What Size Moving Truck Do I Need for My Move?

Choosing the wrong moving truck size is one of the most common and costly mistakes in a DIY move. Too small and you’re making multiple trips or leaving furniture behind. Too large and you’re paying more for fuel, the rental itself, and risking your belongings shifting and getting damaged during transit. And in Norman and OKC, where you might be navigating OU campus apartment parking restrictions or tight suburban driveways, truck maneuverability matters too.

Here’s how to get the size right the first time.

Factors That Determine What Truck Size You Need

Number of Rooms

The quickest estimate method is allocating 150–200 cubic feet of truck space per room. Round up rather than down — furniture is almost always bulkier than it looks when you’re trying to fit it into a truck. A 2-bedroom apartment at 200 cubic feet per room puts you around 400 cubic feet minimum, which means a medium box truck. Add a third bedroom and you’re looking at a large truck. This method gives you a starting point, not a precise calculation — use the item-by-item tables below to refine it.

Volume and Size of Your Belongings

The most accurate way to size a truck is to count your actual items and look up their cubic footage. Two people living in the same size apartment can need very different truck sizes depending on how much furniture they own. Use the space estimates in the tables below to add up your specific situation. If you have specialty items — a piano, gun safe, or hot tub — those require their own planning beyond just cubic footage. See our piano moving, gun safe moving, and hot tub moving pages for how those items are handled.

Moving Truck Types and Sizes

• Pickup trucks: Best for moving a handful of items or a single large piece of furniture — not a practical choice for moving a full home
• Cargo vans: Ideal for studio apartments, dorm rooms, or moving a few items across town. Easy to drive and park in tight Norman campus areas or OKC urban streets
• Box trucks: The standard moving truck — what most people picture. Available in small, medium, and large sizes to match different home sizes

Common Rental Truck Sizes and Specifications

How to Estimate the Right Truck Size

1. Create a complete inventory: Walk through every room and list every item you’re moving — furniture, appliances, boxes, and anything else. This is your foundation for everything else
2. Group by size and type: Organize the inventory by category — living room furniture, bedroom furniture, kitchen appliances, boxes. This helps you visualize the actual volume more accurately than room count alone
3. Use the cubic footage tables below: Add up the space required for your specific items using the reference tables. This is more accurate than any room-count formula
4. Use online calculators to cross-check: Moving truck rental companies (U-Haul, Penske, Budget) all have online size calculators — run your inventory through one as a sanity check against your own calculation
5. Account for specialty items: A grand piano takes 85 cubic feet. A large gun safe can take 20–40 cubic feet depending on its size. These items often require specialized equipment beyond the truck itself — plan for that separately
6. Factor in packing efficiency: Disassembling furniture, stacking boxes efficiently, and using moving blankets to fill gaps can meaningfully reduce the truck size you need. See our guides on disassembling a bed frame and packing boxes efficiently
7. Budget for the right size: The cost difference between one truck size up is almost always less than the cost of a second trip or damaged belongings from an overloaded or poorly loaded truck

Cubic Footage Reference Tables

Living Room Items

Bedroom Items

Kitchen and Hall Items

Office Items

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Underestimating space needed: Items are almost always bulkier in the truck than they look in your home. Always round up, never down
• Overestimating space needed: Too much empty space means items shift during transit — which is how furniture gets damaged on a long drive
• Ignoring specialty items: A piano, gun safe, or large appliance needs to be accounted for specifically — both in cubic footage and in the equipment needed to load it safely
• Not checking truck dimensions at both addresses: A 26-foot truck that can’t turn into your new driveway or fit under a parking structure is useless. Measure access points and check overhead clearances before booking
• Not packing before sizing: Rough box counts are often wildly inaccurate. Actually pack your boxes before finalizing your truck reservation if you can — or at least do a room-by-room count of filled boxes

Skip the Truck Entirely — Let Us Handle It

If calculating cubic footage, renting a truck, and doing the physical work yourself sounds like more than you want to deal with, that’s exactly what we’re here for. Our local moving service brings the right-sized truck for your move — we size it based on your inventory during the quote process, so you never have to think about it. We also offer packing and unpacking and labor-only loading if you’ve already rented a truck and just need help filling it.

For moves out of Oklahoma, see our long-distance moving page — interstate moves are priced by weight and distance, not by truck size, so the calculation works differently. And for a realistic sense of what professional moving costs compared to a DIY truck rental, see our 2026 moving cost guide for Norman and OKC.

Call (405) 437-8243 for a free quote, or request one via our Contact Us page. Available 7 days a week across Norman, Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Moore.