How to Find Free Moving Boxes
The Top Places to Find Some Free Moving Boxes

- Relocating Can Be Really Expensive
- Be Organized and Save on Supplies
- Places Likely To Have Free Boxes
- Planning Places to Get Free Boxes
- Look For Deals
- Your Own Office
- Liquor Stores
- Grocery Stores
- Office Supply/Computer Stores
- Boxes, Boxes, Boxes
1. Relocating Can Be Really Expensive
Moving can drain your bank account. Between the price of hiring movers, paying for gas, utility bills, and the cost of your new place itself, the fees up. One thing that you can do to cut costs is to find moving boxes for free.
Packing material can be pricey, especially when you need enough to move an entire home. The thought of moving without having to spend money on them is a great idea! There are many places around town where you can pick up moving boxes for your relocation needs.
2. Be Organized and Save on Supplies
You'll want to pair your newly acquired free packing materials with
moving labels. This way, you know right where everything is when you get into your new place. When it comes time to move, free moving boxes will be an awesome budget hack. We're here to help you with ideas on how to find free moving boxes anywhere you can. It may take some scavenging, but you can find enough free moving boxes to carry everything in your home. Although it's possible to find moving boxes for free, check out this list of moving materials you may need. This will help you
estimate your costs.
When you get into your new place. When it comes time to move, free moving boxes will be an awesome budget hack. We're here to help you with ideas on how to find free moving boxes anywhere you can. It may take some scavenging, but you can find enough free moving boxes to carry everything in your home. Although it's possible to find moving boxes for free, check out this list of moving materials you may need. This will help you estimate your costs.
3. Places Likely to Have Free Boxes
The first place one should check is an office supply store. Stores like Office Max and Staples usually throw away sturdy, reinforced electronic boxes. See what they are giving away! The strength of these usually helps to protect your more fragile items. Once you have the clean boxes, check out our helpful guide on how to pack clothes for moving.
Speaking to the employees at bookstores is another good place to search for boxes. Books are extremely heavy, so the containers used to transport them must be very durable. They don't use baby boxes, meaning that they are all very big. Bookstores often get major shipments about twice a week, and most of these boxes end up in the recycling bin. Most stores are happy to give away their shipment boxes; all you have to do is ask.
Also, check bars and restaurants. These boxes transport glass alcohol bottles, and they must be very thick so as not to break the glass. The design of these types of containers ensures that your breakables will be safe. The employees at eateries will most likely be happy to give you these boxes, as they will end up in a dumpster later.
4. Places to Get Free Boxes
Grocery stores are also recommended places to get a lot of boxes. And best of all: you can pretty much stop by anytime and find packing material there for the taking. If you’re lucky, you can get your hands on heavy-duty banana crates, which are extremely thick. Remember that no matter the thickness of the cardboard, you are going to want to get packing paper. If you are not sure
where to buy packing paper, don't worry! We have a guide for that too.
5. Look For Deals
Let’s face it: everyone likes to get free things. When you are moving, the costs can add up once everything is said and done. When you combine hiring movers with the price of your new place itself, costs can snowball. One little area to cut costs is with the free moving boxes available. Boxes are quite expensive, and if you are moving a whole home's worth of stuff, you may be using upwards of 50 boxes. You can find deals online for boxes, but sometimes the lower price reflects the poorer quality of the box.
6. Your Own Office
If you work in an office, this task is already very simple. Boxes of office supplies, paper, etc. are most likely coming to your office quite often. These could be a great resource for you, as they are durable and usually have lids and handles.
7. Liquor Stores
These stores are a great resource because of their containers for shipping glass. These bottles don't break in transit because the boxes are very durable and strong. The same will be true for any fragile items you need to move.
8. Grocery Stores
These have the most boxes, as they have so many items shipped every day. They have giant industrial recycling bins, usually spilling out with flattened, unwanted boxes. But don’t forget to ask the store first. They may even have some in the back they haven’t broken down yet!
9. Office Supply/Computer Stores
Connect with these retail stores because they have tons of free boxes. Oftentimes, these boxes held very fragile items. These stores most likely have excess cardboard packing materials as well.
10. Boxes, Boxes, Boxes!
This is a quick list of places where you can find boxes in or around town. Sometimes if you call ahead, stores can put boxes aside for you to pick up. At the very least, they could point you in the right direction of where to find their discarded boxes. As stated before, the boxes most likely end up in a large industrial recycling bin. Before this happens, ask if you can take some!
Good luck on your free boxes hunt, and get packing!! Check out more tips on moving and finding moving boxes free. Even if you find them in your own apartment complexes, you're winning!
Pharmacies such as Rite Aid, CVS, and Walmart almost always have boxes. It may be smart to call in advance for Walmart moving boxes and tell them to save some for you, so they won’t break them down. Place the small boxes into the medium boxes and the medium into the large ones to save space in your vehicle. If you don't have the right size for certain things, you may want to use our list of best places to buy moving boxes. Moving boxes for free can be found almost anywhere; you just have to know where and how to ask!
