Moving to a new place can be stressful. You don’t want to get the wrong size moving truck and amass extra charges, or worse, not have enough space for all your belongings. The best way to avoid these issues is to measure your belongings before you move.
When getting an estimate from a moving company, one of the most important things to consider is how much space your belongings take up. This is called cubic metres (m3). It’s also known as volume or size and is the unit of measurement used by many relocation companies to estimate the cost.
In this blog, we’ll look at various things you need to know about measuring cubic meters and how important it is in deciding your relocation cost.
The Importance of Knowing What Is a Cubic Meter When Moving House
If you’re moving house, you’ll be familiar with the pain of getting an accurate estimate of how much space your belongings take up. This can be tricky as it’s difficult to imagine what will fit into a given area, especially if you haven’t moved before.
This is where the cubic metre comes in. It gives you an objective measurement that can be used for comparisons between different companies and different services. Cubic metres are used for most things related to moving, so it’s essential to understand what it means and how it relates to your belongings.
There are a few factors why it is important to find out how many cubic meters when you are moving.
Estimate the Space of Belongings
The cubic metre is crucial because it lets you know exactly how much space your belongings take up. The space you have will determine how many boxes and furniture you can fit into a truck or van.
If you are moving house, it is vital to measure the space your belongings will take up to estimate how much space you need for your belongings if they are not all going into storage. If you rent an apartment or house, measuring the available space is important to avoid having too much stuff.
Estimate the Size of Truck Space Required
If you are planning on hiring a truck for your move, then it is important to know how much space your belongings will take up so that you can get a suitable size truck. This will also help reduce costs as smaller moving trucks cost less than larger ones!
On the other hand, if there is not enough room on the moving truck for all of your belongings, this could result in additional charges, such as extra trips or fees for keeping things in storage until they can be moved again.
Further, it will help estimate how many movers you need when you have a good estimate of the cubic metre.
Estimate the Cost of the Move
Further, measuring the cubic metre will help you determine how much money you need during the move. You can calculate how much space your belongings will take inside the truck space and then compare this with the price per cubic metre space offered by various companies in your area. And this could help you save money on your long-distance move.
When it comes time for you to pack up and move, you need to ensure that you have all of your belongings properly measured so that you can get an accurate quote on how much it will cost to have everything moved.
Estimate the Number of Trips
Finding out how many cubic metres you have allows estimating how many trips it will take for your movers to complete their task when handling a large volume move. This makes it easier for them to manage their time and avoid delays during transit.
What Is One Cubic Metre?
It’s a common misconception that measuring one cubic metre is the same as measuring a square metre. It’s not.
A cubic meter is the volume of a cube with sides of 1 metre, while a square metre is the area of a square with sides of 1 metre. The difference between these two measurements can be significant when you’re moving house or office, so it’s essential to understand how to properly measure your belongings for moving purposes.
How to Measure the Volume in Cubic Metres?
The best way to measure your belongings is by using a measuring tape and marking each item’s length, width and height on paper. The most convenient way to do this is by starting with the largest piece of furniture and marking its measurements before moving on to smaller items like boxes and cabinets.
Here, we have listed the step-by-step process to measure your belongings.
Step 1: Measure the Sizes of Bigger Items
First, start with the bigger things like furniture items, dining tables, refrigerators, washing machines and beds. Measurements should be taken from top to bottom, left to right and front to the back of each item so that they can be added together later on when calculating the total volume of your belongings.
If you have items in an odd shape, then consider using a large-sized box and use the box as an estimate to calculate one cubic meter.
Step 2: Measure the Sizes of Smaller Things
After that, divide the remaining smaller items into groups of similar items. This can include clothing, books and electronics, for example.
Next, determine the number of moving boxes these small item groups will take up and start measuring the moving boxes with a tape measure or ruler.
Step 3: Calculate the Cubic Meter
The next step is to convert those measurements into cubic metres (m) through this formula: length x width x height. For example: if your couch measures 2 m deep by 1.5 m long by 0.8 m high, its total volume would be2x1.5×0.8 = 2.4 m³.
Step 4: Sum Up the Measurements
Once you’ve done this, add up all of the measurements together to get an accurate estimate of how much space you’ll need for your belongings.
With this estimate, you can now decide the truck size and cost for your house move.
