How Many Boxes Do I Need for a Cardiff Move

Pickfords publishes its estimate by home size, based on its own box sizes. Its one bedroom figure is also split by size: 6 to 10 small boxes, 6 to 8 medium and 3 to 5 large. Most of the count is small and medium boxes, the sizes that are still liftable when they are full.

Buy towards the bottom of the range and top up as you go. The kitchen and the books use the most small boxes, so pack those first and you will know within a day whether you need more. If you would rather not deal with the empties afterwards, our packing service takes them away once everything is unpacked.

The 2021 census shows a city that sits at both ends of that table. 20.2% of Cardiff households live in a purpose-built block of flats, more than twice the Welsh figure of 9.4%, and 32.2% are one person living alone. At the same time the three bedroom home is still the most common in the city, at 38.8% of households.

So a lot of Cardiff moves are at the studio and one bedroom end of the range, and a lot are a family house of 40 boxes or more. In a block of flats the boxes also travel by lift or stairwell, which is a reason to keep them small. The boxes decide the size of the van as much as the furniture does.

Under Cardiff's sack sort scheme, paper and cardboard go in the blue sack, glass bottles and jars in the blue caddy, and metals, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and cartons in the red sack. The council says there is no restriction on how much recycling residents can put out, and extra sacks can be ordered through the council app or collected at some hubs.

That matters after a move, when one house produces far more cardboard than a normal collection week. Homes in flats get smaller sacks, and flats on communal bins keep their communal collection. The scheme is described in the council's sack sort announcement.

From 13 October 2026 Cardiff is piloting soft plastics collections in parts of Whitchurch and Tongwynlais, Grangetown, Trowbridge and Rhiwbina. Bubble wrap, plastic delivery bags and cling film go in a red plastics bag. The trial covers 21,000 households, and the council plans to roll it out across the rest of the city next year. Polystyrene is not accepted.

Outside the pilot areas the council's advice for plastic bags and wrapping is a supermarket collection point where there is one, or the black bin.

Wales recycled 68.4% of its municipal waste in 2024-25, short of the 70% target for that year, and Cardiff was one of ten councils that missed it. Cardiff's own rate rose to 64% in 2024-25, and the council has pointed out that missing the target can cost £200 for every tonne not recycled.

The council also says 26.5% of Cardiff people live in flats, where around 40% of waste is recycled. A move's worth of clean cardboard in the blue sack is one of the easiest wins a household can give it. The national figures are in the Welsh Government's municipal waste statistics.

Cardiff's recycling centres at Lamby Way and Bessemer Close work on booked slots, so a trip with a car full of boxes needs booking first. Business waste is only accepted at the commercial section at Bessemer Close.

Lamby Way the road has its own delay: flood defence works are running with temporary traffic signals, and the council expects the traffic impact to last until late February 2027. If the boxes are going with the rest of the leftovers, a clearance on the day saves the booking and the queue.