Boxes are the first thing a move needs and the easiest thing to get wrong. Too few, and packing stalls while someone drives to buy more, usually the night before moving day. Too many, and you have paid for cardboard that goes straight to recycling. This estimator gives a realistic count from two inputs: the size of your home and the number of extra rooms, split into small, medium, and large boxes, plus tape rolls.
The counts come from standard home-size tables used by moving companies. A studio needs about 22 boxes in total: 10 small, 8 medium, and 4 large. A 2-bedroom home needs about 48 boxes, and a 3-bedroom home about 66 boxes. Each extra room, such as a home office or a storage room, adds about 4 small, 3 medium, and 1 large box. These are averages for normally furnished homes, so a minimalist flat needs fewer and a collector home needs more.
Box size matters as much as box count. Small boxes are for heavy things: books, files, tools, and tinned food, because a small box full of books is already heavy enough to lift safely. Medium boxes are the general workhorse for clothes, kitchen items, and toys. Large boxes are only for light, bulky things such as bedding, pillows, and lampshades: a large box full of books is unliftable and will split. Packing by weight, not just by room, is what keeps boxes intact.
Here is a worked example. A 3-bedroom home with one extra office room needs 32 small boxes, 27 medium boxes, and 15 large boxes, which is 74 boxes in total. At about one tape roll per 10 boxes, that is 8 tape rolls. The packing paper guide is about 0.3 kilograms per box, so about 22 kilograms of paper. These extras are easy to forget and annoying to run out of, so buy them with the boxes rather than as an afterthought.
Declutter before you count, not after. Every box you do not pack is a box you do not buy, carry, and unpack. Go room by room a few weeks before the move and remove what you no longer use: broken items, clothes you have not worn in a year, and duplicates. The estimator assumes a normally furnished home, so if you declutter hard, you may need 10 percent fewer boxes, and if you have full bookshelves, a garage, or a loft, add 10 percent.
Packing well saves boxes too. Fill each box fully so it does not crush under the next one, but do not overload it: if you cannot lift it comfortably, it is too heavy. Label every box with the room and a short contents note on two sides, not just the top, so you can find things when boxes are stacked. Pack an essentials box last and unpack it first: bedding, chargers, toiletries, a kettle, and a change of clothes for the first night.
Remember that this is a planning estimate, not a professional quote. It does not count wardrobe boxes, picture boxes, or mattress covers, which you may need for hanging clothes, framed pictures, and beds. Fragile items need bubble wrap as well as paper. For a large or complex move, show your numbers to a moving company and ask them to confirm the box count, and order boxes early: packing always takes longer than anyone plans. Start packing the rooms you use least, such as the spare bedroom and the loft, and leave the kitchen and bathroom until last, because packing the kitchen first guarantees a week of takeaway meals and missing cutlery every single day.