Accurate volume is the foundation of accurate pricing. Moving companies that quote from memory or vague home size categories leave money on the table or lose jobs on margin.
This guide explains how to estimate moving volume reliably, provides a reference chart for common household items, and shows you how to build volume-based quoting into your sales process.
Why Volume Matters More Than Rooms
“3-bedroom home” is not a useful unit of measure. A 3-bedroom apartment in a major city might have 900 sq ft. A 3-bedroom ranch in the suburbs might have 2,200 sq ft with a finished basement and double garage. The cubic footage — and therefore the truck, crew, and time required — can vary by 3x.
Volume in cubic feet is the right foundation for a moving quote because it directly corresponds to:
- Truck capacity needed
- Loading and unloading time
- Fuel costs
- Crew requirements
Common Item Volume Reference
| Item | Cubic Feet (approx.) |
|---|---|
| King bed + frame | 55 |
| Queen bed + frame | 45 |
| Full/Double bed | 35 |
| 3-drawer dresser | 20 |
| 6-drawer dresser | 30 |
| Sofa (3-seat) | 50 |
| Loveseat | 35 |
| Armchair | 25 |
| Dining table (6-person) | 40 |
| Dining chair | 8 |
| 50” TV + stand | 20 |
| Refrigerator (standard) | 40 |
| Washer | 30 |
| Dryer | 25 |
| Desk (standard) | 25 |
| Bookcase (5-shelf) | 30 |
| Standard box (medium) | 3 |
| Wardrobe box | 12 |
Quick Estimates by Home Type
These are rough starting points — actual volume varies significantly based on how furnished the home is:
| Home Type | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio apartment | 200 | 350 | 500 |
| 1-bedroom apartment | 400 | 550 | 750 |
| 2-bedroom apartment | 700 | 900 | 1,200 |
| 3-bedroom house | 1,000 | 1,500 | 2,000 |
| 4-bedroom house | 1,500 | 2,200 | 3,000 |
| 5+ bedroom / estate | 2,500 | 3,500+ | 5,000+ |
Truck Capacity Reference
| Truck Size | Cubic Feet Capacity |
|---|---|
| 16-foot truck | 800 |
| 20-foot truck | 1,100 |
| 26-foot truck | 1,700 |
| 28-foot truck | 2,200 |
A rule of thumb: load 80% of capacity to allow for padding, strapping, and safe load distribution. A “1,700 cubic foot” truck practically holds about 1,350 cu ft efficiently.
How to Use Volume in Your Sales Process
The most successful moving company sales reps don’t guess — they walk (or virtually walk) the customer through their home, noting key items in each room. MoveRight’s estimate builder lets reps build an itemized list from a dropdown of common items, calculating running volume as they go.
This serves two purposes:
- The quote is defensible — you can show the customer exactly what you’re accounting for
- If the move goes over because the customer had items they didn’t mention, you have documentation
The AI Layer
For companies on MoveRight’s Business plan, the AI Pricing Engine reads job notes and automatically suggests volume estimates based on the items mentioned. A rep who writes “2BR apartment, lots of boxes, big sectional sofa, two queen beds” gets a suggested cubic footage, truck recommendation, and crew count without manually calculating anything.
This is especially valuable for high-volume sales environments where reps are booking 10–15 jobs per day and manual calculations would create bottlenecks.
If you’d like to see this in action, book a demo and we’ll walk through a live quoting scenario with your job types.