Description
BoxMetric adds a free moving volume calculator to your WordPress site, in cubic feet or cubic metres. It answers the questions your customers already search for: how much stuff do I have, what size moving truck or removal van do I need, what size storage unit, and how many boxes? When they are done, they send you the full inventory as a quote request.
Visitors list what they are moving, room by room, and see the total volume update as they go. The calculator suggests the van or truck, the shipping container and the storage unit that fit. Each request reaches you with the item list, volume, weight, addresses, floors, parking and moving date, so you can price the job without a home survey or a long phone call.
Made for: moving companies, removal firms, man and van services, self-storage operators, international movers and shipping companies, and office and commercial movers. Sizes are included for the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia.
See it in action
Watch the full guide (4:33): a customer builds a list, asks for a quote, and the request lands in Leads. Every screen uses demo data.
For your visitors
- 441 items in 21 rooms, from sofas and wardrobes to pianos, hot tubs, shop fittings, salon chairs and pallets. Volumes are checked against a dozen published moving-company calculators.
- Five clear categories: Home, Garage & garden, Specialty items, Boxes & packing, and Business. Pick a category, then a room.
- 14 Quick Starts. One tap fills a typical list for boxes only, a few items, a student room, a studio, a 1 to 5 bedroom home, a garage and shed, a storage unit, a small office, a shop or a café. Totals are checked against published moving-company figures.
- Search in your own words: UK, US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand names work, for example “couch”, “settee”, “chesterfield”, “hoover”, “esky” or “chilly bin”.
- Box estimator. Five quick questions suggest how many small, medium, large and wardrobe boxes to add.
- Add your own item by typing its length, width and height, and pick an icon for it.
- Live total in cubic metres or cubic feet, with a switch between them, an estimated weight and the number of boxes.
- What fits. The right van or truck, shipping container and storage unit, shown as animated drawings that fill up as items are added.
- A packing margin is added to the total for gaps when loading.
- Share the list with a link (it opens on any device and nothing is stored on your server), print it, or come back later: the list is remembered in the visitor’s browser.
- A forgotten-areas check before the quote reminds visitors of areas they skipped, such as the garage or garden. It follows the service they pick, so an office move gets office areas and storage gets the usual storage extras.
- Undo after clearing the list.
- Light, dark or automatic theme in your brand colours.
- No credit links. Nothing on your site, in your emails or on printouts links back to this plugin.
For your business
- Quote requests with the visitor’s name, email, phone, addresses, moving date and service, floor and lift at each address, parking and extra services (packing, dismantling, storage, disposal, cleaning), plus the full item list and totals.
- Email notification to you, with an optional copy to the customer.
- Quote requests are kept in WordPress under BoxMetric > Leads, with a status, follow-ups and notes for each, and can be exported as a branded Excel file, a plain CSV file for your CRM, or a PDF report.
- Edit everything. Change any room, item, volume or preset, and choose from more than 220 icons sorted into categories. Add your own vans, trucks and storage units. Export and import your item list as JSON.
- Regional tables for the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia.
- Spam protection with a hidden field, a security token and a limit on requests per visitor. No captcha and no third-party service.
Add it to any page
Add the BoxMetric Volume Calculator block, or paste this shortcode anywhere shortcodes work, including page builders:
[msvcalc_calculator]
Change it for one page with these options:
units:m3orft3, for example[msvcalc_calculator units="ft3"]theme:light,darkorautoquote:yesorno, to show or hide the quote formtitleandintro: your own heading and intro textaccent: a hex colour, for example[msvcalc_calculator accent="#0fb5ba"]
The block has the same options in its sidebar.
Built the WordPress way
- A block and a shortcode. Scripts and styles load only on pages that show the calculator.
- No external fonts, scripts or services, and no tracking.
- Works with page caching: the security token is refreshed when needed.
- Privacy tools: quote requests are included in WordPress’s personal data export and erase tools, and old requests can be deleted automatically.
- Translation ready.
Screenshots
Blocks
This plugin provides 1 block.
- BoxMetric Volume Calculator A room-by-room moving volume calculator in cubic feet or cubic metres, with truck, container and storage unit sizes and a quote form.
Installation
- Go to Plugins > Add New, search for “BoxMetric”, click Install Now, then Activate.
- Open BoxMetric > Settings. Choose your region and unit, and enter the email address that should receive quote requests.
- Add the “BoxMetric Volume Calculator” block to any page, or paste the shortcode
[msvcalc_calculator].
FAQ
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How do I add a moving volume calculator to my WordPress website?
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Install the plugin, then add the “BoxMetric Volume Calculator” block to any page, or paste the shortcode
[msvcalc_calculator]anywhere shortcodes work, including page builders. Choose your region, unit (cubic feet or cubic metres) and the email that should receive quote requests under BoxMetric > Settings. -
Is this a moving cost calculator?
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No prices are shown to the customer. Moving costs depend on your rates, distance, access and services, so the calculator gives you what you need to price the job: the volume, weight, item list, addresses, floors, parking, date and extra services. You send the quote yourself.
