Moving Crates and Boxes

Quick answer: moving crates are reusable plastic crates, normally with lids. They are delivered to your door before the move, packed by you at your own pace, carried by the crew on moving day and collected empty after you have unpacked. They are arranged as part of a move inside Israel, with one contact in English on WhatsApp and one closed price that covers the delivery, the move and the pickup. If some things need cardboard, that can be part of the same conversation.

Who does what. The crates, the delivery and the crew come from the independent moving company that carries out your job. MovingIL does not stock crates or run a shop. We coordinate: we make sure the dates, the number of crates and the pickup are written down in the chat before you agree.

Why people choose crates over cardboard. Crates are rigid, so they stack evenly in the truck and in the hall, and they keep their shape when a stairwell is damp after winter rain. They have handles, which matters in the many Israeli buildings with no elevator, where every container goes down three or four flights by hand. There is no tape to buy, no stack of flattened cartons to get rid of afterwards and nothing to split on a stairwell corner. The trade-offs are real, though. Crates have to go back by an agreed date, they take up floor space while you pack, and they do not suit everything.

What crates are not for. Mirrors, framed pictures, flat-screen TVs, lamps with large shades, plants and clothes you want to keep on hangers need something else: a picture box, a wardrobe carton or the TV's own box. Keep a few things out of the crates altogether: cash, jewelry, passports, your Israeli ID card (teudat zehut) and driver's license, bank cards, laptops, medication and the keys to both apartments. Those travel with you, in a bag you carry yourself.

Fill them the way the stairs demand. Heavy things go in small crates and light things in big ones. Books are the classic mistake: a large crate of books is a back injury waiting to happen, so fill a small crate or put a single layer of books at the bottom and top up with towels. If you cannot lift a full crate comfortably, it is too heavy for a stairwell. Close the lid every time. A lid that will not close means the crate is overfilled and will not stack. Wrap glasses and plates in paper or cloth, stand plates on their edges, and fill gaps with towels so nothing rattles.

Label by destination, not by contents. Write the room in the new home on two sides of every crate, not the room it came from: Kitchen, Bedroom 2, Study. A roll of colored tape per room, stuck on the crate and on the door frame of that room in the new apartment, lets anyone place a crate correctly without reading Hebrew or English. Then pack one open-first crate or bag for the first night: bed linen, towels, a kettle, mugs, phone chargers, toiletries and something familiar for the children.

On moving day, stack the crates in the room where they were packed, lids on and labels facing outward, and leave one clear path to the front door. Empty and defrost the refrigerator and freezer the day before. A half-packed crate on the morning of the move slows down the whole job, so set yourself a finishing time the evening before and keep to it.

A kosher kitchen needs an extra step. If you keep meat and dairy separate, give each its own crates and label them in your own words, with a third color for parve. Pesach dishes and utensils stay sealed in their own crates and are never mixed with the year-round set, so they come out of the move exactly as they went in. Our guide to packing a kitchen goes through the details.

How many crates? Nobody can give an honest number without knowing your home. Books, kitchenware and children's toys use far more crates than clothes. Israeli listings count the living room as a room, so a four-room apartment usually means three bedrooms and a living room, and that is the way to describe yours when you write. Tell us the rooms, roughly how many shelves of books you own, how full the kitchen cupboards are and the move date. We would rather suggest a small buffer than leave you with the last six items in a trash bag.

Delivery, time with the crates and pickup. The delivery date, the number of days you keep the crates and the pickup date are agreed in the chat before you confirm, and they appear in the closed price. For a family apartment the usual pattern is delivery several days before the move, so there is time to pack without stress, and pickup after you have unpacked. Do not order for longer than you need, because every extra day is another day of walking around a tower of crates. Ask what happens if you need more days, or if a crate or a lid is cracked or goes missing, and have the answer in writing before the day.

Crates and cardboard can work together. Many people use crates for the kitchen, books, toys and clothes, and cardboard for the oddities. Wardrobe cartons with a hanging rail and flat picture boxes are the usual companions to crates. If you collect boxes that shops give away, choose sturdy ones, reinforce the bottoms and do not trust anything that held fruit or vegetables and has gone soft with damp. Cardboard is also the better choice for a long stay in storage, where crates would be out of circulation for months.

If you would rather not pack at all, that is a different service. The packing service sends packers who wrap and box everything, and crates then become the container rather than the chore. A middle path is popular: you pack the clothes, books and toys into crates, and the packers deal with the kitchen, the fragile pieces and the pictures. Say which you want and the closed price will reflect it. To start, send the room count and your date on WhatsApp.

How the price works. You get one closed price on WhatsApp that lists the number of crates, the rental period, the delivery and pickup, and the move itself. We do not publish a per-crate price here, because a figure without your list behind it would be a guess. Crates are not sold or rented on their own. They come with a move, and if your request falls outside that, we will tell you straight.