Get inspiration and check liquor stores too. They get similar boxes to the ones bars get, but the ones that liquor stores get have lids. You should also call these stores in advance since many people check here for boxes first. Lastly, check small hardware or home improvement stores in your area. These places often have a manager on hand who can give you the “okay” to take any free moving boxes. Also, they might just give you a coupon to use for the garden or home improvement items for your place.
We recommend that you check your options if your recycled boxes fail you. Did you pack improperly? Or do you find yourself saying, "Hey, the movers broke my stuff; what should I do after unpacking?"

You should be mindful about decluttering. This practice is good for wellness and your new lifestyle in the new home.
Comments
Gladys Cloete
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Thank you for the great tip. I got all my boxes from our local bar and didn't cost me a thing.
Ashley Richmond
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Great Gladys, I didn't think of a bar but good initiative. Did you get all of them at the same bar? Please share so other users can benefit.
Elize Uys
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
I am a single mother of 2 children. We are moving across the country, hiring a trailer. Can the moving company load the trailer for me, I don't want to get halfway and everything falls off?
Greg Freeman
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
I am trying to store moving parts that are covered in WD-40 and oil so that they stay lubricated, I'm wondering if I should place them in some sort of special boxes because it would seem that regular cardboard would be wrong to do and also how I should ensure that the temperature surrounding them keeps them the way they are currently when they end up coming out of the storage.
Timothy T
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Good Day, I have 5 big framed mirrors that I need to move with our household furniture, is there is special type of box to wrap this, or would the moving company be able to wrap the mirrors? I don't want to wrap it myself as it breaks and they hold me responsible, but I am also working on a tight budget.
Gregory T
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
I have to store my piano for almost a year, what is the best way to wrap it?
Kaye Cal
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Do you know if moving companies are able to provide wardrobe boxes for a good price? I was debating on whether to get my own boxes to save money since I have a lot of clothing that I need to ship out of my store. I was hoping the moving company would be able to provide boxes for free but I may need to start looking for some before I begin my move.
Jason Gardone
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Hey, thanks for giving us the free download on ways to find free moving boxes. I'm planning to move soon so you guys really helped me out on my search for boxes. You guys saved me a lot of money as well and I'm definitely going to recommend this website to a few of my friends. I'm just glad I no longer need to pay for boxes since I really need a whole lot for my move. I was actually able to find a whole lot of boxes through craigslist as many people were just giving them away. I also found quite a lot in retail stores around my area. If you are looking for free moving boxes, I highly recommend you follow the tips on this page.
Gary Kendel
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Free moving boxes are more accessible now that they've become more of a concern. Boxes themselves are more abundant in general in places where food, tools, and people are present (aka everywhere). Moving families and neighboring sites have been making a conscious effort to make it easier to find and collect boxes during the moving process. It's kind of humorous considering you spend almost an equal amount of time looking for boxes as you do conducting the actual move.
Rishad
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
At first, I doubted getting free moving boxes from a grocery store near my former neighborhood but I was absolutely wrong. Surprisingly, they were thankful to me for coming to relief them the stress of disposing of the boxes.LOL. I have successfully moved and all my boxes were totally FREE! I even had an excess of the boxes after packing all my stuff. Thanks to this article because I almost ordered from cheap moving website before seeing this article. Truly it takes only information to take a wiser decision. At least, I can attest to the fact that free moving boxes can be gotten from many sources. Not just from the grocery store like I did
kyrlwriter
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Now most will agree that moving is streeful, but not being able to source boxes are even more stressful. I am happy that I visited this site and read about places I can access free moving boxes. I never thought of asking for boxes right in my neighbourhood. I am all packed , Labelled and ready to go. Thanks
Troydon P
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Do you have tips to where I can get crates for all my books? I am a book lover and have hundreds of books. Transporting won't be more than 1 day and I can't find any good boxes to hold the books as they are to heavy.
Billy Crawford
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Hey, I found some really great places to look for moving boxes. One of the places I looked for moving boxes is the post office. The post office has hundreds of moving boxes from all the packages they receive. Lots of the boxes are thrown out after being delivered so I took the time to ask employees there if I can have them. Turns out they were able to give me all of them since they had no use for them. They usually just give them to customers who need it when shipping things. You can also try other shipping services such as UPS or Fedex. These shipping companies usually have lots of boxes for people to use since many people are using boxes to ship their things across the country. Let me know how it goes if any of you decide to try looking for some there.
Melly Bryant
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
Since I don't have enough time to look for free moving boxes and since I need them to be extra large, are there any places that you recommend using for cheap moving boxes. I'm looking for extra large boxes but I'm planning to buy them in bulk. Are there any companies in the United States that are able to ship extra large boxes in bulk? The moving company I'm going with is able to provide boxes but they may cost a premium since they are extra large.
Amy Comer
Feb. 23, 2022, 12:38 a.m.
BoxGiver is also a great resource for free moving boxes
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