Moving resources & tools
Free calculators, guides, and checklists to plan your move — from first estimate to final box unpacked.
Price your own move: pick home size, distance and options for a guide range.
ToolFind out exactly how many boxes you need before packing a single item.
ToolCompare van sizes side by side to choose the right vehicle for your load.
GuideA week-by-week checklist covering everything from notify-to-settle-in.
ChecklistLocal removal prices for 49 UK cities — updated monthly.
DataWhat your belongings are covered for and when to buy extra protection.
GuideHow Giant Van compares to other UK removal companies on price and service.
ComparisonTools answer a number, guides answer a decision
The resources on this page split into two kinds, and picking the wrong kind wastes an afternoon. A tool takes something you already know and turns it into a figure: the size of your home into a van class, a room count into a box count, a distance into a price range.
A guide takes something you have not decided yet and walks you through it. If you can already describe your move in a sentence, start with a tool. If you cannot, start with a guide and come back.
Use them in this order
- Start with the box calculator It forces you to count rooms honestly, and the count it produces is the input every other tool wants.
- Then the van size guide Volume decides the vehicle, and the vehicle decides most of the price. Getting this wrong is the single most common cause of a move that needs a second trip.
- Then the cost estimator Feed it the size you settled on rather than the size you hoped for. A guide range built on an optimistic inventory is not a useful range.
- Keep the checklist open It is the only resource here that runs across weeks rather than minutes, so it works best as a running list rather than something you read once.
An estimate and a quote are different things
The calculators on this page produce an estimate. An estimate is built from typical inputs: a normal front door, a normal parking situation, a normal amount of stuff for the number of bedrooms you told it about. It is a good way to find out whether your budget is roughly right before you spend any time on the details.
A quote is different. It is priced against your actual addresses, so it knows about the stairs, the distance and the date. That is why an estimate and a quote can differ on the same move, and why the quote is the number that binds.
If the two are far apart, the gap is almost always sitting in one of three places: more items than the estimate assumed, a harder carry at one end, or a date in a peak week. It is worth checking those three before you assume the quote is wrong.
Who each resource is written for
The tools assume nothing. They are written for someone who has never booked a removal and does not know what a Luton van is, and they explain the term rather than assuming it.
The guides go further and are aimed at people with a specific problem: a first move out of a shared flat, a landlord checkout with a deadline attached, a house with an awkward staircase, a set of belongings that needs more cover than the standard amount. The comparison pages are the most opinionated of the lot.
They exist for people who already know what they want to buy and are deciding who to buy it from. If you are at that stage, skip the calculators and read those instead, because a price you cannot compare is not much use on its own.
When a tool gives you an answer you did not expect
The most common reaction to the box calculator is that the number looks too high, and the most common reaction to the cost estimator is that the figure looks too high as well. Both usually mean the same thing: there is more in the house than you were picturing.
That is worth knowing four weeks out rather than on the morning, and there are three things you can do about it. The first is to reduce the volume, which is the only lever that changes every other number at once. A serious clear-out before you are quoted does more for a price than any negotiation afterwards.
Charity collections, marketplace listings and a tip run all take a week or two to arrange, which is why this has to start early. The second is to move the date. If the estimate landed on a Friday at the end of the month, price the same move on a midweek day in the following week and compare.
The third is to split the job. Sending items into storage, or letting a bulky piece of furniture go to a buyer rather than a new house, can drop you a van size. What rarely works is booking the smaller van and hoping.
The load does not shrink to fit the vehicle, and a second trip costs more than the difference you were trying to save.