Moving Supplies in Hershey, PA: What You Actually Need

The moving supplies you actually need for a Hershey move fit on one short list: containers, packing paper, labels, a marker, and a dolly. Everything else the supply aisle sells — tape dispensers, box cutters, specialty mirror cartons, endless bubble wrap — is either replaceable or unnecessary when the containers are crates with attached lids.

The Hershey landscape: what shapes a move here

The moving-supplies run in Hershey is a defined circuit. For supplies, Hershey proper is thin — a grocery store, pharmacies, and hardware in small formats. The real supply run is the Hershey-Hummelstown corridor: big-box retail along 422 and in Hummelstown, plus the Palmyra Home Depot five minutes east. Cardboard math is the same as everywhere: $80-$250 for a two-bedroom if you buy new, plus the building taping and the disposal run after. Given how many Hershey moves are one-to-three-year rotations — residents, travel nurses, project staff — buying cardboard you'll use once and pay to store or dump makes even less sense here than usual. Crates deliver, which also solves the no-big-car problem many renters have.

Hershey has two moving seasons that other towns don't. The first is the academic medical calendar: Penn State Health residents, fellows, and faculty turn over around July 1, and the surrounding rental market moves with it — late June through mid-July is a frenzy of apartment and townhome moves. The second is the normal school-year peak for Derry Township families in June through August. Both stack onto month-ends, so a late-June move in Hershey is the single hardest booking in the region. The counter-season is real: November through February, movers discount and the same crews that were booked solid in July are available on short notice.

Hershey's moving population is unusually professional and unusually temporary. A large share of inbound movers are Penn State Health and Hershey Medical Center staff on fixed contracts, Hershey Company and Hershey Entertainment employees, and Milton Hershey School families and staff. That creates a constant, year-round churn in the rental stock that most towns this size never see. The flip side is the families buying into Derry Township schools who stay for decades. As a mover, the practical effect: the rental market moves fast, good apartments go in days during the June-July turnover, and furnished and short-term options exist here that don't exist anywhere else in the region.

The short list (and what to skip)

Containers

Crates or boxes — 25 to 30 for a typical two-bedroom Hershey home. This is 90% of the budget and the decision that matters.

Packing paper

Ten pounds covers a kitchen and the fragiles. Skip the bubble wrap except for genuinely delicate pieces.

Labels + markers

Color-code by room. Your future self, standing in the new Hershey living room at 9pm, says thanks.

Skip

Tape guns (no tape needed with crates), box cutters (nothing to break down), and wardrobe cartons unless your closets are huge — two rental wardrobe boxes cover most Hershey closets.

The details that matter

The complete Hershey moving-supplies list, in the order you'll use it: boxes or crates first, then packing paper (unprinted newsprint — cleaner than newspaper and cheap by the bundle), then tape if you're using cardboard (two rolls minimum, the real packing tape, not the dollar-store roll that fails under books), two fat markers, and a box cutter for the far end. Equipment: a dolly is non-negotiable for anything beyond a studio — crates come with one, cardboard doesn't — plus straps for the truck and moving blankets for furniture. What you don't need: bubble wrap for anything but genuinely fragile items (towels and linens wrap better and were coming anyway), specialty 'dish packs' (double-wall boxes or crates plus paper do the job), and wardrobe boxes unless you own enough hanging clothes to fill one. The one-trip rule saves real time: build the full list from your room count, buy it all in one pass, and never let packing night stall on a missing roll of tape.

Hershey's housing zones are shaped by the two employers. Near the medical center and the Penn State Health campus, the stock is heavy with townhomes, condos, and apartments that turn over with the academic medical calendar — this is where residents, fellows, nurses, and visiting researchers land, often for one to three years. The older Hershey grid near Chocolate Avenue and the downtown core has the 1920s-1950s homes, including the original Milton Hershey-era company housing, much of it beautifully kept. Derry Township's newer edges — toward Hummelstown, Palmyra, and the south side — carry the subdivisions and the premium price tags, driven by the Derry Township School District's reputation. Rents here run the highest in the region; the value play is buying, if you can find inventory.

The Hershey playbook

Buy (or rent) supplies in one pass, before packing night one: boxes or crates, tape if cardboard, paper, markers, a dolly, and straps. Hershey-specific moving tips: if you're arriving for a med-center contract, ask your department's admin about the July turnover — leases, furniture lists, and moving help circulate internally, and the best apartments near campus are gone by May. Confirm elevator and loading-dock reservations before your movers confirm their schedule. Don't plan a cross-town truck route through Chocolate Avenue between 3 and 6 p.m. in summer. If you're buying, budget for Derry Township prices but check Palmyra and Hummelstown addresses — the commute difference is ten minutes. And if your stay is a one-to-three-year rotation, rent crates and skip owning anything box-shaped entirely; you'll be moving again before the cardboard would have paid for itself.

Mistakes that cost movers here

• Buying supplies in four trips: Each trip to the U-Haul Moving & Storage of Hershey on East Chocolate Avenue and the Home Depot on West Chocolate Avenue is an hour. One list, one trip — or one delivery.
• Cheap tape on heavy boxes: Dollar-store tape fails on book boxes at the bottom of a stack. Buy the real packing tape or skip tape entirely with crates.
• No labels or markers: Unlabeled boxes multiply your unpacking time by three. Two fat markers, room names on two sides of every box.

How many boxes or crates does a Hershey move take?

Counts track rooms, not square footage — med-center apartments and condos near the hospital, established township colonials, and downtown chocolate-era homes Use these counts whether you buy cardboard or rent crates; the bundles map one-to-one.

• Studio or one-bedroom: 15-20 boxes or crates — kitchen takes 5-6, the rest spreads across clothes, books, and decor
• Two-bedroom: 30-40 — kitchen 8-10, bedrooms 6-8 each, living areas 6-8, bath and linen 3-4, storage 4-6
• Three-bedroom: 45-60 — add a bedroom's worth per extra room, plus the basement and garage
• Four-bedroom or more: 60-80, plus 10 for the attic, shed, and the closet nobody has opened in years
• Add 15% for every five years in the home — accumulation is real
• Rental bundles map to these counts: $89 small, $139 standard two-bedroom, $199 whole house

How to do it, step by step

1. List your roomsWalk the house and count what needs wrapping versus what just gets placed in a crate.
2. Buy paper firstTen pounds of packing paper is the one supply you will actually run out of.
3. Label by destination roomNot contents — 'kitchen' beats 'plates and mugs and the good pan'.
4. Stage supplies centrallyOne table, one tape-free zone, one marker per packer.
5. Return what you don't useUnopened paper and labels go back — or stay flat for the next move.

The bottom line

Budget $30 to $50 in supplies on top of your containers — or less. The stores will happily sell you $150 of it; you do not need most of it.

If your Hershey move is on the calendar, the packing side is the easiest piece to lock in early: a crate bundle delivered to your door, a dolly in the stack, and pickup when you're done — no cardboard, no tape, no disposal run. That's the part of moving week you'll never have to think about.