Dollhouse Packing and Container Loading: CBM and Units per 40HQ

A dollhouse is a volume product

Wood is heavy, but a dollhouse is mostly air: the house, the void around it and the flat-pack panels occupy far more cubic metres than their weight suggests. That is why a container of dollhouses fills by volume long before it reaches a weight limit, and why the carton, not the unit cost, decides whether an order lands economically.

This guide uses the carton data recorded across the 130-model catalogue published in November 2026. Carton dimensions exist for 61 per cent of those models at launch; the rest are confirmed per model on quotation, and the method below is the one to apply to them.

Carton cube by size band

Band	Carton cube	Median	Gross weight	Units per 40HQ at 88 per cent fill
Tabletop, under 40 cm	0.01-0.05 m3	0.026 m3	usually under 9 kg	about 2,300
Standard, 40-80 cm	0.03-0.12 m3	0.076 m3	5-15 kg	about 790
Large, 80 cm and above	0.10-0.25 m3	varies with storeys	10-25 kg	240-400

The median across every model that records a carton is about 0.048 m3. The spread matters more than the median: a tabletop carton at 0.012 m3 and one at 0.048 m3 are four times apart in freight terms, which is why the model-level carton is the number to plan with rather than the band average.

The large band has no single median worth quoting, because eight models with different storeys and working parts sit in it. Take the carton from the model.

The container arithmetic

A 40HQ holds about 68 m3 on paper. After pallets, wheel arches and door clearance, plan on roughly 60 m3. A 20GP holds about 28 m3 on paper and about 24 m3 as a working number.

The calculation for a single-model load is simple:

Take the carton dimensions in metres and multiply length by width by height.
Divide the usable volume by the carton cube: 60 m3 for a 40HQ working number, 24 m3 for a 20GP.
Check the weight total against the container limit. At 0.026 m3 and about 7 kg, a tabletop carton reaches roughly 2,300 units and 16 tonnes in a 40HQ, which is inside the limit; weight becomes a constraint only on the heaviest large houses.
Add 3-5 per cent for the pallet or the stacking gaps if the load is palletised or mixed.

A mixed load is not the average of the bands. It is planned carton by carton, because large cartons leave gaps that flat cartons can fill, and the fill percentage is the number to watch. Ask for the loading plan and the fill percentage with the quotation; a plan at 78 per cent fill and a plan at 90 per cent are different freight costs on the same model list.

Mixed containers, model by model

The constraint on a mixed container is MOQ per model, not MOQ per container. A house at 500 pcs and a room set at 20 pcs can share a booking, provided each clears its own minimum, and this is how a buyer builds a range without committing 500 pieces to every style.

Four rules make a mixed load work:

Load by carton size, not by model. The largest cartons go in first and the flat tabletop cartons fill the gaps above and beside them.
Keep a retail order together on the pallet. If the buyer distributes to shops, a store should receive its house and its doll family in the same carton sequence rather than in two pallet groups.
Do not mix a display unit with stock without planning the space. An assembled display house takes two to three times the cube of the flat-pack model beside it.
Photograph the loaded container. It is the only record of how the plan was executed and the first thing needed if a carton arrives crushed.

For the order-shape side of the same conversation, see MOQ, samples and lead times.

Palletised or floor-loaded

Palletising costs 10-15 per cent of container volume to pallet footprints and stacking gaps. It buys corner protection, faster unloading and a cleaner receiving process at the destination.

A distributor or retail chain order usually ships palletised, because the goods go into a warehouse that handles pallets and the carton corners matter.
A single-model marketplace order often ships floor-loaded and carton-counted, because the cartons go to a fulfilment centre that wants to scan them one at a time.
An LCL shipment is almost always palletised, because the consolidator handles the cargo as a unit.

Ask for both options on the models you shortlist. On a 40HQ of tabletop houses the difference can be a few hundred units of capacity; on a mixed load it can be the difference between a plan that closes and one that does not.

Packing that survives the hub

The carton is the part of the product the customer never sees and the part that decides whether they see the product intact. For this catalogue the failure points are consistent:

Risk	What causes it	What to specify
Crushed corner	single-wall carton, no corner protection, 12 kg stacked three high	double-wall carton, corner protectors, stack height on the carton
Chipped panel edge	panels shifting inside the carton	internal blocking, a panel sleeve or a snug inner tray
Marked finish	stickers, loose furniture or fittings rubbing in transit	fittings in a bag taped to the inside wall, not loose
Wet or damp carton	container condensation on a long sea leg	moisture absorber in the container, dry cartons before loading
Missing parts	bag split or left out at packing	a bag divided by step, a parts list, a spares bag per 10-20 cartons

A drop check on the packed carton before the run ships is the cheapest test in the order. A carton that passes at the workshop and fails at a hub is a carton problem rather than a product problem, and it is fixed at the specification stage rather than after the container sails.

Estimating before a quotation exists

A buyer planning a range before the quotation can get a usable number in ten minutes. Take the carton cube from the model pages for the shortlist, add 4 per cent for pallet gaps, divide 60 m3 by the average, and compare the result with the quantity you intended to order. If the container fills at 60 per cent of the planned quantity, the mix is wrong and the model spread should change before the quotation rather than after.

That estimate is deliberately rough. The loading plan we send with the quotation is not: it is built from the actual carton list, model by model, with the fill percentage and the pallet plan stated.

What to do next

Send the shortlist and the container you are planning, and we will return the carton cube, the loading plan and the fill percentage for those models. The packing and container loading page holds the reference table, the size guide explains which band suits which channel, and the quotation form starts the confirmed figures. If the carton data for a model is missing, say so in the enquiry and it will be measured and confirmed with the reply.