How do I determine how much weight I have to ship?

The moving industry uses a standardized document called either a Cube Sheet or List of Goods. This document lists standard items that you would find in the average home by volume and then converts the volume to weight.

However, if you have a standard home with standard items there is a simple formula you can use to determine an approximate weight of your shipment.

Firstly, what do we mean by standard? Well in a standard one bedroom apartment for example, you would find the following items in the living room:

Sofa, love seat, chair, coffee table, 2 end tables, a lamp or two, a stereo system and a TV and DVD player and a couple of pictures.

In the bedroom you wound find:

a queen size bed with headboard and foot-board, 2 night tables, 2 dressers and quite a few boxes for clothes and linens and a couple of pictures.

The formula is quite simple 1000 lbs per full room. So our one bedroom apartment above has a bedroom, a kitchen, and living room as the three main full rooms (3 x 1000 lbs = 3,000 lbs). This is the average weight of the goods of a one bedroom apartment.  It is assumed that the contents of the closets within the apartment are included with the three main rooms and a part of the overall weight of 3000 lbs.

So if you want to know approximately how much weight you have to move, add up your main rooms and multiply the rooms time 1000 lbs – this will give you an approximate weight of your shipment.