Moving can certainly be a challenge; from reserving a rental truck, packing up belongings, throwing things out, and finally hitting the road in the moving truck. If driving a rental truck is not for you, and the expense of professional movers isn't in your budget, you do have options. Moving containers, like 1-800-Pack-Rat, are a great alternative to movers and rental trucks. Read more to find out.

What is 1-800-Pack-Rat?

1-800-Pack-Rat is a moving container company that can make your move go much smoother than you expected. 1-800-Pack-Rat has options for local moves, long-distance moves, as well as storage solutions.

To use Pack Rat’s containers, simply go to their website and set up a delivery and pick-up date for your containers. They have three containers for you to choose from, an 8-foot container, a 12-foot container, as well as a 16-foot container. Let’s go over each container and see what their features are:

1-800-Pack-Rat Moving Containers

There are three sizes of containers to choose from, so no matter how big or small your move is, you’ll be covered. They also offer a space calculator on their website that will help you determine how many containers you will need.

8-Foot moving container

• Can hold up to two rooms worth of belongings
• Has a weight limit of 4,000 pounds
• It is roughly 8’ x 8’

12-foot moving container

• Can hold up to three rooms worth of belongings
• The weight limit is 6,000 pounds
• It is roughly 10’ x 10’

16-foot moving container

• Can hold up to four rooms worth of items
• Has a weight limit of 6,000 pounds
• It is roughly 10’ by 15’

1-800-Pack-Rat moving supplies

If you need packing supplies, 1-800-Pack-Rat has you covered. Instead of going to Home Depot, Lowes, or U-Haul to get moving supplies, you can order them while ordering your containers.

We like that Pack Rat sells moving boxes, furniture blankets, tape, and packing material individually and in a kit. The kits are sold to keep money down and to make buying them easy. They have three kits: an 8-foot kit, a 12-foot kit, and a 16-foot kit. Let’s go over the kits:

8-foot moving kit

• Comes with 20 boxes
• 4 small boxes
• 12 medium boxes
• 4 large boxes
• Includes tape and a marker
• As of this posting, the price is $53.99

12-foot moving kit

• Comes with 30 boxes
• 5 small boxes
• 20 medium boxes
• 5 large boxes
• Also includes a roll of tape and a marker
• As of this writing, it costs $70.99

16-foot moving kit

• Comes with 40 boxes
• 7 small boxes
• 26 medium boxes
• 7 large boxes
• Also comes with a roll of tape and a marker
• As of this writing, it costs $103.99

You can also purchase bubble wrap, packing paper, and specialty boxes (wardrobe box, frame box, etc.) separately. Once you place your order 1-800-Pack-Rat will ship you your supplies so you can get packing.

1-800-Pack-Rat Cost

Moves are, of course, expensive no matter what route you chose (professional movers, DIY move, etc.). Since every move is unique, it is difficult to give an overall price for 1-800-Pack-Rat. However, we can give some estimates and ranges.

Long-Distance Move Cost

This amount varies based on the containers used and the distance traveled. However, you can expect to pay anywhere from $600 to $6,000.

Local Move Cost

You can expect to pay anywhere from $200 to $700. Again, the cost is determined by how many containers you use.

Storage Options

We set up a quote for Los Angeles, California (zip code 90012) for storage costs. They gave us three options based on what size container was used. Here is what we found:

	8-Foot Container	12-Foot Container	16-Foot Container
Rent	249.00	264.00	279.00
Inside warehouse fee	120.00	120.00	120.00
Per prop recovery fee	4.60	4.60	4.60
Regulatory license fee	8.50	8.50	8.50
Delivery fee (one-time fee)	89.00	89.00	89.00
Total	$471.10 ($382.10 monthly after first month)	$486.10 ($397.10 monthly after first month)	$501.10 ($412.10 monthly after first month)

We "reserved" the 12-foot container to get a closer look at the costs. 1-800-Pack-Rat does offer insurance options for your belongings.

Basic coverage with damage waiver costs a flat $9.99, but if you want to store more valuable items in the container and up your insurance then you can certainly do that. We opted for their most popular insurance coverage, which is basic coverage plus an additional $25,000 coverage for $79.95. Our total came out to $676.19, which included taxes, fees, and a “next day delivery” guarantee for $50.00.

Our Thoughts

1-800-Pack-Rat is a solid choice for moving containers. Their prices are competitive with both Pods and U-Pack, and we liked the fact that you could order all your moving needs in one go (by ordering both a container and moving supplies).