Interactive planner
What your move needs
Pick your home size and how full it is, and the planner sizes the four resources that decide whether moving day runs smoothly: the truck, the boxes, the crew and the hours, plus the time off to set aside. Use it before you book anything.
Size your move
Indicative resource guide for a local Australian move. Always confirm truck size and crew with your removalist.
Your move needs
A heavier load sizes the truck up, adds boxes and hours, and can push a borderline home to a larger crew. Order about 15% more boxes than the estimate and return what you do not use. Cutting hours (packing ahead, sorting access) lowers an hourly removalist bill.
Assumptions: truck sized by removalist volume in cubic metres; 2 movers for a unit, 3 for a 2 to 3-bed home, 4 for a 4-bed (heavy loads size up); box and hour ranges scale with how full the home is. Indicative 2026 figures. Sources: AFRA, removalist industry estimates (Muval, Canstar Blue 2026).
| Home size | Truck | Boxes | Crew | Hours | Time off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or 1-bedroom unit | 2 to 3 tonne van (~15 m³) | 20 to 35 boxes | 2 movers | 3 to 5 hours | Half a day |
| 2-bedroom home | 4 to 6 tonne truck (~25 m³) | 35 to 55 boxes | 3 movers | 5 to 7 hours | One full day |
| 3-bedroom house | 8 tonne truck (~40 m³) | 55 to 80 boxes | 3 movers | 7 to 9 hours | One full day |
| 4-bedroom house | 10 to 12 tonne truck (~50 m³) | 80 to 120 boxes | 4 movers | 9 to 12 hours | A full day plus prep |
The short answer
How to organise a move, in one principle
Most people organise a move by starting to pack, then discover on the day that the truck is too small, the boxes have run out, or the crew is short by a person. That is organising by effort, and effort is the easy part. The hard part, the part that actually decides whether moving day runs smoothly or blows out into a second trip, is resources: the size of the truck, the number of boxes, how many movers you book, how many hours the job takes, and how much time off work you set aside. Under-size any one of those and the whole day stretches. Organising a move well means sizing those resources to your home first, before you tape up a single box, so nothing runs out at the worst possible moment. This hub shows you what your move actually needs, then points you to the detail you need to book it.
Here is the core takeaway in one line: organise a move by sizing the resources to the move first, the truck, the boxes, the crew, the hours and the time off, because under-sizing any one of them is what blows out the day. Packing is the part everyone starts with because it feels productive, but a perfectly packed home still ends in a second trip if the truck is too small, or a stalled afternoon if the boxes ran out. Get the resources right and the packing falls into place around them.
Reframe the assumption: a move is not a packing problem, it is a resourcing problem. Decide how big the truck, how many boxes, how large the crew and how many hours your home needs before you tape up a single box, and the day stops being a gamble on whether everything fits and finishes in time.
The blind spot
Where organising by effort leaves the day exposed
Most "how to organise a move" advice is a packing-and-timeline checklist: declutter six weeks out, label your boxes, keep an overnight bag. That advice is fine, but it answers the easy question and skips the one that actually decides the day.
First, it treats packing as the whole job. Boxes get the attention because taping them up feels like progress, so people pour their energy into folding and labelling while the truck, the crew and the hours, the things that physically move the boxes, go un-sized. You can have a flawless box system and still be stuck because the van is too small.
Second, it leaves the resources to the removalist or to chance. People assume the mover will bring the right truck and enough hands, or they book the cheapest van without checking the volume. When the resource is under-sized, the cost lands on you: a second trip on an hourly local move, or a half-packed home when the boxes run out at 4pm.
Third, it forgets that resources interact. A small crew stretches the hours; too few boxes stalls the packing; too small a truck forces a second run that eats more hours again. Under-size one resource and it drags the others out with it, which is why sizing them together, up front, is the whole point of organising.
How a move is actually resourced, piece by piece
Expert analysis: the four resources that decide moving day
The truck: sized by volume, not by bedrooms
Removalists measure a job in cubic metres, not rooms, and the truck is the resource with the least give: it either fits or it does not. A studio fits a small 2 to 3 tonne van of around 15 m³, a two-bedroom home a 4 to 6 tonne truck (~25 m³), a three-bedroom house roughly an 8 tonne truck (~40 m³), and a four-bedroom house a 10 to 12 tonne truck (~50 m³). Garages, sheds and outdoor gear are the silent volume, which is why a "three-bedroom" with a packed garage can need the next size up. Under-size the truck and you pay for a second trip, so when in doubt, size up.
