Overall, I had a great experience with Ecobox. They do what they do very well, and while there are pros and cons to using the service, I can see many situations where the pros outweigh the cons, and may use them again myself as well, when/if I move from my new place.
SHORT VERSION:
GREAT things about Ecobox:
* Best price in town for rented bins as far as I could find.
* Super friendly helpful people!
* Delivery and pickup is super easy and stress-free.
* Able to open boxes after packing without re-taping. I packed well in advance so I turned out to need something I’d packed a number of times. This was very helpful.
* Boxes are very sturdy, so packing doesn’t *have* to be as perfect, and there’s more peace of mind for possessions.
* Boxes are cleaned and quarantined for peace-of-mind and the safety of possessions.
* Offer dolly rental (VERY helpful) and packing supplies at reasonable prices from the same place.
* Movers were able to bring in many boxes at a time on their dollies, as the stacking function and solidity made it easy to move boxes as a stable unit.
Reasons I might NOT use Ecobox next time:
* Much higher cost than the "box foraging" method I’ve used before
* Boxes feel heavy even when empty to carry around myself
* Imposes a tighter timeline than I would have with boxes I owned (this may be a pro for some)
* Package I got wasn’t enough boxes, so I’d have to order and therefore pay more next time to take full advantage of the convenience factor, even if I don’t own anything more.
These two preferences of mine made my experience less awesome with the Ecoboxes than it would otherwise have been. But they make the move and packing/unpacking experience much better, so I wasn’t and am not willing to abandon them for the sake of taking full advantage of the benefits of Ecobox. If you share these preferences, they’re good to consider as you weigh your options. If you don’t, then definitely add some points of confidence to Ecobox in your decision making, because Clayton and his team do their job well, offer a sturdy product, fulfil all their promises, and deserve the business of those they’re meant to serve, which is probably most people who are moving, and don’t do these two things:
* Color code 2-5 sides of my boxes with custom color labels so the movers know where to take them in the new place
* Pack well in advance of the move, and take my time unpacking.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:
Compared to my other moves:
I’ve only ever moved before with the “gather free boxes from friends, online listings and liquor stores” method. It’s cheap, much cheaper than any other option, but it’s annoying, and costs on time and gas, plus you don’t know the boxes are clean (more important now than ever) and have to deal with them after the move. I decided to use ecobox this time partly because of more cautious health policies, and because I temporarily can’t drive, so couldn’t do all the picking up myself I normally would.
Pricing:
Ecobox has by far the best pricing I found amongst the local bin rental companies. They’re also correct that they’re less expensive than buying new cardboard boxes in almost all circumstances and from almost all places. My Ecobox order ended up being 30% of my total cost for moving including movers, with my coupon code.
Boxes:
I got the Eco-60 package, which at the time of writing includes 50 medium green bins and 10 large blue bins. The website recommends this package for "3-4 Bedrooms 1700-2000sq”. We were moving out of a 3 bedroom upper floor, about 1400 sq, with minimal built in storage and no basement.
We’re not minimalists, but we have fully KonMari’d our home, and for the most part I’d consider us average thing-havers. The area we have more than average in is I have an art/craft workshop with various supplies. I’m very fond of tetris-ing and did my very best to take full advantage of all the space in each box.
Nevertheless, In addition to the ecoboxes, we did have to gather and ask for between 20-30 additional cardboard boxes. This lessened the convenience of the whole endeavour, but still wasn’t as much of a chore as gathering ALL my own boxes would have been. If we’d had to buy those boxes, it would have cost an additional *minimum* $50 or so. So if you have a collection or hobby that involves physical materials like I do, definitely consider getting the next package up or higher if you want to go all-ecobox with your packing.
Dolly:
I was grateful every day to have rented the flat dolly option, to be able to move the stacks of boxes easily, and move several packed boxes at once within the house to make it easier for movers in advance. Unfortunately as of this writing Ecobox doesn’t rent out the taller dollies you’d need if you have stairs in your old or new home, but it’s not really an issue if you don’t plan on moving the empty box stacks, or moving boxes out of the rooms they’re packed in yourself.
Other Materials:
Their packing materials are also very reasonably priced compared to other options I looked at. The wardrobe box was great, the cardboard boxes were high quality and well priced. Some things, like the packing tape and eco-roll of kraft paper, reflected lower cost in quality or quantity compared to what I expected, respectively. Also paying for Ecobox’s labels so I didn’t have to remove them myself negated much of the cost savings of not having to tape up the boxes, and since I did a custom color-code system that involved other labels, I had to do a bunch of label-peeling myself anyway, so the not having to remove their labels wasn’t that big a benefit for me personally.