When to skip free moving boxes

Some boxes are not worth taking at any price:

• Anything damp or water stained. It can collapse under weight and may carry mold
• Boxes with food residue. Produce, meat, and dairy boxes can hold spills and odors, and food residue attracts pests. Many produce boxes also have open tops or holes in the sides
• Boxes with any sign of insects. Bugs can hide in the folds of cardboard, and you do not want to carry them into a new home
• Boxes that held chemicals such as cleaners, pesticides, or pool supplies
• Thin retail cartons. A box made to hold a few bags of chips was never meant to carry books
• Boxes without lids or flaps. They cannot be sealed or stacked
• Very large or odd shapes. They are hard to carry and do not stack with anything else

When in doubt, leave it. One collapsed box of dishes costs more than a bundle of new boxes.

How to reinforce used moving boxes

Good used moving boxes still need fresh tape. Old tape has already lost some of its grip, and folding the flaps over and under each other is not strong enough for a loaded box.

1. Peel off loose old tape and cross out old labels
2. Fold the bottom flaps flat, short flaps first, and run packing tape along the center seam with a few inches up each side
3. Add a second strip across the seam, or tape both edges, for heavy loads
4. Keep the weight down. A used box should carry a little less than it would have when new
5. Seal the top the same way so the box can take weight in a stack

Use real packing tape. Masking tape and duct tape do not hold well on cardboard.

Which boxes are worth buying new

Free boxes are fine for linens, clothes, toys, pantry items, and books. For a few jobs, the right new box is worth paying for:

Always buy tape and packing paper new. For help with breakables, see our moving and packing tips.

Why matching box sizes matter on moving day

Movers load boxes in tight, level stacks from the floor of the truck to the ceiling. Boxes of the same few sizes stack like bricks. A collection of thirty different shapes leaves gaps, takes longer to load, and uses more space in the truck. On an hourly local move, slower loading costs you money.

You do not need a perfect set. Aim for mostly small and medium boxes in a few repeating sizes, and use the odd ones for light items that can ride on top.

How many boxes do I need to move?

More than you expect. The number depends on the size of your home, how long you have lived there, and how much is in the closets, garage, and kitchen. Our packing estimator gives you a count by box size for a home like yours, so you know how many free boxes to collect and how many to buy.

Collect a few more than the estimate says. Running out of boxes the night before the move is one of the most common packing problems, and there is no time left to go looking for free ones.

The option that skips the box hunt

If driving around town for cardboard is not how you want to spend your evenings, there is another route. With our packing services, the boxes, paper, bubble wrap, and tape are included in the quote, and the crew does the packing. You can have the whole home packed or only the kitchen and the fragile items, and use your free boxes for the rest.