Moving totes vs. cardboard boxes
Cardboard is the default because it is what the hardware store sells. Here is what it actually costs in money, time, and broken dishes, next to renting totes.
Cardboard boxes
- Buy, assemble, and tape every box before you can pack a single thing.
- Boxes crush when stacked more than three high. Heavy ones split at the bottom.
- Cardboard soaks up rain on the driveway and basement moisture in storage.
- Breaking down and recycling 35 boxes is its own afternoon.
- Cheap if you can find used boxes for free and have time to hunt.
Rented totes
- Delivered packed and ready. Open the lid, fill it, close the lid.
- Rigid sides stack six high on the tote dolly and never split.
- Waterproof, so a wet driveway or a damp basement is a non-event.
- We pick them up. Nothing to break down, store, or haul to recycling.
- You have a 14 day window. Open-ended storage needs extra weeks.
What a two-bedroom move costs each way
Take a typical two-bedroom home in Ankeny or Urbandale, which packs into about 35 large boxes or totes.
New cardboard. Large moving boxes run a few dollars each at the hardware store, plus tape, a dispenser, markers, and packing paper. For 40 boxes, most people land somewhere around $120 to $160 before the first thing is packed, and that is an estimate, not a quote. Used boxes are cheaper if you have the time to collect them and are fine with whatever shape they are in.
Rented totes. Our 40 tote package is $169. That includes delivery to your current home, pickup from your new one, a 4-wheel tote dolly, labels, zip ties, and 14 days. There is nothing else to buy.
The money is close. The difference is the two Saturday afternoons you do not spend assembling boxes on one end and flattening them on the other, and the dishes that arrive in one piece because the stack did not crush.
When cardboard still wins
If you are moving out of state, totes have to come back to Des Moines, so they are not an option. If you need boxes for open-ended storage measured in months, buying is cheaper than extending a rental. And if you already have a garage full of good boxes from the last move, use them.
When totes win
Any local move inside the metro. Any move with stairs, where a loaded tote dolly beats a hand truck of cardboard. Any move where you would rather pay once and not think about supplies again. That is most moves we see.
Try totes on your next move.
Pick a size, choose a delivery day, and we handle the rest. Two minutes to book.