Moving to Australia — Relocation Made Simple

Moving volume calculator

Volume is the number every international quote is built on — not distance, not weight. Add what you are shipping and this works out your cubic metres from the same per-item table we price against, then tells you which service that volume fits.

It gives you a volume, not a price. A price follows a survey, and a number invented before one only gets corrected later.

Last updated: 31 July 2026

Clothes Basket

0.15 m³

0

Clothes Dryer

0.50 m³

0

Clothes Rack

0.05 m³

0

Mops/Brooms

0.30 m³

0

Washing Machine

0.40 m³

0

Small Carton

0.05 m³

0

Large Carton

0.14 m³

0

Why self-estimates come in low

Almost everyone counts boxes. Boxes are visible, countable and reassuring, and they are not where the volume is.

How large items compare with cartons by volumeMeasured against a small carton of 0.05 cubic metres, a king bed at 2 cubic metres is the equivalent of forty cartons, a piano at 1.5 is thirty, a three-seater sofa at 1.4 is twenty-eight, and a refrigerator at 1 cubic metre is twenty. Thirty small cartons together come to 1.5 cubic metres, less than a single king bed. Furniture, not boxes, is where the volume of a household shipment sits.Boxes are not where your volume isEverything measured in small cartons (0.05 m³ each)King bed40 cartonsPiano30 cartons3-seater sofa28 cartonsRefrigerator20 cartons30 small cartons30 cartonsThirty boxes are less than one bed. Count the furniture first.
Every figure here is exact arithmetic on the same table the calculator uses. If you are trying to get under a container threshold, one piece of furniture left behind does more than a month of ruthless decluttering — and the reverse is why a forgotten wardrobe pushes a quote up so sharply.

Typical volumes by household size

If you would rather not list everything, these are the volumes we see for common household sizes. Each is the sum of a named list of items rather than a round number, which is why they are not round.

Computed from the per-item volumes in this calculator. A model of a household that ships furniture and soft furnishings but not large white goods — the common long-haul pattern.
HouseholdVolumeCubic feetUsual service
Studio or one-bedroom flat11.2 m³396 ft³Part load
Two-bedroom home20.6 m³727 ft³20ft container
Three-bedroom house42.4 m³1497 ft³40ft container
Four-bedroom house62.1 m³2193 ft³40ft container

The calculator covers 203 items across 14 rooms, and you can add anything it does not list. For what those volumes translate to in cost, see what it costs to move to Australia, and for how a professional survey differs from a self-count, compare the survey methods.