Packing goes quickly when everything you need is already stacked in the hallway: flat boxes in a few sizes, a couple of rolls of tape, a bundle of paper for the kitchen. It slows to a crawl when the boxes don’t match, the tape is whatever was in the junk drawer, and the paper runs out halfway through the dishes. Good moving supplies won’t make packing fun. They make it shorter, and they go a long way toward deciding whether your things arrive in one piece.
Moving Co. supplies boxes and packing materials to customers who book a move with us, and we deliver them to your home before moving day. That covers boxes in different sizes, dish-pack boxes for the kitchen, wardrobe boxes, packing tape, packing paper, bubble wrap, stretch wrap and mattress bags. Supplies aren’t sold on their own. They come with your move, so the boxes you fill are the boxes our crew carries out.
Book your move by calling 905-752-7787 or requesting a quote, and tell us you’d like moving supplies. Give us a rough idea of the size of your home and we’ll suggest what to order.
The moving supplies we deliver
- Boxes in different sizes. Heavy things go in small boxes, and light, bulky things go in big ones.
- Dish-pack boxes. Double-walled boxes made to carry the weight of plates, bowls and glasses.
- Wardrobe boxes. Tall boxes with a bar across the top. Clothes go in on their hangers and come out the same way.
- Packing tape. For sealing boxes and reinforcing the bottoms of heavy ones.
- Packing paper. For wrapping dishes, glasses and anything that could scratch, and for filling the empty space in a box.
- Bubble wrap. Extra cushioning for the pieces that would break if they were knocked.
- Stretch wrap. The clear plastic film that keeps drawers shut, bundles loose parts together and holds blankets on furniture.
- Mattress bags. They keep mattresses clean and dry on the way out to the truck and for the rest of the move.
How getting supplies from us works
- Book your move. Supplies come with a booked move, so the first step is a quote. Call us or send the details online.
- Tell us about your home. How many bedrooms, how full the closets and kitchen cupboards are, and how much you plan to pack yourself. We’ll suggest a sensible list.
- We deliver to your door. The supplies arrive at your home ahead of moving day, so you can start packing whenever it suits you.
- You pack, we move. On moving day the crew loads your boxes, protects the furniture and takes everything to your new place.
Ask about supply prices when you book. If you’d rather not pack at all, our packing services cover full packing, partial packing or just the fragile things, and the crew arrives with the materials.
Why proper moving boxes matter
A moving box has a harder life than most boxes. It gets stacked several high in the truck, it shifts a little on every turn, and it’s carried down stairs and through doorways by people who are moving quickly. A box that went soft in a damp basement, or one that was only ever meant to carry groceries, can fold at the corners once there’s weight on top of it. When the bottom box in a stack gives way, everything above it comes down too.
Matching sizes help as well. Boxes in a handful of standard sizes stack into tight, even walls in the truck, and a tight wall is much less likely to shift. A load built from dozens of odd-shaped boxes has more gaps, more leaning stacks and more chances for something to slide.
Free boxes still have their place. If you’d rather not buy moving boxes for everything, sturdy, clean free ones are fine for light things like linens, towels and toys. Our guide to where to get moving boxes in Toronto covers the free options. Just keep the heavy and the fragile things in boxes built for moving.
Where to start packing
Start with the rooms and cupboards you use least. Guest rooms, the basement storage shelves, out-of-season clothes, the books you aren’t reading this month and the good dishes that only come out for holidays can all be packed early without making daily life harder. The kitchen you use every day, the bathroom and the bedrooms come last.
Work one room at a time and finish each box before you start the next. Half-filled boxes left open all over the house are how things end up in the wrong place. Keep a clear area near the front door for finished boxes, stacked with the heaviest at the bottom, so the crew can start loading the minute they arrive.
It also helps to decide what isn’t coming before the first box is folded. Everything you sell, donate or throw out is one less thing to pack, carry and unpack. Our guide on decluttering before a move goes through it room by room.
Which supplies go where: a room-by-room guide
The kitchen
The kitchen takes more supplies than any other room, and it’s the room people most often leave too late. Plates go into a dish-pack box standing on their edges, each one wrapped in packing paper, with crumpled paper on the bottom of the box and between layers. A plate standing on edge handles a bump far better than one lying flat in a stack. Bowls can nest in small groups with paper between them. Glasses and mugs are wrapped one at a time, heaviest pieces at the bottom, lightest at the top.
Pots and pans nest inside each other with paper between them and go in a medium box. Small appliances travel best in their original boxes if you kept them. If not, wrap them in paper, tie up the cords and pack them with paper around them. Pantry items are heavy for their size, so they belong in small boxes, with the lids of anything that could open taped shut. Leave perishable food out entirely, because we can’t move it. Use it up or give it away in the last week.
Whatever is in the box, fill every gap with paper. Lift the box and give it a gentle shake before you tape it. If you hear anything move, it needs more paper.
Books, files and the home office
Books are the classic box-breaker. Pack them in small boxes only, lying flat or standing upright the way they sit on a shelf, and stop before the box gets too heavy to lift comfortably. Files and paperwork follow the same rule. Anything you’d hate to lose, like passports, birth certificates, wills and financial records, should travel with you rather than in a box on the truck.
