How Much Do Professional Packers Cost? Average Hourly + Flat Rates For Packing Services

KEY TAKEAWAYS

▸ The average professional packers costs between $60-$80 per hour per packer.

▸ The primary factors affecting this average are the time of year, the size of your home, and the quantity and types of items you need to be packed.

▸ You can lower the cost of hiring professional packing services by packing some items yourself, providing your own packing materials, including boxes you score for free, and scheduling your move during the off-season.

▸ We suggest hiring packers for just a day or two, scoring a cheap storage unit, and putting all your belongings in there once they’ve been professionally packed so you can move into the new house at your leisure.

There’s a lot to juggle on moving day. One of the most daunting is packing.

And while we’re often quick on the draw when it comes to hiring a professional moving company to help us with the moving labor, packing services aren’t typically as talked about. 

It’s true that professional packers cost money, but so does taking a week off of work to pack your whole house up yourself. So, just how much does professional packing cost?

Here’s The Short Answer To How Much Professional Packers Cost:

In 2026, professional packers cost between $280 – $2,200, depending on how much stuff you have to pack. While some packing services offer flat rates, most charge hourly. Professional packers cost an average of $60-$80 per hour, depending on the region.

How Do Professional Packing Companies Charge?

While professional packing costs around $60-$80 per hour per packer, there are also professional packing/ unpacking services that charge a flat rate.

Flat-rate packing can be easier to budget since they use set packing rates based on the number of standard moving boxes. So, just how much does it cost to hire professional packers at a flat rate? A flat-rate professional packing service might charge $30-$50 per box of dishes and $15-$25 per box of clothes, regardless of how long it takes the packers to fill these boxes.

• If you take inventory of your entire house and estimate how many boxes worth of stuff you’re having them pack, you’ll have a pretty close estimate of how much hiring a professional moving crew for flat-rate packing will cost. 
• That said, it’s a lot easier to assess how many plastic containers or boxes worth of stuff you own for a studio apartment than for a four-bedroom house.

Flat-rate packing can be a bit more expensive than hourly ones since they factor in their time, packing material expenses, and labor costs into their rates. The alternative is to find a packing service that charges an hourly packing cost… but how much do packers charge per hour?

The hourly rate full-service packing services is typically a cost per hour per packer. In some cases, they tack on a set fee per box. The box rate, if anything at all, is typically pretty low if you’re paying hourly labor costs. And since you’re paying per hour per professional, you may need two or three extra sets of hands one day but only one packer on the second day.

But keep in mind that these hourly rates don’t always include the cost of packing supplies. Hourly-rate packing services are also more complicated to account for when it comes to planning your moving budget, since some packers move faster than others.

They say a small team of professional movers can pack up all the personal items in a three-bedroom home in eight hours, which means a one-bedroom apartment will likely take a third of that time. At $60 an hour, an eight-hour back job will run you $480 plus the cost of special packing materials like bubble wrap, packing tape, and packing blankets.

What Factors Impact the Cost to Hire Professional Packers?

In addition to the quantity of items you need help packing, the cost of packing services is affected by geographic location, fuel costs, the type of items, and the size of the packing team required. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest factors affecting how much expert packers cost. 

Size of Home or Apartment 

The primary packing service cost factor is how much stuff you need help packing, aka how big your home is. A studio apartment or one-bedroom apartment may only cost $280-$300. Hiring pros to pack an entire 4-bedroom house, on the other hand, could run you upwards of $2,000.

Hiring pros to help prep and pack heavy items like pieces of furniture can increase the overall cost of packing service by anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on size and shape. The weight of your boxes may also raise the price of hiring a packing service – the larger the home, the more heavy items you typically need help packing.  

Date and Time

Professional packing services often raise their rates during peak moving seasons. Peak moving seasons vary based on geographic location, but it is typically between May and September. Professional packers cost less between October and April and from Mondays to Thursdays.

