Boxes vs. Totes: The Real Cost of Moving

Walk into any big-box store the week before a move and you’ll find yourself in the moving-supplies aisle doing math you didn’t plan on doing. Boxes feel like the cheap option — until you actually add it up.

The cardboard math

Say you need 20 large heavy-duty boxes — a realistic count for a one-bedroom move. At about $5.35 each, that’s $107 before tax. Add $15 or more for packing tape, plus a dolly you’ll have to buy or rent separately. And you still haven’t packed a thing.

Then there’s your time: assembling 20 boxes takes 30–45 minutes of folding and taping. After the move, you get to do it all in reverse — breaking down soggy cardboard and hauling it to the curb.

Total investment: well over $120 — before your move even begins.

The tote math

Our 20-tote package is $99 flat, and it includes a dolly, delivery to your door, and pickup when you’re done. No tape. No assembly. No cardboard pile. You get two full weeks — and each 27-gallon tote is water-resistant, stackable, and tough enough to survive a Louisiana downpour.

The part nobody counts: your Saturday

The biggest cost of cardboard isn’t money — it’s the hours spent assembling, taping, reinforcing, and disposing. Totes give that Saturday back. Snap the lid, stack them on the dolly, roll them to the truck.

Moving somewhere in Lafayette, Carencro, Scott, Rayne, Church Point, or Opelousas? Reserve your totes and skip the cardboard aisle entirely.