Frequently Asked Questions

As a full service moving logistics company, we offer many services and coordinate with different vendors to make sure you get the best experience possible.  Our team can handle your moving and packing needs, provide all rental items as well as packing supplies, store your items in our secure facility, or provide storage containers on your site.  Whatever your need is, our answer is Yes!  We can handle that for you and make your life less stressful.

Please call us at (703) 988-2470 or send us an email at [email protected] to get a quote for our packing, moving, and storage services.

We’ve put together suggested packages based on past client experiences.  Generally speaking, our smaller moving packages are ideal for apartment moves. For wardrobe boxes, we suggest ordering one wardrobe for every two feet of hanging clothing you’d like to pack.  For home renovation projects, we have some options that have more dollies included in them to make the packing and storage process easier for you.

For commercial orders, check out our ready to go office packages, complete a quote request, or call our reservation desk.  Generally speaking, we recommend 4 large crates and 1 dolly for each desk area that is being moved.

If you need additional boxes after your delivery give us a call and we’ll get them to you.

We accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.  We’ll take payment when you order online or over the telephone.  For corporate orders, invoicing is also an option.

Yes, you will receive an e-mail confirmation upon placing your order. You will also receive an e-mail and a phone call the day before your delivery and pickup (Friday for Monday jobs) confirming the final delivery/pickup window, address, and other pertinent information.   And of course, you can e-mail us at [email protected] or call us with any questions you may have.

Unfortunately, no.  Our warehouse moved to a secure facility which does not allow pickups at their address.

Absolutely!  Should your plans change, simply call us to reschedule.  We request at least 24 hours notice for schedule changes so we can efficiently plan our drivers’ schedules.

We know that plans change.  If you let us know at least 24 hours in advance that you no longer need our services, there will be no charge to you.  Otherwise, we will charge you 20% of the cost of your order.

I know you think it’s the R, but it actually be the C.

Delivery and Pickup Service Fee: Our box rental packages have regular delivery fees already included in them. Addresses outside of our regular service area will incur a service fee for each delivery or pickup that is outside of our service area, which will be added to the total due. Regular delivery fees start at $39/order and still apply for all orders under $100, and for
orders that are a la carte.

Delivery and Pickup from a street level entry, lobby or loading dock is free.
We charge a fee for using the elevator or climbing stairs.

• 1 flight or using the elevator, $7.50
• 2 flights, $12.50
• 3 flights, $18.50
• 4 flights, $25.00

Our rental packages include delivery and pickup of boxes and dollies. Since the pandemic, we have found it necessary to charge a service fee which helps defray the cost of fuel, and distances traveled in the region. In 2022 we moved our warehouse from Chantilly, VA to Ft. Washington, MD.

Our Service Area: Our warehouse is located in Ft. Washington, Maryland. We deliver to Maryland addresses in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties in close proximity to the Beltway.

• Arlington, Alexandria and eastern Fairfax County addresses are $10/address. Addresses in western Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties that are more than 30 miles from the warehouse are $50/address.
• Any DC address is $10/address.
• We do not charge a service fee for addresses in MD that are in our delivery area.

Some of our clients only want to rent our boxes for a short amount of time.  For those clients, we have weekly pricing. You only pay for what you need. But if you want to spend more time with the boxes, or don’t like worrying about weekly charges, we offer flat rate pricing at a substantially reduced rate. This allows you to keep the boxes for up to four or eight weeks without worrying about additional weekly charges. Flat rate rental extensions are also discounted from our normal rates. Please keep in mind, however, that if you select a flat rate package and finish earlier than expected, there is no refund for early return.

For residential orders, we rent boxes in week-long intervals.  So if you need them for just a few days, we’re happy to pick the boxes up when you’re done, but we will still charge you for the full week’s rental price.  For longer than eight week rental periods, call for our long term pricing.  We will create a custom quote for your needs.  You can send an email to [email protected] or give us a call.

For commercial orders, please complete a quote request or call our reservation desk.  We can create a custom quote, and we have daily, weekly and monthly pricing available.

