Crate hire for a renovation
A renovation is not a move. Nothing goes anywhere: it comes off the shelves, sits somewhere for six weeks while a kitchen is ripped out, and goes back. That is a different problem from getting a house across town, and cardboard is worse at it than people expect.
Renovation dust gets into everything, boxes get shoved around by trades who need the space, and a carton that has been opened and retaped four times stops being a box. Crates with clipped lids stack in a garage for a month and come out clean.
Why crates rather than boxes
Lids keep the dust out
Demolition dust travels through a whole house and settles on everything. A clipped lid is the difference between glassware you can use on the first night and a dishwasher load of everything you own.
They survive being moved around
Trades will shift your boxes. Crates get picked up by the handles and put down again; a taped carton gets dragged and splits.
An extra week when the job slips
Renovations run late. An extra week is $1.50 a crate, so a few days over costs almost nothing and you are not buying a second set of boxes.
Stack five high in the garage
Square, stable and the same size, so a garage holds far more crates than cartons and you can still get the car in.
How many crates will you need?
Renovations size by the rooms coming out, not by the size of the house. Work out what is actually being packed away.
8 to 12 crates per kitchen
4 to 6 crates per bedroom
4 to 8 crates per room
3 to 5 crates per bathroom
3 to 6 crates per study
4 to 10 crates per garage
About 20 crates
Your answers come to 15 to 25 crates. We have rounded up to 20, because running short on the day costs more than a spare crate does.
$100
inc GST. Two weeks of hire, delivery and collection included.
Book 20 cratesA kitchen renovation on its own is usually 10 to 15 crates once the pantry is in. A whole-house renovation where everything is boxed and stored is much closer to a full move: 50 for a two-bedroom, 75 for a three.
Pack the kitchen first, and pack it properly
The kitchen is where a renovation goes wrong. It holds more than anyone estimates, it is the room you need most while the work is happening, and it is the one the dust reaches first.
Pack the things you genuinely will not use for six weeks - the good glassware, the platters, the appliances that live at the back - and keep a single crate of what you actually cook with somewhere you can reach it. Our guide on packing a kitchen covers the rest.
Where do the crates go while the work happens?
Somewhere the trades will not need. The garage is the usual answer on the North Shore, then a spare bedroom with the door shut, then a storage unit if the job is big enough to lose a room entirely.
Whatever you pick, stack them against a wall rather than in the middle, label the ends rather than the lids, and keep the ones you might need to open at eye height.
- Garage, stacked five high along one wall
- A spare room that is not in the scope of works
- A storage unit, if the whole house is coming out
- Not the room being renovated, however temporarily convenient it looks
Apartment renovations have an extra step
If you are renovating a unit on the North Shore, strata almost certainly needs to approve the works and will have rules about the lift, the hours and where materials can sit. That affects when crates can be delivered as much as it affects the trades.
Book the lift for the delivery as well as for the work. We can bring crates up in one run on a dolly, but only if the lift is ours for twenty minutes.
Time the hire to the work, not the whole project
Do not book the crates the day the scaffolding goes up. Pack the room in the week before the trades start on it, and the fortnight that comes with every hire covers the part that actually matters.
If it slips, an extra week is $1.50 a crate - about $23 for a 15-crate kitchen - added at checkout or by email. On a long renovation most people are better off hiring twice, once to pack the room down and again to put it back, than holding crates through the middle of the job.
Packs that suit this job
Studio Stash
25 crates
$109
A studio, a one-bedroom flat or a small office
Two-Bedder
50 crates
$189
A two-bedroom home or a small office
Family Burrow
75 crates
$249
A three-bedroom home or a mid-size office
Big Burrow
100 crates
$309
A four-bedroom home, or a whole office floor
Common questions
Can I hire moving crates for a renovation rather than a move?
Yes, and it is one of the jobs they do best. Nothing has to go anywhere: you pack the room away, stack the crates out of the trades' way, and unpack when that part of the work is finished. Time the hire to the room being done rather than to the whole project.
How long can I keep the crates?
Two weeks comes with every hire, and you can add a week at a time for $1.50 a crate. For a renovation that runs for months, hiring twice usually works out better: once to pack the room down, and again when it is time to put everything back.
Will the crates keep renovation dust out?
The lids clip closed on all four sides, which keeps out the fine dust that settles on everything during demolition. They are not airtight, so for something genuinely dust-sensitive put it in a bag inside the crate as well.
How many crates do I need for a kitchen renovation?
Usually 10 to 15 once the pantry is counted. Eight to twelve for crockery, glassware, pots and small appliances, and a few more for the contents of the pantry, which people always forget until the last afternoon.
Can I add more crates once the job has started?
Yes. Ring or email and we will bring more over, usually next day. It is far more common than people expect, because the first room always takes more than the estimate.
Can you collect from a different address?
Yes. If the crates end up somewhere else - a storage unit, a relative's garage - tell us when you arrange collection and we will pick them up from there, as long as it is inside our service area.
Crates for other jobs
- Office moves
Crates are how commercial moves are done. Weekday windows, two weeks included.
- Storage runs
For the run into the unit and the run back out.
- Selling and downsizing
Box up the excess before the photographer arrives.
Crates from $25, delivered free
Two weeks included, no bond, seven days a week from the Harbour Bridge to Palm Beach.