Packing Supplies and Boxes Calgary

Start With the House, Not the Shopping List

We run out of Midnapore in deep south Calgary, a few minutes off Macleod Trail, and the supply list changes with every address. A one-bedroom in a Beltline walk-up needs a different box mix than a four-bedroom in Cranston with a finished basement. Newer lake homes in Mahogany and Auburn Bay run furniture-heavy and light on small goods. Older bungalows in Millrise and Shawnessy hide more dishes and books than anyone remembers owning. Get the list right and packing is one clean day. Get it wrong and you are on Macleod Trail at 9pm hunting for another dozen cartons.

Moving Boxes Calgary Homes Need, by Size

People underbuy cartons almost every time. These are the planning ranges we work from after 45+ years of loading Calgary homes, a starting point rather than a promise about your house.

• Studio or one-bedroom condo: roughly 20 to 30 cartons.
• Two-bedroom condo or townhouse: roughly 35 to 50 cartons.
• Three-bedroom house: roughly 60 to 80 cartons.
• Four-bedroom house with a finished basement and garage: roughly 90 to 120 cartons.

Books push a home to the top of its range, because a wall of paperbacks eats small cartons faster than anything else you own. So does a stocked kitchen. The garage is the wildcard nobody counts, and in Calgary it doubles as winter storage.

Buy ten percent more than you think and keep the receipt, since most suppliers take back flat unused cartons. Moving a studio or one room? Our small moves crew can tell you on the phone what that load takes.

Box Types and What Goes in Each

Four sizes cover the house. U-Haul lists its heavy-duty double-wall cartons at 16-3/8 by 12-5/8 by 12-5/8 inches for a small, 18-1/8 by 18 by 16 for a medium, 18 by 18 by 24 for a large and 24 by 18 by 24 for an extra-large (U-Haul moving boxes). Canadian suppliers build to the same footprints, so mixed-brand cartons still stack.

Dish Packs, Wardrobes, Mirror Cartons and Mattress Bags

These are the cartons people skip to save a few dollars and regret on unpacking day.

Dish Packs

A double-wall carton for china, glassware and stemware. That second layer of corrugate resists a stack pressing down and soaks up highway vibration. Plates go in on edge like records, never flat, because an edge spreads the pressure instead of taking it face-on. Glasses go in cell dividers that give each one its own compartment.

Wardrobe Cartons

A tall box with a steel bar across the top. Hanging clothes go from the closet rod onto the bar and back onto a rod at the new place, still on their hangers. No folding, no wrinkles, no bin of jackets on your first night.

Mirror Cartons

Flat telescoping boxes that slide out to fit the panel. Wall mirrors, framed art, glass tabletops and flat-screen televisions all belong in one. Wrapping a mirror in a blanket against a wall is how mirrors break, because a blanket does nothing against a corner strike.

Mattress Bags

A heavy plastic sleeve that keeps a mattress clean and dry between the bedroom and the truck. Yours goes down a stairwell, across an alley and into a loading bay, and half the Calgary year that path is slushy.

Worth knowing before you compare quotes. Wardrobe cartons, mirror cartons, mattress bags and shrink wrap come with the job on our moves, included rather than billed per item. If you want the boxing handled for you, that is our Calgary packing service.

Paper, Bubble, Tape and Labels

Packing Paper Beats Newspaper

Clean newsprint sold as packing paper is the base layer for everything fragile. Real newspaper transfers ink onto dishes and white ceramic, and you spend your first night washing plates instead of eating off them. Paper wraps the item, then fills the voids around it.

Bubble Wrap Is for Impact

Bubble goes around what paper cannot protect alone. Electronics, stemware, thin ceramic handles, camera gear. Small bubble for surfaces, large bubble for corners. It costs more per box, so use it where it counts and let paper carry the rest.

Tape, and How Much

Buy carton sealing tape at least two inches wide, and buy a tape gun. Masking tape lets go, and duct tape peels the paper layer off the cardboard. Every carton gets a strip down the centre seam and one across each edge seam, top and bottom. Plan on a roll per 15 to 20 boxes. In a Calgary winter keep the rolls indoors, because cold tape will not grab a cold box.