Hiring pro packing services during peak moving season, on holidays, and the weekends is more expensive, but for good reason. Moving during the winter introduces variables like snow and ice, so most movers avoid planning moves for the off-season despite the lower price. 

Fuel

In cases where professional packers have to travel more than a few miles to get to your house, they may charge you an extra mileage fee per mile. This is especially true if you hire a full-service moving company to pack, load, and drive your stuff to the new pad.

For reference, U-Haul charges $.99 per mile for local moves. Fuel prices might not apply if you only hire laborers for packing unless they have to compensate themselves for driving a way to get to your place. 

Labor Needed

That said, an experienced pro packer can pack 100 square feet worth of belongings per hour. So, if you think of it in terms of covering twice the ground in half the amount of time, hiring two packers instead of one theoretically cuts your packing time in half at the same price as hiring one packer for twice as long. 

And that’s not to mention the discount rates many packing service companies offer for additional packers. So, once you hire three or four packers, you’re actually spending less money per 100 square feet worth of belongings getting packed!

Packing Materials

Professional packers tend to include the price of packing supplies in their quote, but it’s not guaranteed, so be sure to ask about their policy.

Whether the pros charge you the cost of packing materials, include them in their fees, or expect you to have boxes and packing tape ready when they show up, it’s best to know ahead of time. Packing supplies can mean boxes, bubble wrap, packing paper, moving tape, and packing blankets. Depending on the types of items you’re moving, the moving supplies can range between $180 and $750, depending on the size of your home.

Another factor in the cost of packing supplies is the quality of materials. Pro moving and packing companies tend to use higher-grade moving supplies to keep your stuff safe. Again, the cost of packing materials is often included in the fees you’re already paying.

But if you’re packing specialty items like vinyl records, paintings, collectible action figures and dolls, electronics, antique furniture, sculptures, grandfather clocks, and the packers need to bring, say, some padded crates. These custom accommodations will hike up the price. 

Types of Items

Just like with moving jobs, the types of items you’re moving can also impact how much a packing company costs to hire.  Valuable and fragile items typically take longer to pack since they must be handled with care. 

Fragile items like glassware and specialty items like artwork and antiques can add a few hours of packing time. Another example of how the type of items can increase the packing service cost is the number of heavier items like couches, tables, and appliances that need to be prepped for moving.

Packers don’t always help move large and heavy items, but they may help prepare them for moving. But even if you’re just packing, say, a massive collection of cookware or your personal library of books, you’ll need a larger packing or moving team, which means an increase in price.

How To Save Money on Packing Service Costs

In addition to comparing the various services in your area to find the most affordable packing plans, you can lower the professional packers’ cost by finding and supplying free boxes, purging your belongings, doing some of your own packing, and moving during the off-season. 

Here are some fast tips on lowering the cost of professional packing services:

• Find boxes for free: There are more than a few creative ways to score free boxes, from friends to neighbors to local legal stores, grocery stores, and big-box retailers. Be sure you’re using sturdy, corrugated cardboard boxes and ensuring they’re clean before you take them home. 
• Declutter and purge before the packing: Declutter your house one room at a time, starting with the most-used spaces. Purge your wardrobe and the rest of your belongings by making piles of items to donate, items to sell, items to throw away, and items to keep and pack. 
• Pack some of your items yourself: You can save lots of money on pro-packing services by packing as much as you can by yourself. Organize your items by weighing them, labeling everything, and then ask your friends for some help putting them all in boxes, saving the challenging or delicate items for the pros. 
• Move in the offseason: The rates to hire professional movers and packing services drop significantly in the winter. Rather than planning your move for the May-September rush, scheduling a move between October and April will lower the professional packing service cost. 
• Get quotes from several companies: First, make a list of the most affordable packing plans offered by companies in your area. Then, decide which services you need help with, and find the cheapest plan that has everything you want without much more.
• Hire a company during the week: You can cut the cost of professional moving and packing services down significantly by moving on Monday-Thursday instead of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Packing services typically charge higher rates for help on the weekends. 

