Honestly, the wrong cardboard boxes could turn your move from a fairly straightforward event to one fraught with misery and distress. So how do you know which kinds of cardboard boxes you should be choosing? I thought you’d never ask!
Moving boxes…
….should not come out of the garbage, or from behind the grocery store! I understand that you want some free boxes, and I don’t blame you, but that’s when you go to the liquor store (and I don’t mean to drink away your problems about having to move). Liquor store boxes are at least pretty heavy duty since they are designed to carry a heavy load and be handled and stacked on top of each other. Boxes from the trash and grocery store will come with tiny little parasites crawling all over them that you may not be able to see but that will conveniently relocate to your stuff once it is packed. Also, any stains or smells could easily transfer into your belongings, and that would just be a drag.
…should be safe for a move. You don’t have to buy all of your boxes brand new, and that’s a promise. In fact, feel free to search on Craigslist and solicit from your friends. Just make sure that they are giving you actual moving boxes. What makes a box an actual moving box, per se? It’s a little thing called the ECT scale, which stands for Edge Crush Test. A moving box should have an ECT scale of 32 or higher. This is the kind of box that moving companies use, and they would obviously know what’s best.
Moving boxes are going to be packed tightly and need to be able to withstand the strain of being picked up and set down over and over. They need to be able to withstand the strain of being stacked on top of one another. Hence, the Edge Crush Test. Some other places to find good deals is on websites whose sale purpose is uniting potential movers with recycled moving boxes. Or, if you prefer brand new, use an online retailer that offers boxes in bulk for wholesale prices.
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