Plastic bins: better than boxes

I subordinate tons of things pinch moving — stress; cursing landlords for raising nan rent. But mostly, I deliberation of cardboard boxes — large ones; mini ones; half-opened boxes that linger for respective weeks successful my caller location until I find a spot for each my stuff; and finally, piles of cardboard waiting for recycling time erstwhile those boxes are surgery down.

After I decided to move precocious past year, I braced myself for yet different Boxpocalypse. I was griping astir it successful a group chat erstwhile a friend asked, “Have you considered renting integrative bins?”

Plastic bin pros

For nan past decade aliases so, integrative bins person emerged arsenic an replacement to cardboard boxes. They’re reusable, h2o resistant, and sturdier than moreover nan astir heavy-duty cardboard options. Since they’re stackable, they besides return up little space. 

You tin bargain your ain bins aliases rent them. If you bargain them, that makes them an appealing campaigner for QR moving labels, which fto you scan nan explanation pinch your telephone to spot a photograph aliases inventory database of nan bin’s contents. If you rent them, a group of bins gets dropped disconnected astatine your location and you battalion up your life and move. In a fewer weeks, those bins get picked up from your caller home. 

If, for illustration me, you scheme connected renting bins, there’s really a adjacent magnitude of investigation that you person to do. Here are immoderate of nan things I learned to return into information earlier starting a move utilizing bins.

What benignant of work do you need?

First: are you hiring movers aliases doing everything yourself? If it’s nan former, it’s overmuch much convenient (albeit pricier) to find a moving institution that offers bin rentals and handles nan move for you. But if you’re renting a U-Haul and calling successful favors from friends and family, you whitethorn find it easier to prime a bin rental institution that only rents bins. That way, there’s nary request to interest astir getting upsold connected further moving services.

Check your company’s work area, prices, and rental period

Prices alteration depending connected really galore bins you rent and whether you take work bundles. That said, bins thin to costs betwixt $5 to $6 per bin connected average, not including taxes.

In my case, I was moving crossed authorities lines, and while each nan companies I checked retired would driblet disconnected nan bins for free, immoderate wouldn’t prime them up from my caller home. I’d either person to salary an other pickup fee, driblet them disconnected myself, aliases find a institution that serviced my caller vicinity arsenic good arsenic my aged one. I was only moving crossed nan separator from New York to New Jersey, but moreover then, I had to transverse a batch of companies disconnected nan list.  

In nan end, though I had to salary other fees for moving crossed authorities lines and nan stairs successful my caller home, I sewage a decent price: $5 a pop, aliases $150 full for 30 bins. 

You’ll besides want to corroborate nan rental period. Some companies person a strict model and won’t fto you widen it. Some connection free extensions, while others do truthful for a fee. 

You’ll besides want to cheque if there’s a minimum number of bins that you must rent. I wanted to bid bins a la carte, and I only recovered 1 institution successful my work area that would do it — truthful agelong arsenic I rented astatine slightest 15. The remainder had rental packages based connected nan size of nan room. 

What’s included?

Most companies see labels, zip ties, transportation and pickup, and an assortment of bin sizes. But if you rent nan bins from a moving company, it’s not guaranteed they’ll move nan bins into your location for free. A fistful of companies I researched only included moving bins onto nan crushed level — aggregate floors and apartments without elevators came pinch an added fee. I moved into a four-story townhouse and would’ve been charged per floor. We ended up paying a interest to person nan movers driblet disconnected each nan bins connected nan second-floor surviving room and sewage successful our cardio schlepping nan bins destined for nan 3rd and 4th floors ourselves.  

The ecological choice

Bins are besides touted arsenic a much sustainable action than cardboard boxes because they’re reusable and nutrient little waste. Bloomberg reports that residential cardboard recycling lags acold down that of businesses, partially acknowledgment to nan roar successful e-commerce. The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory recovered that 56 percent of insubstantial and cardboard discarded ended up successful landfills and that only 38 percent of cardboard is really recycled. As overmuch arsenic that number makes maine cringe, I besides can’t contradict that breaking down cardboard boxes is 1 of my astir hated play chores.

Packing up

Packing bins isn’t each that different from boxes, though location are quirks. 

In past moves, I preferred smaller boxes for dense aliases vulnerable items. However, nan institution I went pinch only offered 1 bin size: large. (Others connection mean and large-sized bins.) Luckily, that didn’t extremity up being a immense issue. I conscionable had to beryllium much strategical astir weight distribution. With immoderate towels and T-shirts for padding, my vulnerable items made nan move intact. 

Because bins person interlocking and stackable lids, you don’t person to usage portion to adjacent them. Once I was done packing a bin, I conscionable plopped it neatly connected apical of another, redeeming abstraction successful my cramped New York City apartment. And integrative is h2o resistant — cipher likes moving connected a rainy day, but soggy cardboard makes it worse. 

On nan different hand, retrieve that these bins will person been done galore moves. While nan insides were clean, nan outsides of my bins were covered successful achromatic Sharpie, pinch nan names of rooms scribbled successful various handwriting. One bin had transported things meant for 1 person’s kitchen, another’s surviving room, and yet another’s bedroom. The bins besides had remnants of different people’s poorly removed moving labels, leaving maine hardly immoderate abstraction to constitute which rooms to spot nan bins for my move. This meant they weren’t a bully action for QR labels, which was a bummer.

Moved and done

What really sold maine connected utilizing bins was that they travel pinch a clip limit: you person to return them aft a two-week period. This was nan fastest unpacking occupation I’ve ever done. It was stressful, but by nan clip nan transportation men came to prime up each 30 bins, I was a week into nan move and 90 percent done. That helped maine relax into my caller location a batch faster.

Plastic bins mightiness not beryllium for everyone — but you won’t spot maine moving pinch cardboard boxes anytime soon. Switching to bins made moving overmuch little nightmarish than it’s been successful nan past. That other convenience — and nan truth that I americium 4 months into my move pinch nary a cardboard container successful show — was good worthy it.