Computers and monitors are safest in their original boxes. If those are long gone, wrap the screen in something soft first, then bubble wrap, and pack it standing upright with padding around it. Take a photo of how the cables connect before you unplug anything, bag the cables with the device they belong to, and back up your files before moving day.
Bedrooms and closets
Wardrobe boxes save more time than almost any other supply. Lift a row of hangers straight off the rod, hang them on the bar inside the box, and do the same thing in reverse at the other end. Shoes, belts and handbags can go in the bottom of the box underneath the clothes, as long as the box stays light enough to carry. Folded clothes from dressers go in medium boxes.
Bag mattresses on the morning of the move, once the beds are stripped. A mattress bag keeps the mattress clean, keeps it dry if it’s raining or snowing while it’s carried out, and keeps dust off it if it’s headed for storage. Pillows, duvets and comforters are light for their size, which makes them perfect for the biggest boxes. Put the sheets and a pillow for each bed in one clearly marked box so the beds can be made on the first night.
The bathroom
Bathroom things are small, often liquid, and usually needed on the first night. Tighten every cap, put a square of plastic wrap under the lids of anything that could leak, and pack bottles standing upright in a small box lined with a plastic bag. Keep medications and the toiletries you’ll need right away in your own bag rather than on the truck.
The living room, art and mirrors
Lamps come apart. Take off the shade and the bulb, wrap the base in paper or bubble wrap, and pack shades by themselves in a box with soft things around them and nothing heavy on top. Framed art and mirrors are best wrapped in paper and then bubble wrap and packed standing up, never lying flat. Mark them as fragile on more than one side so everyone who handles them knows.
A TV is safest in its original box with the foam inserts. If you don’t have it anymore, tell us when you book so we can plan how the TV will travel. Remotes, wall-mount brackets and the small screws that go with them should go into one labelled bag, kept with the TV.
Kids’ rooms
Toys and stuffed animals are light and bulky, so they suit large boxes. Pack a small box of each child’s favourite things and keep it with you, so the new room feels like theirs on the first night. Craft supplies with paint or glue go in a sealed bag inside the box in case anything leaks.
The garage, basement and shed
Hand tools are heavy, so use small boxes and wrap anything with a sharp edge. Long-handled garden tools can be bundled together with stretch wrap. Anything with fuel in it, like a lawn mower, a trimmer or a camp stove, needs to be talked through with us before moving day, and propane tanks can’t go on the truck at all. Garage shelves also tend to collect chemicals, and many of them can’t travel on the truck either. The section on what can’t go in your boxes, further down, covers them.
How to tape a box so the bottom holds
Most box failures start at the bottom seam. Fold the bottom flaps in and run a strip of tape along the centre seam and a few centimetres up each side. Then run a strip across each of the two edges, so the tape forms an H. For anything heavy, add a second strip down the centre.
Don’t fold the flaps over and under each other instead of taping them. It feels solid when the box is empty and it lets go once there’s real weight inside. Close the top the same way once the box is full. A well-packed box closes flat, without bulging and without caving in, and that flat top is what lets another box sit safely on it.
Packing paper or bubble wrap?
Packing paper does most of the work in a move. It wraps dishes and glasses, it fills the space around things so they can’t shift, and a few crumpled sheets in the bottom of a box make a cushion. Use clean packing paper rather than old newspaper. The ink on printed newspaper rubs off on dishes and anything light-coloured, and you end up washing every plate before you can use it.
Bubble wrap is for the things that would break if they were knocked: stemware, figurines, framed glass, a vase that’s been in the family for decades. Wrap the item in paper first, then bubble wrap over the paper, and tape the bubble wrap to itself rather than to the item, since tape can mark a finish. Bubble wrap takes up much more room than paper, so save it for the places where it counts.
What stretch wrap is good for
Stretch wrap is the clear plastic film you see wound around furniture on a moving truck. It’s handy for a few specific jobs:
- Keeping dresser drawers and cabinet doors from sliding open while they’re carried.
- Bundling bed rails, table leaves and shelf boards so the pieces stay together.
- Holding a sofa’s loose cushions together.
- Keeping moving blankets in place around a piece of furniture.
On moving day our crew wraps furniture in moving blankets first and puts stretch wrap over the blankets. If you’re wrapping anything yourself, don’t put the plastic straight onto wood or leather and leave it there, since plastic can hold heat and moisture against the surface. A blanket, an old sheet or a layer of paper underneath does the job. Our guide on protecting furniture when you move has more on this.
Label every box
A label should tell anyone carrying the box two things: which room it goes to and what’s in it. Write both on the side of the box as well as on the top, because the top disappears as soon as another box is stacked on it. Mark fragile boxes clearly, and number the boxes as you go, so you know how many should come off the truck at the other end.
Put one box aside for the first night with the kettle, a few dishes, toilet paper, chargers, a change of clothes and anything else you’ll want before the rest is unpacked, and keep it with you. Our guide on what to pack first when moving walks through the order the rest of the house can go in.
