Yes — you can pack your own boxes and use a Sydney removalist. It’s how about 70% of our customers do it. What it saves you, what it costs you, and what the insurance actually covers are more nuanced than a yes-or-no answer, though. Here’s the honest version.
The direct answer
DIY packing is the default for Sydney removalists. When we quote an hourly rate like $150/hr + GST for two movers and a truck, that rate assumes you have the boxes packed, taped and labelled when the crew arrives. We turn up, carry them out, drive them to the new place, carry them in. The rate is the same whether you packed them over three weeks or we packed them on the day before.
Professional packing is an optional add-on. If you want us to pack, we quote from $60/hr + GST per packer, plus packing materials (typically $150–$350 depending on home size). On a 2-bedroom apartment, a single packer takes about 5 hours to pack the whole home — so about $450 total for labour and materials. On a 3-bedroom home, two packers over a single day costs $1,200–$1,500 total.
So DIY saves roughly $450 on a 2-bed and $1,500 on a 3-bed. If you have the time, it’s real money.
What DIY packing actually costs you (in time)
Because “free” is rarely free. Here’s how long the average Sydney resident spends packing their own move, based on surveys and our own observations:
- Studio apartment: 4–8 hours over 2–3 evenings
- One-bedroom apartment: 10–15 hours spread over a week
- Two-bedroom apartment: 20–25 hours over 10–14 days
- Three-bedroom home: 35–45 hours over 2–3 weeks
- Four-bedroom home: 60+ hours over 3–4 weeks
It’s not hard work — it’s box-filling, which is about 70% the time of the packing, and tape-and-label, which is the other 30%. The kitchen and wardrobes are the outliers; both reliably take twice as long as you’d guess.
On a 3-bedroom home, the $1,500 professional packing saves you 40 hours of your life. That’s $37.50/hour — which is about minimum wage for a Sydney skilled office worker. If you earn more than $37/hour after tax, professional packing is cheaper than your own time.
The insurance reality nobody spells out
This is the part that matters most and the part Sydney removalists are least explicit about in their marketing.
Goods-in-transit insurance covers damage to items in the removalist’s care during transport. It’s on every Hartmann move as standard. Our policy includes $20 million of public liability plus goods-in-transit cover.
But — and this is every Sydney removalist, not just us — most goods-in-transit policies exclude damage inside a box the removalist didn’t pack. The carrier’s reasoning: we can’t assess whether you wrapped a glass correctly, whether you bubble-wrapped a TV, whether the vase was boxed in a way that would survive a truck ride.
What that means in practice: if the removalist crew drops a box of DIY-packed glassware and the glasses inside break, insurance covers the box (cheap) but not the glassware (potentially expensive). If we packed that box and the same thing happens, the glassware is covered.
The workaround most people use: pack everything yourself except the kitchen. Pay for a half-day of packing to cover the kitchen (plus the wardrobes if you have lots of hanging clothes). Insurance on the items most likely to break is then intact. Half-day packing on a 2-bed is $240–$360 — well worth it for peace of mind.
What breaks in DIY-packed boxes
Based on claims we see across Sydney moves, the top items damaged in owner-packed boxes, in order of frequency:
- TVs packed in their original box with no padding. The original TV box is not a moving box. Pack it with foam or bubble wrap, or fit it between mattresses in the truck.
- Glasses wrapped in tea towels, not packing paper. Packing paper is free from the supermarket. Use it. Tea towels are too thick — glasses can’t nest tightly and they knock against each other.
- Plates stacked flat in a box. Stack them vertically, on edge, separated by packing paper. Horizontal stacks crack on the first pothole.
- Framed artwork wrapped only in bubble wrap. Corner protectors and a flat packing between two pieces of cardboard. Bubble wrap alone doesn’t protect against point impact.
- Books packed in 20-litre boxes. Too heavy. Use small boxes (30×30×30 or smaller). A “book box” is smaller than a “clothes box” for a reason.
- Electronics without cable ties. Cables crushed, ports damaged. Tie cables in separate baggies labelled with the device.
The materials kit question
If you’re doing DIY, the question becomes: buy materials piecemeal, buy a kit, or scavenge.
Scavenge. Free, but unreliable. Supermarket boxes are single-wall and designed for stocking shelves — they blow out at the seams with 15kg of books inside. Fruit-and-veg boxes from the greengrocer are often reinforced and fine for lighter items. Free is free, but budget an extra hour chasing them down and another hour sorting the good from the bad.
Buy piecemeal. Bunnings and Officeworks both sell heavy-duty moving boxes — $3–$5 for a small/book box, $5–$8 for a large/clothes box. Packing paper is about $15 for a 25-sheet pack. Bubble wrap is about $20 for a 30m roll. A 2-bed typically needs 40 boxes + 3 paper packs + 1 bubble roll + good tape = around $250–$300.
Pro materials kit from the removalist. We supply kits from $150 (studio) to $350 (4-bed). Usually marginally cheaper than Bunnings equivalents because we buy in volume, and boxes come guaranteed double-wall. Delivered to your door a week before the move.
The right call usually: scavenge for the non-fragile stuff (books, linen, kitchenware you don’t care about), buy or take our kit for fragile items and the wardrobes.
When to not DIY pack
There are five scenarios where DIY packing is a false economy:
- Your move is in less than 5 days. You don’t have time to pack properly. Rushed packing means more damage and more crew time unpacking the mess at the destination.
- You’re moving out of an apartment with a strict lift window. If the lift is booked for 9–12 and you’re still boxing things at 8:30am, the whole move slips. Pros pack to the lift booking.
- You’re 8+ months pregnant, caring for a young baby, or recovering from surgery. Don’t. Pay the $500.
- You have significant crystal, artwork, antiques or collectables. Insurance matters more on these. Have us pack them.
- You’re moving interstate from Sydney. Long-haul transport amplifies everything. A poorly-packed box that would survive a Sydney-metro move won’t survive a Sydney-to-Brisbane drive.
For everyone else — most Sydney movers — DIY packing is the right call. The money saved is real. The insurance catch is manageable if you’re careful or if you get us to pack the kitchen separately.
Related reading
- What does removalist insurance cover in Sydney? — the insurance catch explained in detail, including what “goods in transit” does and doesn’t cover when you pack your own boxes.
- The week-before Sydney move checklist — day-by-day packing schedule so the 5-day rule doesn’t catch you out.
- Packing services — what it costs, what’s included, and how to book “kitchen only” packing as an add-on to the move.
If you want a quote with “we pack the kitchen only” as a line item, ask for it on the quote form and we’ll price it as an add-on to the hourly rate. That’s the combination we see work best across Sydney apartments.