Conversions to Cubic Metre
If you measure volume in feet, inches or centimetres instead of cubic metres, you’ll need to convert it to metres.
If you’ve measured the length x depth x width in feet, then you need to multiply the foot by 0.3048.
If you’ve measured the length x width x depth in inches, you must multiply the inch by 0.0254.
If you’ve measured the length x depth x width in centimetres, you must multiply by 0.01.
Average Cubic Meter Estimates of Common Household Things
Dining table: 1.3 m³
Refrigerator: 1 m³
3-seater couch: 2.4 m³
Queen-size bed: 1.6 m³
Washing machine: 0.6 m³
Large cabinet: 1 m³
Television: 0.3 m³
Choosing the Truck Size Based on the Cubic Metres
There are a few common truck sizes to choose from: 2 Tonne truck, 4 Tonne truck, 6 Tonne truck, 8 Tonne truck and 10 Tonne truck.
If you’re moving out of a two-bedroom apartment, you might need to rent a 6 Tonne moving truck when you have a lot of things. However, if you’re moving from a townhouse, a 10 Tonne truck would be good enough for your needs.
Estimating the Volume When You Have More or Less Things Than an Average Home
However, when you have many things — much more than a standard two or three-bedroom house would have — then it’s most important to include the total volume of things to get the right estimate.
There’s no magic number when choosing the right-sized truck for your move. It depends on the size of your items and how much space they take up. But we’ve found that using cubic metres as a guideline helps to simplify things!
So, for example, if all your things from a two-bedroom apartment can be fitted into a single-car garage, you have a lesser volume of things — lower than an average two-bedroom apartment. This is a further indication that you’ll pay less for your relocation too!
Understanding how much difference this makes could go a long way in saving you money when moving furniture or house.
How to Estimate Cost Without Measuring Cubic Metres?
The whole point of measuring a cubic meter is to get a good estimate of how much your relocation will cost.
So when you don’t want to measure the cubic metres but still want to get a cost estimate, then you can use a calculator.
Getting a Cost Estimate Using a Cubic Metre Calculator
Several calculators online will give you an estimate of the cubic meter based on the area and length or any other measurements. However, these may not be accurate and would require you to measure things.
The simplest way is to use a moving cost calculator to directly get the costs.
Getting a Cost Estimate Using Book A Mover’s Cost Calculator
If you want to get an estimate without measuring the cubic metres, use our calculator where you can give us an estimate of your things and we’ll estimate the cubic metres and give you a cost estimate.
This is the only way we can give you a realistic price for the move and it is quite a simple process.
- Start by filling in the pickup and drop-off locations of your move.
- Next, choose the type of house and the room estimator: an apartment, a house, a two-bedroom one, a three-bedroom one, a four-bedroom one or a studio apartment.
- Once chosen, you’ll then give an estimate of the number of furniture items you have along with the moving date. The calculator assumes the average volume of things in your home type.
- Based on this, our moving calculator will estimate the approximate volume of your things, the right size truck you’ll need, and the cost per hour.
Use the Live Calculator to get a cost estimate.
This process will save money and time on your part to get an instant estimate.
If you’re comfortable with the estimate, you can book us directly online.
Typically, long-distance removals will cost more than short relocation, where you’re moving within the same location. And if you have a lot more items than an average-sized house, like a double car garage filled with many things, it may incur additional cost.
So it’s best to consider the complete volume of the things you have, then make sure to enter the proper details for a more accurate indication.
If you plan to relocate your vehicles, then you need to consider all that when getting an estimate. On the other hand, if you have small vehicles, such a bicycle, then you can directly ship them with the rest of your things during the house move.
Hire a Reliable Moving Company for a Budget-Friendly Move
If you want to work with a reliable relocation company, hire our expert team at Book A Mover. We handle all our customers’ items safely and securely and offer budget-friendly rates for any type of move.
We’ll handle everything from handling huge furniture items like a solid buffet unit and heavy dining table to packing your fragile items carefully in secure boxes. Our team has a natural talent for helping customers move far and wide within the country with minimal stress.
Plus, we perform a thorough inventory calculation to get a far more accurate indication than a vague estimate to give you complete value for money. This is why we have a high customer satisfaction rate in the industry.
Contact our team today to get a clear indication of your cubic metres and how much the move will cost you.