How many boxes will you need?
It depends more on how much you own than on the size of your home. A one-bedroom apartment with a full bookcase and a well-stocked kitchen can need more boxes than a sparsely furnished house. The quickest way to get a feel for it is to open every closet, cupboard and drawer and count the shelves. Shelves of books and dishes need small and dish-pack boxes. Shelves of linens, toys and clothes need medium and large ones.
When you book, tell us about your home and how much you’re packing yourself, and we’ll suggest an amount. Our moving boxes guide also has rough counts by home size. Having a few boxes left over is much better than running out at eleven o’clock the night before the truck arrives.
What can’t go in your boxes
Some things can’t travel on a moving truck at all. Under our terms, we can’t transport hazardous materials, including explosives, flammable liquids and gases, corrosive chemicals, pesticides, propane tanks and ammunition. We also can’t move perishable food or plants, and valuable documents should stay with you.
Leftover paint, cleaners and garden chemicals don’t belong in the garbage or the recycling either. The City of Toronto treats them as household hazardous waste: take them to a Drop-Off Depot or a Community Environment Day, or book a free Toxic Taxi pickup if you have between 10 and 50 litres or kilograms. For furniture and other things you’ve decided not to bring, our junk removal crew can clear them out before moving day.
Packing yourself or having us pack
Plenty of people do the easy rooms themselves and hand the kitchen and the breakables to us. Whatever mix you choose, the packing supplies should match the job. If you pack a box yourself, our terms make you responsible for how well it’s packed, which is the best reason there is to use proper boxes and plenty of paper.
If our crew does the packing, they arrive with the materials, and packing is priced on how much you want packed and the materials it takes. Our packing services page explains full, partial and fragile-only packing.
Supplies for long-distance moves and storage
On a long-distance move, boxes spend days on the road, so they need to be packed full and tight, with nothing loose inside. Heavy things go in small boxes, every gap gets paper, and every seam gets tape. Our guide to packing for a long-distance move goes into the details.
Boxes going into storage should be packed the same way, sealed well and labelled on more than one side so you can find things without unstacking everything. Our own storage in the Toronto area is climate controlled and monitored, and mattresses headed there should be bagged first.
Recycling moving boxes and packing materials in Toronto
Once you’re unpacked, most of what’s left can go in the recycling. Since January 1, 2026, residential recycling in Toronto has been run by Circular Materials rather than the City. Its Toronto material list covers most moving leftovers:
- Moving boxes. Flatten them, with no piece larger than 60 by 60 cm. Oversized cardboard is one of the reasons Circular Materials gives for leaving a yellow “oops” sticker on a bin.
- Packing paper. Goes in with the rest of your paper.
- Bubble wrap. Listed with flexible plastic packaging.
- Foam packaging. Foam that came around a product is on the list too.
Everything should go in clean, dry and loose, not in bags, and the bin should be at the curb by 7 a.m. on collection day. Stretch wrap isn’t named on the list, so check the Circular Materials app or call the Toronto recycling line at 1-888-921-2686 before putting it in. Books, toys, pots and pans, batteries and anything hazardous don’t belong in the recycling at all. In a condo or apartment building, follow your building’s rules for the recycling room, especially for large amounts of cardboard.
Boxes that are still in good shape are worth passing on to someone who’s moving next.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you sell moving supplies on their own?
No. Our moving supplies come with a booked move. Book your move, ask for supplies, and we’ll deliver them to your home before moving day.
Do you deliver moving supplies?
Yes. The supplies for your move are delivered to your home ahead of moving day, so you can pack on your own schedule.
What moving supplies do you carry?
Boxes in different sizes, dish-pack boxes, wardrobe boxes, packing tape, packing paper, bubble wrap, stretch wrap and mattress bags.
How many moving boxes do I need?
It depends on how much you own more than on the size of your home. Tell us about your home when you book and we’ll suggest an amount. Our moving boxes guide also has rough counts by home size.
Can I use free boxes for my move?
Yes, for light things, as long as the boxes are clean, dry and sturdy. Keep heavy and fragile things in boxes made for moving.
What’s the best way to pack dishes?
Use a dish-pack box. Wrap each piece in packing paper, stand plates on their edges, put crumpled paper on the bottom and between layers, and fill every gap so nothing can move.
Are wardrobe boxes worth it?
If you have a lot of hanging clothes, yes. Clothes go in on their hangers and come out ready to hang, which saves time at both ends of the move.
Should I put my mattress in a bag?
Yes. A mattress bag keeps it clean and dry during the move, and keeps dust off it if it goes into storage.
Can I recycle moving boxes in Toronto?
Yes. Flatten them and keep pieces no larger than 60 by 60 cm, according to Circular Materials, which runs residential recycling in Toronto. Packing paper, bubble wrap and foam packaging are on its list too.
Can you pack for me instead?
Yes. We offer full, partial and fragile-only packing, and the crew arrives with the materials.
Planning a move and want the supplies sorted before you start? Book with us, tell us what you need, and we’ll bring it to your door. Get your free quote or call 905-752-7787.