Sure thing!  And thanks for the love!  Lend A Boxes may be purchased for $40 each.  Dollies are $150 each.

We try to be prepared for anything while providing excellent customer service to our clients.  That being said, we also care about the safety of our drivers.  So we will do our utmost to get your order to you on time, but if we can’t do that safely, we will call you to reschedule.  We ask for your patience and understanding if events outside of our control require us to reschedule your delivery.

Although we would love to meet you, if you have a safe space for the boxes that is easily accessible by our drivers (like on your driveway or patio), we can easily arrange for a delivery or pickup without you being there.  If your apartment or condo community has a concierge, we are happy to coordinate delivery to or pickup from them as well.  Just make sure that you let them know we are coming and provide us with specific instructions and contact information, so everything goes smoothly.

It’s best to schedule your delivery and pickup as soon as you know your dates to ensure you get the time slot you want.  But we will strive to accommodate everyone’s requests, including short notice requests.  When possible, we provide same day delivery, which has an additional fee of $25.00.

Because he wanted to get a long little doggie!

Delivery and Pickup from a street level entry, lobby or loading dock is free.
We charge a fee for using the elevator or climbing stairs.

• 1 flight or using the elevator, $7.50
• 2 flights, $12.50
• 3 flights, $18.50
• 4 flights or more, $25.00

We won’t put you (or your dog) in the doghouse – we’ll just charge you the replacement cost ($40 per Lend A Box® and $150 per dolly).

Lend A Box offers one of the most innovative, easy and smart ways to move in the DC metro area. We aim to make residential, commercial and government moving projects less stressful offering moving logistics, crate rentals and concierge storage solutions.  Our company provides moving logistics coordination all in one place!  Residential and office move scheduling, coordinating teams for packing, storage solutions and our signature box rental packages….to your door!

Storage solutions include offsite storage for items by-the-crate or by square footage and large portable containers delivered on-site or stored off-site. Pickup from and return of all rental items and storage items to the client’s location is integral to our unique client-focused service.

We rent eco-friendly plastic crates in multiple sizes and dollies.  Labels and security ties are included with the rental.  We also sell wardrobes and packing supplies that can be conveniently delivered with your rental equipment.

We agree that this is a question of the ages. We defer to Jonathan Corum to provide you an answer. http://style.org/unladenswallow/

We are a customer-service oriented moving logistics business.  Our number one commitment is to reduce your stress.  How do we do that?  We make ordering online or over the phone easy.  If you have a question, give us a call – we’ll answer the phone!  We will confirm all the details via a confirmation e-mail and give you a phone call the day before we see you.  We will adjust your order as necessary to get you what you want.  Our drivers show up when we promise (or we’ll call you to let you know what’s going on).  There are no surprises with Lend A Box!

Your time is valuable!  We offer one-hour (instead of two or more hour) delivery windows.

Cleanliness is next to … your clothes!  We clean each box every time it comes back to our warehouse before sending it out again.  Our cleaning crew hand washes your boxes, removes labels and inspects them before they go out again.

Size matters!  Our standard box (27″x17″x12″) provides 3.2 cubic feet of space. But sometimes smaller is better, which is why we also include a few of our small boxes (about the size of a bankers box) in each package for your heavy stuff.  Our small boxes are 2.4 cubic feet.  For those of you who want to impress the neighbors (or perhaps just pack bulkier items), we also offer extra large boxes (28″20″x15″), which are 4.86 cubic feet.

For commercial orders and renovation projects, you can place an order through the website, complete a commercial pricing quote request, or call our reservation desk.

