Why the number matters more than anything else
Volume decides the size of the truck, the number of movers, how long the day takes and, on an international move, how much container space you are buying. Every other variable follows from it.
It is also the number a client is least equipped to produce, which is why so many quotes are given against a guess and then revised. A revision on moving day is the worst possible moment to discover that a second vehicle is needed.
The quick method: estimate by home type
For a first approximation, the type of home gets you close enough to have a sensible conversation. These are the working ranges we use before a survey.
- Studio or one-room flat: roughly 10 to 15 m3
- Two or three-room flat: roughly 20 to 30 m3
- Four or five-room flat: roughly 35 to 50 m3
- Villa or large family house: 60 m3 and upwards
The better method: count what actually takes space
A more useful estimate comes from counting the handful of items that dominate the total, because a home's volume is never evenly distributed. Five or six pieces usually account for most of it.
Wardrobes, beds with their mattresses, sofas, dining tables, fridges and washing machines are the heavy hitters. Everything else — clothes, kitchenware, books, decorations — turns into cartons, and a standard carton is small enough that fifty of them still occupy less space than people assume.
The rooms everyone forgets
Under-estimates are almost never caused by the living room. They come from the spaces people do not walk through when they are mentally adding up their home.
Open every one of them before you give a figure. The garage or cellar is the single most common cause of a quote being wrong, and a terrace with outdoor furniture and plants can add several cubic metres on its own.
- Garage, cellar and storage room
- The terrace or roof, including furniture and large plants
- The tops of wardrobes and the back of deep cupboards
- Children's rooms, which hold far more than they appear to
- Anything already in storage elsewhere
Photographs beat descriptions
The fastest way to get an accurate estimate is not to measure anything. It is to walk through the home filming steadily, opening cupboards as you go, and sending that over.
A minute of video tells a professional more than a written inventory, because it shows the things people never think to mention: the width of the doorway, the turn in the staircase, whether there is a lift, and how far the door is from where a truck can stop.
Round up, not down
If you are between two figures, give the higher one. An estimate that is slightly generous costs a little more space on a truck that was coming anyway. An estimate that is short means a vehicle that cannot take the load, and that is a second trip, a second day or a renegotiation while your belongings sit on the pavement.
The asymmetry is entirely one-sided, which is why every experienced mover rounds up.