Markers and the Two-Line Label

A wide black marker is the cheapest insurance on the list. Label two adjacent sides and the top, never the top alone, because a top label vanishes the moment something is stacked on it. Line one is the room it goes to at the new place. Line two is what is inside. FRAGILE and THIS SIDE UP go on anything with glass.

Where Calgarians Get Free Moving Boxes

You do not have to buy every carton. Plenty of good cardboard moves around this city free if you start a couple of weeks early.

• Buy Nothing gift groups. The Buy Nothing Project connects "neighbors to gift each other goods and services freely." Post that you are moving and whoever just unpacked hands over their pile.
• Kijiji free listings. The Kijiji free stuff section for Calgary runs a steady stream of box bundles.
• U-Haul Box Exchange. U-Haul runs a customer board to "sell, give away, or find boxes and moving supplies" at uhaul.com/BoxExchange, filtered by location.
• Retail back rooms. Ask a customer service desk what evening the store breaks down its shipment. Liquor stores are the classic pick, since their cases have dividers built in.
• Your own building. A condo recycling room after a move-in weekend is often full of clean flattened cartons. Ask the building manager first.

Free boxes carry trade-offs. Mismatched sizes do not stack square, so you lose truck space, and on an hourly move lost space is lost time. Single-wall cartons cannot take heavier boxes on top. Free cartons for linens and clothes. Double-wall cartons for the kitchen and the glass.

What You Cannot Pack, and Where It Goes

No mover in Alberta will carry hazardous goods, and no box you tape shut changes that. Propane cylinders, gas cans, paint, solvents, aerosols and old batteries all get dealt with before move day.

The City of Calgary runs "11 free Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) drop-off locations," made up of "8 HHW drop-off sites at fire stations and 3 Eco Centres located at City of Calgary landfills." Those fire station depots "are open for drop-off seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m." Check the accepted materials list on the City of Calgary HHW drop-off page first, because some items are only taken at the Eco Centres.

What Packing Supplies Cost on a Calgary Move

Our moving work is billed by the hour on the actual hours worked, quoted up front before you commit, and packing labour is billed the same way. What drives those hours is how many rooms you hand us, how much glass is in the house, and the access at both ends. The specialty cartons are not an upsell.

If you are pricing a whole move, read our breakdown of what a Calgary move costs. And because owner-packed and mover-packed cartons are treated differently on a claim, our page on moving insurance in Calgary explains that difference in plain language.

Staging Day, and the Cardboard After

Where the cartons sit on move morning is half the job. In a house, group them by destination room near the door, heavy on the bottom. In a tower it depends on your elevator booking and loading bay slot, covered in Calgary condo move-in rules. Leave one box untaped for the kettle and chargers.

Afterward you will have a mountain of cardboard. The City of Calgary asks you to "Remove as much tape and labels as possible from the box and put the tape in the garbage," then flatten it so everything fits inside the blue cart with the lid closed. Oversized pieces go to a community recycling depot. The City's blue cart page adds that "All recyclables must fit inside the blue cart for pickup." Hold back the good double-wall cartons.

Below are nine supply tips from 45+ years of Calgary packing.

Small things learned on driveways and in loading bays.

9 Box and Supply Tips Worth Knowing

1. Buy double-wall for anything breakable. Single-wall is fine for towels, not for dinner plates riding under three other boxes.
2. Match your box sizes on purpose. Uniform cartons lock together. Mismatched boxes waste truck space and shift on the road.
3. Fill every void. Movement breaks things. Paper into every gap until the box does not rattle when you tip it.
4. Fifty pounds is the ceiling. If two hands cannot lift it cleanly from floor to waist, it is too heavy.
5. Tape the bottom exactly like the top. Most blowouts happen on the bottom seam of a box only sealed properly on top.
6. Buy one more roll of tape than you planned. Nobody finishes a move with tape left over, and running out at 10pm ends packing day badly.
7. Label by destination, not origin. The crew reads that label at the far end, not at this one.
8. Keep cartons off cold concrete. Cardboard wicks moisture out of a garage slab, and a damp bottom seam is a failed box.
9. Photograph the back of your electronics. One photo of the cable layout turns reconnecting the television into a five minute job.

Frequently Asked Questions