Rent a Box Services Build Moving Easier for Some

FOR Sara Schmidt, an actress, moving to a new residence used to involve a tiresome quest for cardboard boxes. She picked up castoffs from the street and canvassed her local liquid stores for others and even then, she still found herself buying luxurious new boxes and supplies like packing tape. 

But this fall, when she moved to Hoboken from Midtown West, Ms. Schmidt, who is in the cast of “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, took a far less physical approach: she rented stackable plastic moving boxes from a new service called Bin-It.

Bin-It and a similar service, Juggle box moving, have recently entered the New York moving market. Both deliver stacks of strong boxes and pick them up after the move is complete.

The boxes can be prearranged online or by phone. Bin-It’s price for a one bedroom move, with 25 boxes, is $109 plus a $30 service fee. At Juggle box, a one bedroom move with 35 boxes is $129. Other supplies, including wardrobe boxes, packing paper, labels and dollies, are obtainable from each service.

Ms. Schmidt was happy with the service, particularly because she didn’t have to lug used boxes down to the trash. “I will never do cardboard boxes again,” she said.

Both services advocate that people hire movers to convey the boxes and larger items like furniture. Robert The young, one of Bin-It’s founders, said using the service could keep money with movers who charge by the hour, because his company’s rigid cartons can be stacked four to five feet high, reducing the figure of trips.

Mr. Theryoung started Bin-It with a high school buddy, Chris Walsh, and Jef Walker. The idea stalked from Mr. Walsh’s small company making T-shirts for musicians and artists, which relied on plastic containers to transport gear. The concept seemed easily transferrable to housing moves.

Surinder Singh founded Juggle box after helping a friend who had just moved within Brooklyn. “There were a ton of cardboard boxes all over her residence,” Mr. Singh said. She complained about the attempt involved in assembling, disassembling and disposing of them. The move was just a few blocks away, which “augmented the waste,” Mr. Singh said. Reusable boxes struck him as so much more expedient, economical and environmentally gracious.

Both services ongoing last year, serving New York City and northern New Jersey. Both plan to expand physically.

And both are operational out some kinks. Bin-It is about to charge that $30 service fee upon condition, instead of requiring imbursement in full upfront. That is because people are often afraid to commit because of unsure moving dates, Mr. Walsh said.

Shortly after Juggle box opened for business, so many orders poured in that “we could barely handle the demand,” Mr. Singh said. Because boxes filled with books or china is grave, Juggle box plans to add boxes in a lesser size.

Another Bin-It client, Maria Elena Romagnolo de Laurentiis, a designer from Italy, moved last fall with her family of four, plus their “marvelous amount of stuff,” to Westchester County from the Upper East Side. She bought Bin-It’s four bedroom package, along with five clothes bins, for nearly $400.

“I had a quarrel with my husband,” she said, “because at the end, when you see the bill, it looks maybe high as a number.” But allowing for “how much trouble you will have to get the cardboard, buy the tape and cut the tape every time you shut and seal the box,” she said, she felt it was a good deal.