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How can a moving company get more leads from its website?
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Give visitors a useful tool instead of a plain contact form. People planning a move want to know how much they have and what size truck or storage unit they need. This calculator answers that, then asks for their details to “Get my free quote”. Every lead arrives complete and is kept under BoxMetric > Leads, with statuses, follow-up reminders, notes and Excel, CSV or PDF export.
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How many cubic feet is a 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom house?
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These are the plugin’s Quick Start totals for a typically furnished home, including a 10% packing margin:
- Studio: about 11 m³ (400 cu ft)
- 1 bedroom: about 17 m³ (600 cu ft)
- 2 bedrooms: about 24 m³ (850 cu ft)
- 3 bedrooms: about 36 m³ (1,250 cu ft)
- 4 bedrooms: about 47 m³ (1,650 cu ft)
- 5 bedrooms: about 60 m³ (2,100 cu ft)
Every home is different, so customers adjust the list item by item.
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What size moving truck or removal van do I need?
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It depends on the volume. With the default sizes: a 15 ft truck (about 21 m³) or a Luton van (about 18 m³) suits a 1 bedroom home. A 20 ft truck (about 28 m³) suits 2 bedrooms. A 7.5 tonne lorry (about 35 m³) suits a smaller 3 bedroom home, and a 26 ft truck (about 45 m³) suits a 3 bedroom or lightly furnished 4 bedroom home. A 4 bedroom home needs an 18 tonne lorry (about 50 m³), and larger homes a removal pantechnicon (about 85 m³) or two trips. The calculator picks the best fit and shows how full it will be.
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What size storage unit do I need?
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As a guide with the default sizes: a 1 bedroom home fits a 10×10 ft or 100 sq ft unit, 2 bedrooms a 10×15 ft or 150 sq ft unit, 3 bedrooms a 10×20 ft or 200 sq ft unit, and 4 bedrooms a 10×30 ft or 300 sq ft unit. The calculator suggests the smallest unit that fits the list. Storage companies can enter their own unit sizes.
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Will my furniture fit in a 20 ft or 40 ft shipping container?
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A 20 ft container holds about 28 m³ (1,000 cu ft), enough for a studio to a 2 bedroom home. A 40 ft container holds about 58 m³ (2,050 cu ft), enough for a 3 or 4 bedroom home, and a 40 ft high cube about 66 m³. The calculator shows which container fits the list.
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How many moving boxes do I need?
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The Quick Starts include about 18 boxes for a studio, 25 for 1 bedroom, 38 for 2 bedrooms, 49 for 3 bedrooms, 63 for 4 bedrooms and 75 for 5 bedrooms. The box estimator asks five quick questions (home size, cupboards and wardrobes, books, kitchen, and loft or garage) and suggests a count for each box size.
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How do you calculate moving volume?
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Add up the volume of every item (length × width × height), then add a margin for the gaps when loading. The calculator does this for 441 common items with typical volumes that include wrapping, and adds a 10% packing margin by default. 1 cubic metre is 35.3 cubic feet.
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How accurate is the total?
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It is an estimate. Each item has a typical volume, and the packing margin covers gaps when loading. You can change every volume and the margin to match how your team packs.
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Does it work for storage, office and international moves?
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Yes. Quick Starts cover a storage unit, a garage and shed, a small office, a shop and a café, and the results include storage units and shipping containers as well as vans and trucks. Turn off what you do not offer in the settings.
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Can I use my own vans, trucks and storage units?
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Yes. Edit the sizes or add your own under BoxMetric > Vehicles & storage. Every room, item, volume, icon and Quick Start can be changed under Rooms & items.
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Can I change the settings for one page only?
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Yes. The shortcode accepts
units(m3 or ft3),theme(light, dark or auto),quote(yes or no),title,introandaccent(a hex colour). For example:[msvcalc_calculator units="ft3" theme="dark" quote="no"]. The block has the same options in its sidebar. -
Emails are not arriving. What can I do?
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The plugin uses WordPress’s own email function. If your site’s other emails also go missing, install an SMTP plugin to send through a proper mail service. While “Store requests” is on, every request is also saved under BoxMetric > Leads, and a failed email is flagged there with a “Send email again” button.
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What happens to my data when I delete the plugin?
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By default your settings, items and quote requests are kept, in case you reinstall. Turn on “Remove data” in BoxMetric > Settings > Data & privacy to delete them with the plugin.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“BoxMetric: Moving & Storage Volume Calculator” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “BoxMetric: Moving & Storage Volume Calculator” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1
- New name: BoxMetric: Moving & Storage Volume Calculator.
- Removed the optional “Powered by” link. The plugin adds no credit links anywhere.
- The customer copy email is now off by default, and each address gets at most one copy a day.
- The daily clean-up of old quote requests starts again on its own if it ever stops.
- Security improvements to the quote form.
1.0.0
- First release.