Two numbers decide most of what a move costs and how long it takes: the size of the truck and the size of the crew. Get them right and the day runs in one clean trip. Get them wrong and you are either paying for space you did not use or making a second run across town at five in the afternoon.
Here is how to size both honestly, without the guesswork that leads to a truck packed to the roof and a sofa left on the lawn.
Sizing a Move at a Glance
- Studio or small one bedroom: a 10 to 12 foot truck, two movers, roughly three to four hours.
- One to two bedroom apartment: a 15 to 17 foot truck, two movers, roughly four to six hours.
- Two to three bedroom home: a 20 to 22 foot truck, three movers, roughly six to eight hours.
- Three to four bedroom home: a 26 foot truck, three to four movers, a full day.
- Four bedrooms and up: a 26 foot truck with a second trip, or two trucks, and four or more movers.
- Stairs, long carries and heavy specialty items add crew, not truck.
Truck Size Is About Volume, Not Bedrooms
Bedroom counts are a rough shorthand and they mislead in both directions. A minimalist three bedroom house can fit in a 17 foot truck. A one bedroom belonging to someone who has lived there twelve years and never thrown anything away will not.
Better questions to ask yourself:
- How full is the garage, the basement or the storage closet? These hold more volume than any bedroom.
- Is there large furniture that does not disassemble? Sectionals, armoires, treadmills and pianos eat floor space in a truck.
- How many boxes, realistically? Count what you have already packed and multiply, rather than estimating from memory.
- Are there appliances coming with you? A fridge, a washer and a dryer together take a serious bite out of a small truck.
The cheapest way to drop a truck size is to genuinely reduce what is going. Our guide to reducing clutter before you pack covers where the easy volume actually hides, and the downsizing guide goes further for anyone moving to a smaller place.
Why One Trip Beats Two
People often think a smaller truck saves money. Usually it does not. A second trip means the drive both ways, reloading, and the crew on the clock through all of it. On a local move that round trip can add an hour and a half of billable time, which almost always exceeds the difference between a 17 foot and a 20 foot truck.
The exception is a genuinely short hop, a few blocks or within the same complex, where a second run is quick. Everywhere else, size up.
Crew Size Is About Access, Not Just Volume
This is where most estimates go wrong. Two movers can handle a lot of furniture. What slows them down is the route between the furniture and the truck.
Add a Mover When You Have
- Stairs. A second or third floor walk up changes the whole equation. Every item goes down by hand, and fatigue is real by hour four.
- A long carry. If the truck parks fifty yards away, every trip is doubled. In the close-in neighborhoods this is common, which is why reserving curb space is worth the small permit cost.
- An elevator. Counterintuitively, elevators slow moves down. One car, one load at a time, waiting between runs.
- Heavy specialty items. A gun safe, a piano, a treadmill or a slate pool table needs three or four people and the right equipment, not two people and determination.
- A hard deadline. If you must be out by noon, buy the extra pair of hands rather than hoping.
Our post on moving large furniture through tight spaces covers the items that reliably need more people, and moving heavy appliances covers the other common category.
When Two Is Plenty
Ground floor to ground floor, a driveway at both ends, an apartment’s worth of furniture and no specialty items. That is a two mover job and adding a third mostly adds cost.
The Trade Between Crew Size and Hours
On an hourly move, more movers cost more per hour but fewer hours. The two usually land close, and the larger crew wins on anything with stairs because fatigue is not linear. Three movers do not just work fifty percent faster than two on a walk up. They work faster and they stay faster.
Where a bigger crew clearly wins: stairs, deadlines, heavy items, and any move where the truck cannot park close. Where it does not: a small flat load-out where people end up waiting for each other.
How this shows up on your bill depends on the pricing model, which we break down in hourly movers versus flat rate. The wider budgeting picture is in the true cost of moving in Portland, and if you are weighing doing it yourself, should you move yourself or hire professionals is the honest version of that comparison.
How to Get an Estimate That Holds
The single best thing you can do is let someone actually see the home, by walkthrough or video. An estimate built from a phone conversation is built from your description, and most people under-describe. Nobody counts the garage.
Tell the estimator, without being asked:
- Every floor involved at both ends, and whether there is an elevator.
- Where a truck can realistically park, and how far that is from the door.
- Anything unusually heavy, fragile or oversized.
- What is in the garage, the shed, the attic and the storage unit.
- Whether you are packing yourself or want packing handled too.
Surprises on the day are what turn a good estimate into a bad invoice. Our post on avoiding hidden moving fees covers the charges that catch people out, and packing clothes for a faster move covers one of the easiest ways to shorten the day yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What size truck do I need for a two bedroom apartment?
A 15 to 17 foot truck covers most two bedroom apartments. Move up to a 20 foot if you have large furniture, appliances coming with you, or a well used storage closet.
How many movers do I need for a three bedroom house?
Three is the usual answer, four if there are stairs at either end, a long carry, or heavy specialty items. Two movers on a three bedroom house with stairs will take much longer than the hourly saving is worth.
Is it cheaper to book fewer movers?
Per hour, yes. Overall, often not. Fewer movers means more hours, and on stairs the gap widens because the crew tires. The clean comparison is total cost, not hourly rate.
What if I underestimate and everything does not fit?
Then it becomes a second trip, which adds drive time and reload time on the clock. Sizing up one truck class is almost always cheaper than a second run.
Do stairs really change things that much?
Yes, more than any other single factor besides distance to the truck. A third floor walk up can add hours to an otherwise ordinary apartment move.
Making the Move
Size the truck on volume rather than bedrooms, size the crew on access rather than volume, and describe your home honestly to whoever is quoting it. Those three things get you an estimate that survives contact with moving day.
Our residential moving service covers the sizing as part of the quote, and for moves around the west side our crews handling work as movers in Tigard and the surrounding suburbs deal with these calls daily. Request a quick estimate and we will size it with you.
Further reading: FMCSA Protect Your Move on estimates and mover selection, and the FMCSA guide to your rights and responsibilities.