At moderate clutter, expect roughly 10-12 boxes per room, so a 3-bedroom house with living areas and a kitchen lands around 40-50 boxes in total — about half medium, a third large and the rest small, plus 1-2 wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes.

Medium boxes. They are heavy enough when full of books to need two hands but light enough to carry, and they fit wardrobes, cars and trolleys without wasted space. Most moves use roughly twice as many medium as large, and only a handful of small ones for heavy smalls.

About one wardrobe box per one to two bedrooms' worth of hanging clothes — a wardrobe box holds a full rod section of garments on hangers, so 3-4 rooms usually needs 1-2. They are worth the price: repacking hanging clothes into flat boxes crushes and wrinkles them.