Move Over Cardboard, Plastic Moving Bin Rentals Are Where It’s At.

Chalk us up as one of the more than seven million American households to move to another county during the pandemic. Considering how quickly our home purchase transaction took place, combined with how quickly we wanted to get our current home on the market to sell, we basically left ourselves less than two weeks to pack up and move out of our old place. Without a doubt, renting these sturdy, stackable, and generously-sized 100% recycled plastic bins from ZippGo helped ease our packing efforts and speed the process along.

We went with ZippGo and their 5 Bedroom package, which gets you 100 boxes in a variety of sizes (80 large, 10 medium, 10 extra large) starting at $309 for the first week, and $80 for each additional week after that. They deliver and pick up the boxes for free, which is so convenient. We ended up using an additional 60 cardboard boxes or so on top of that, plus several wardrobe boxes that the movers provided for free for our hanging clothes and other large/unwieldy items. Not that I ever want to do it again, but for our family of four from a 4BR home, with a giant stash of craft tools and supplies, next time I’d probably do a combo of their 5 Bedroom + 2 Bedroom packages and ditch the cardboard altogether (with the exception of wardrobe boxes because those were just too handy for their extra tall sizes).

While a more expensive option than purchasing cardboard boxes, if it works within your budget then I’m such a fan of the rented plastic bins for these main reasons:

• NO TAPING: The plastic boxes save you the hassle of assembling, taping closed, and ultimately breaking down your cardboard boxes.
• LESS WRAPPING: Rental plastic bins are sturdier than standard cardboard moving boxes, so I found myself having to use a lot less packing supplies like wrapping paper, foam, or bubble wrap.
• EASY TO CARRY: Built-in handles make the bins super easy to carry.
• PACK & STACK: Their uniform sizes make them easy to stack, which saves space in the giant tornado of a mess that our home became after a few days of packing.
• UNPACKING IS TIMEBOXED: We haven’t gotten to this part yet, but soon enough our boxes will be due back to the rental company. That means there’s a finite amount of time to unpack, which theoretically means that we won’t have the option to lose steam and end up with a ton of unpacked boxes sitting around (except for the darn cardboard ones…). My sister unpacked hers in four days!
• NO BOXES TO STORE: With cardboard, once boxes are emptied you’ve got to bust out the box cutter, flatten the boxes, and either try to freecycle them or store them in your garage. Who’s got space to store that many boxes?Since I’m loathe to recycle perfectly good moving boxes, we’ve stored our fair share of boxes over the years. This will be the first time we get to dust our hands off when the boxes are unpacked and say goodbye to 100 of our biggest ones!

Did I mention that the boxes come with removable white labels? I also purchased a set of color-coded moving labels to save myself the trouble of writing room names down on every single one. Super handy!

Our moving adventure isn’t over just yet. We’re currently in limbo and staying with my dear sister (who recommended the rented plastic box approach!), brother-in-law, and their three Goldens while we wait for the moment we get the keys to our new home. Most of our earthly possessions are (hopefully) sitting safe and sound in our mover’s storage warehouse until our move-in date next month. I’m excited about and dreading that moment at the same time. I can’t wait to get settled into our new home and acquainted with the new town, but it’s hard not to feel a little daunted about setting everything back up again. At the end of the day, excitement wins, and I can’t wait!