There are so many reasons to choose Lend A Boxes over cardboard.  Pick one or two (or all of them) that speak to you:

• Lend A Box® saves you time and money by delivering the boxes to your door and picking them up after your move.  You avoid purchasing, assembling, breaking down, and disposing of cardboard boxes.
• One ton of cardboard is eliminated from landfills for every 10 four-bedroom packages or 50 studio packages rented from Lend A Box® .
• Lend A Boxes are made from 100% recyclable plastic.  A Lend A Box® is used hundreds of times before being reground into another Lend A Box®.  Cardboard boxes are typically used once or twice in their lifetime before ending up in a landfill.
• Producing one ton of cardboard requires 17 trees, 79 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 42,000 kilowatts of energy.  By using our plastic boxes instead of cardboard for residential moves, Americans could save over 400 million gallons of oil, about 120 million trees, and almost 65 million cubic yards of landfill annually.
• Lend A Boxes are more sanitary than cardboard boxes because they do not let in rodents or moisture (which leads to bacteria and mold).
• Lend A Boxes are cleaned and disinfected between each use.
• Lend A Boxes are more space-efficient than varying sizes of cardboard boxes when packing a moving truck.
• Lend A Boxes will not collapse.  They are stronger and able to have more weight stacked on top of them than cardboard boxes. Our boxes are crush-proof.  The large boxes are eight pounds empty, which means there is some serious armour around your valuables while they are in transit.  Although the lids can hold up to 100lbs, no one wants to carry a heavy box!  You don’t need to pack them that heavy.
• Lend A Boxes will not shift as easily as cardboard boxes will during transport.
• You don’t ever need to worry about mold, bugs, leaks, mud, or goo.

Previously used cardboard boxes are a cheaper alternative and certainly better for the environment than using new cardboard boxes.  But you still might not want to put your personal belongings in them.  Old boxes could have been sitting in storage for a long period of time, exposing the boxes to rodents and insects such as bed bugs; or they could have gotten damp, allowing bacteria and mold to grow.  Eeeeewwwwww…  And if you’re the kind of person who actually wants to use the stuff you pack after you get to your new place, you should know that cardboard boxes can collapse after only one or two uses.  Lend A Boxes are used hundreds of times with no loss of strength, increasing the likelihood that your Great Aunt Millie’s prized salt and pepper shakers will arrive at your new place in tact.

Lend A Boxes are made of industrial strength plastic that will not shatter or collapse under the weight of heavy boxes on top of them.  Plastic boxes available in the home storage areas of stores selling to the general public are not anywhere close to being as strong as a Lend A Box, as they are not made with the same type of plastic.  They will shatter and they will collapse under heavy weight.  Moreover, they are smaller in size than our standard boxes, so you’d need to get many more of them to pack up.

We clean and sanitize each box before each use to give you the happiest moving box experience possible.  Even better, Lend A Boxes are 100% bug-free and mold-free guaranteed.

Use common sense and don’t pack flammable items in the boxes.  Other than that, pretty much anything can go into a Lend A Box®, but remember not to over pack and bend with your knees, not your back!

We are not a moving company.  We are a moving logistics company that works with excellent movers to provide superior service for our clients.

It’s your choice!  If you want to have all the fun yourself, go for it!  If you’d rather share the love and let us coordinate your pack and move, we’re happy to do it.

Because that way, when you criticize them you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have their shoes.

Absolutely!  In fact, professional movers love using Lend A Boxes because of their uniform size, strength, and stack-ability.  We are happy to recommend great movers if you need one.

Yes!  We can provide boxes for your remodel or renovation.  We have packages especially for remodeling projects that include dollies at a 1:4 ratio with our crates.  That makes it way easier to move around boxes or store them in another room while the project is underway.  We can also recommend great remodeling companies.

Yes.  Once a Lend A Box®’s useful life is over, the box is reground and reincarnated as a spanking new Lend A Box®!

We are not a franchise, but we are expanding and would love to talk to you about how you could work with us.  Give us a call!

We are always looking to hire hard-working individuals who are excited to join a company with huge growth potential.

That’s just how we roll around here.

We provide storage services for clients in Northern VA.  Presently we are working in Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County.

There is no charge to receive empty boxes.  We will pickup the first collection for free. Our standard re-delivery fee is $39 any time we deliver some or all of your items back to you.   If you anticipate that you will need multiple re-deliveries a month, please call our reservation desk to discuss custom pricing options.

Rent starts the day an item is stored in our warehouse.