The boxes: the resource that runs out mid-job
Boxes are cheap and easy to under-order, which is exactly why they are the resource that fails first. Plan on roughly 20 to 35 boxes for a unit, 35 to 55 for a two-bedroom, 55 to 80 for a three-bedroom, and 80 to 120 for a four-bedroom house, with kitchens, bookshelves and wardrobes the box-hungry rooms. Running short mid-pack means an emergency dash to the shops on the worst possible day, so order about 15% over your estimate and return the unused ones. Our moving boxes guide covers types and sourcing.
The crew and the hours: a single linked decision
Crew size and hours are not two choices, they are one. Local removals are billed door to door by the hour, so the bill is hours multiplied by a rate, and crew size is the lever on the hours. Two movers cost less per hour than three but can take far longer on a family home, so a larger crew is often the cheaper total. Most units need two movers, two and three-bedroom homes three, and four-bedroom houses four, across roughly 3 to 12 hours depending on size and access. The removalists guide and moving cost guide go deeper.
The time: leave from work, and the day you pick
The fourth resource is your own time, and it is the one people under-book. A move from a two-bedroom home up realistically needs a full day off, plus prep in the days before and, for renters, time for the end-of-lease clean and bond inspection. Booking a mid-month weekday rather than a weekend or the end of the month, when most leases turn over, tends to be both cheaper and less rushed. Set utilities to connect on move-in day too, so you are not adding a no-power evening to an already long day. Our utilities guide covers the timing.
What this looks like in real moves
How under-sizing one resource blows out the day
The principle is not theory. It is exactly how organised, well-packed Australian households still end up with a long, expensive moving day:
The truck that needed a second trip
A family book a van that looked big enough online for their three-bedroom house, forgetting the packed garage and the trampoline. It fills before the bedrooms are loaded, the crew runs a second trip across town, and an hourly local move quietly doubles its travel time. The next truck size up would have done it in one run.
The 4pm box shortage
A couple order exactly the number of boxes a calculator suggested and run dry while the kitchen is half-packed. Someone drives to the hardware shop on moving morning, the crew waits, and the hours tick over on the clock. Fifteen per cent more boxes, ordered up front, would have cost a few dollars and saved the stall.
The two-mover false economy
A renter books the cheapest two-person crew for a four-bedroom move to save on the hourly rate. The pair take eleven hours where four movers would have taken eight, the move runs into the evening, and the "cheap" crew costs more than the larger one quoted. The rate was low; the hours were not.
The half-day that became a fortnight of stress
A worker takes only the morning off, assuming the move will be done by lunch. The handover, the clean and a late utility connection spill into the afternoon and evening, the bond inspection is rushed, and a forgotten meter reading turns into weeks of admin. A full day of leave would have absorbed it all.
The insider insight
Resources are sized by your fullest room, not your bedroom count
Here is the part most moving guides never put plainly. Bedrooms are a convenient label, but they are a poor measure of a move, because the volume lives in the rooms nobody counts: the garage, the shed, the linen cupboard, the loaded bookshelves and the kitchen. Two "three-bedroom" homes can differ by a whole truck size, purely because one has a decade of garage gear and the other does not. Removalists size by what they will actually carry, which is why their first question is rarely "how many bedrooms" but "what have you got". The households that under-size do it by quoting their bedroom count and forgetting the volume hiding in the corners.
The non-obvious truth: size every resource to the fullest version of your home, including the garage and the shed, not to the tidy bedroom count. It is far cheaper to book one truck size up and a slightly larger box order than to discover the gap at 2pm on moving day, when a second trip or a shop run costs you hours you are paying for. Decluttering before the move is powerful precisely because it shrinks the volume, and therefore every resource at once.
The practical consequence: when you size the truck, the boxes and the crew, walk the garage and the shed first, then declutter hard, because every box you do not move is volume you do not have to resource.
Grounded in the analysis
What you should actually do to organise your move
Specific moves that follow from sizing the resources, not generic packing tips.
Size the resources before you pack
Walk every room including the garage and shed, then use the planner above to set the truck size, box count, crew and hours. Declutter hard first, because every item you do not move shrinks all four resources at once. Size up if you are between truck sizes.