Pros and Cons of Hiring Professional Packers

Now that you understand the factors that impact the professional packers’ cost and have a few tricks up your sleeves to help bring that price down, let’s take a look at the practical benefits and drawbacks of using a pro-packing service.

Pros of Hiring Professional Packers

There are various benefits of hiring professional packers, including: 

• Saves time: Professional packers are well-practiced and have the best packing tools, materials, and equipment on deck. Experience, a streamlined workflow, and having all the fancy tools and tricks on standby help pro packers do in a few hours what it takes the rest of us a day or two to knock out.
• Will reduce stress for the move: Having pros to delegate your packing projects frees you up to focus on transportation and logistics like utility transfers, unpacking, and organizing your new home. 
• Items will be packed by experts: Pro packers not only know the fastest methods of packing and organizing different types of items, but they also know the safest way to pack delicate items, collectibles, and artwork.
• Damage prevention: Hiring professional packers does more than just ensure these delicate items are being packed in the most efficient and safe process–pro packers also use high-quality packing materials to reduce the chance of damage during transport. 
• Convenience: Professional packers bring knowledge and experience into the packing process, allowing you to focus on other aspects of the move. A hired packing crew knows how to divide and conquer packing jobs in a logical, secure, safe, and efficient order. Hired packing help means taking less time off work!

Cons of Hiring Professional Packers

While there’s no shortage of benefits to be gained from hiring professional packers, there are also downsides, such as: 

• Increased cost: The convenience of hiring pro packers doesn’t always outweigh the increased cost. Moving is already expensive. While hiring professional packers can save your money in the long run by helping you take less time from work, we don’t always have the money to spend all at once in the rush of moving. 
• Limited flexibility: Full-service packing isn’t the same thing as a full-service move. Professional packers offer limited services, often at a set price, without much room to negotiate for extra tasks. You may still need to hire professional movers to help load heavy items onto the moving truck.
• Hidden fees: Packers might not help with the entire moving process, leaving you to pay for additional services like long-distance moves and loading/unloading the truck. 
• Reduced comfort: One of the main benefits of hiring professional packers is that it reduces the number of days you have to take off from work to pack for moving. That said, having strangers in our homes unsupervised pushes the boundaries of our comfort zones. Rather than leaving the workers unsupervised,  some may end up taking work off anyway. 

The Average Cost of Professional Packing Services: Investing In Your Peace of Mind

On average, hiring professional packers costs around $80 an hour per packer. But pro packers can pack a three-bedroom house up in eight hours.

Moving is as expensive as it is time-consuming. But by that same token, time is money. While packing everything yourself is the cheapest option on paper, you’ll need to take a large chunk of time off of work to make that happen. 

But after considering how much movers cost, you can’t always afford to pay them for more than a day or two. If only there were a middle path…

Pro Packer Hack: You can use our SpareFoot Search Tool to search for storage units in your area based on storage deals. One of the more popular deals storage facilities offer is one free month of storage. Once you’ve got yourself a free month of storage, here’s how to hack the situation:

• Find the lowest packing service cost in your area.
• Hire professional packers to work under your supervision for a single day
• Help the pro-packers pack to speed things along. 
• Put a few things into your free storage unit after work, increasing your efforts on weekend days.
• As soon as you have access to your new home, you can slowly move your organized, professionally packed belongings from your storage unit into the new pad room by room, based on your own personal and professional priorities.

In short, the average cost of professional packing is worth the peace of mind it provides.Just enter your zip code into our SpareFoot search tool, find yourself an affordable storage unit, and cross that ominous threshold between you and your new home with some expert help!

Michael Ta’Nous

Michael Ta’Nous is a full-time writer who works and lives with his wife in Taos, New Mexico. “Mikey” spent his early twenties living either out of a van as a touring musician or out of a backpack on motorcycle trips writing from cafes–these rigorous adventure years polished him into a master packer. In addition to managing storage units full of catering supplies and outdoor gear professionally, Michael has used storage units as a band rehearsal space and a motorcycle garage.