Storage Crates
Keep our crates as long as you need to pack them.  The rent starts either on the day we pick the packed crates up or seven days after we deliver the empty crates, whichever comes first.  

Boxed Items (Using Cardboard supplied by Lend A Box for Storage)
We require certain items to be boxed prior to sending them to our warehouse.  We will provide you with the cardboard necessary to do the job.  The rent starts either on the day we pick up the packed cardboard boxes, or  seven days after we deliver the empty cardboard boxes, whichever comes first.

Bulky Items & Unboxed Sports Equipment
The rent starts on the day we pick up the items and store them in our warehouse.

Rent is charged on a monthly basis and is not prorated.

Yes, the driver will lock the crates with a tamper-proof seal.  We also will put a seal on the cardboard boxes.

40lbs is the weight limit.

For any items over their respective limit, we may ask you to repack.  

In order to help you stay within the weight limits, we share the following packing suggestions:

1.  Do not put more than a few books in any one box or container.
2.  Pack only pictures and artwork in the picture boxes.
3.  Pack only hanging clothes in the wardrobe boxes.

Do not pack and store prohibited, illegal, stolen or perishable items. Prohibited Goods include but are not limited to the following: anything illegal for you to possess; plants; any food; creatures (whether living or dead); flammables, firearms, weapons or explosives of any kind; chemicals, hazardous or toxic materials of any kind; items which emit any kind of odor, liquids, noise or fumes; compressed gases; any currencies, bonds or securities; or any item of high value such as jewelry, antiques, fine art, fine wines, any currencies or precious metals.Do not pack and store prohibited, illegal, stolen or perishable items. Prohibited Goods include but are not limited to the following: anything illegal for you to possess; plants; any food; creatures (whether living or dead); flammables, firearms, weapons or explosives of any kind; chemicals, hazardous or toxic materials of any kind; items which emit any kind of odor, liquids, noise or fumes; compressed gases; any currencies, bonds or securities; or any item of high value such as jewelry, antiques, fine art, fine wines, any currencies or precious metals.

You really should carefully pack any fragile items using protective cushioning!  Paper, foam sleeves, and bubble wrap are great for protecting glassware and dishes.  We recommend using anti-static bubble wrap and stretch wrap for electronics.  Cardboard picture corners are a good idea for mirrors and framed artwork.

No, we leave the fun part to you and your friends.  We do, however, provide you with free packing materials for some specialty items.

No.  Even though you may have super cool plastic containers of your own, not all containers are made the same.  Most store bought bins cannot withstand the weight requirements for long term storage.  We do not want your items to be crushed, so you need to use our industrial strength plastic crates which are included in the price of your rental.  

We provide new cardboard free of charge for items that need to be boxed that will not fit in our plastic crates.  We will accept new cardboard boxes only, not previously used ones.  Cardboard has a limited lifespan and we do not want the integrity of the boxes to be compromised during storage.  

Yes! Each crate and item is assigned a unique tracking number which is also associated with your account.  Add a description or list of items for each storage crate into the online inventory when you are packing.  You can upload one picture associated with each crate.  

Using your online account, you can request any individual crate or item to be re-delivered.

If you need your items back faster than our normal delivery times, call the Reservation Desk and we’ll do our very best to accommodate you.  Premium delivery charges will apply for expedited or after-hours deliveries.

Yes.  Let our reservation desk know that you would like to send some of the crates to storage after you move.  Box rentals and storage rentals are handled separately from a billing perspective.  But from a scheduling perspective, we can customize the empty box returns and storage logistics to your needs.  We will set up a client account for you, so you can start building your inventory and descriptions on line as you pack.  We’ll pickup up the full crates and take them to storage.  Rent for the storage will start on the day we pickup the crates.

Our storage warehouse is located in Chantilly, VA.

No.  We do not allow access to our storage warehouse.

It is your responsibility to insure your possessions. We recommend that you add any items in storage to your renter’s or homeowner’s insurance policy.   That being said, we will cover up to $100 replacement value per crate.