Book the move and the boxes early
With the resources sized, book an AFRA-accredited removalist for a mid-month weekday, order about 15% more boxes than the estimate, and take a full day off work for anything from a two-bedroom up. Compare removalists on the estimated total, not the hourly rate.
Line up utilities and the paperwork
Set electricity, gas and internet to connect on move-in day, organised one to two weeks ahead, and arrange an NBN relocation two to four weeks out. Redirect your mail with Australia Post, and for renters, book the end-of-lease clean and bond inspection.
Go deeper on each resource: the cost of moving, moving boxes and choosing removalists, then work through the moving checklist and connect your utilities.
Current figures, last updated 2026-06-16
Indicative Australian move-sizing figures for 2026. Sources: the Australian Furniture Removers Association (AFRA), removalist industry estimates (Muval, Canstar Blue 2026) and Australia Post. Resources vary widely by contents, access and timing, so treat every figure as a starting point and confirm with your removalist.
The bottom line
Why organising means resourcing, not packing
Packing will happen whatever you do, because the boxes will not tape themselves and the deadline is fixed. What separates a smooth move from a blown-out one is whether the truck, the boxes, the crew, the hours and your time off were sized to the home before any of that packing began. Walk the garage, declutter hard, size every resource to the fullest version of your home, then book early on a quiet day and set the utilities to land on move-in. With Australian rents high and leases still clustering at month end, the households that move most smoothly in 2026 are the ones who treated the move as a resourcing problem and solved it first, not the ones who simply packed faster.
Common questions
A Selectra expert answers your moving questions
Start by sizing the resources, not the effort. Before you pack anything, work out the truck size, the number of boxes, the crew and the hours your home will need, because those are what run out or fall short on the day. As a rough guide a one-bedroom unit needs a small van, around 20 to 35 boxes and two movers; a three-bedroom house needs an 8 tonne truck, 55 to 80 boxes and three movers across most of a day. Once the resources are sized, book the removalist, order the boxes, set the utilities to connect on move-in day, and take the time off work. Packing is the last step, not the first.
Removalists size trucks by volume in cubic metres, not bedrooms, but bedrooms are a fair proxy. A studio or one-bedroom unit usually fits a 2 to 3 tonne van of around 15 m³; a two-bedroom home suits a 4 to 6 tonne truck (~25 m³); a three-bedroom house needs roughly an 8 tonne truck (~40 m³); and a four-bedroom house wants a 10 to 12 tonne truck (~50 m³). Under-size it and you face a second trip, which on an hourly local move means paying for the extra travel. If you are between sizes, or have a packed garage or shed, size up.
As a rule of thumb, count on roughly 20 to 35 boxes for a one-bedroom unit, 35 to 55 for a two-bedroom home, 55 to 80 for a three-bedroom house, and 80 to 120 for a four-bedroom house. Bookshelves, kitchens and wardrobes are the box-hungry rooms. The most common mistake is ordering too few, then scrambling for more mid-pack, so buy or borrow about 15% more than your estimate and return what you do not use. See our moving boxes guide for box types and where to get them.
Crew size is the lever most people misjudge. A unit usually needs two movers, a two or three-bedroom home three, and a four-bedroom house four. More movers cost more per hour but finish in fewer hours, so a larger crew is often the cheaper total on a bigger home. A local move runs roughly 3 to 5 hours for a unit, 5 to 7 for a two-bedroom, 7 to 9 for a three-bedroom and 9 to 12 for a four-bedroom house, billed door to door. See our removalists guide and moving cost guide for the detail.
Treat moving day as a full day off for anything from a two-bedroom home up, and half a day for a small unit, then add prep time in the days before. The handover, the clean and the wait for utilities rarely fit around a half-day of leave, and a rushed move is where breakages and forgotten jobs happen. Renters also need time for the end-of-lease clean and the bond inspection. Booking a mid-month weekday for the move itself tends to be cheaper and less rushed than a weekend or month end.
Set electricity, gas and internet to connect on your move-in date, organised one to two weeks ahead so nothing lands late. Energy can often be done within a day or two, but some connections take longer, and an NBN relocation is best arranged two to four weeks out to avoid downtime. Water is usually handled automatically between residents, so you do not normally need to arrange it. Sort the redirection of your mail with Australia Post too. Our utilities guide walks through each connection.
