How to get ready for the crew
The week before matters more than the day itself. What to sort, what to leave alone, and the things that quietly cost an hour.
To prepare for movers, finish your packing the night before rather than the morning of, empty and defrost the fridge, clear a path from every room to the door, set aside anything the crew should not touch in one labelled place, and confirm parking and building access. Most delays on moving day come from decisions that were still open when the truck arrived.
Finish packing the night before, not the morning of
This is the single biggest one and it is worth being blunt about. A crew that arrives to half-packed rooms cannot do the job they were booked for. They end up standing around, or packing for you at short notice, and either way the day runs long.
If you are not going to finish, that is a normal thing to happen and it is much better handled in advance. Tell us a few days out and we will bring packing materials and the hands to do it properly.
The kitchen and the fridge
Empty the fridge and freezer, and give a chest freezer a full day to defrost with a towel underneath it. A freezer that is still dripping when the truck arrives is a freezer that cannot go on the truck without soaking whatever it sits next to.
Run down what is in there in the last week rather than trying to transport it. Anything you genuinely want to keep travels with you in a cooler, not in the load.
Make a path
Walk the route the crew will walk, from the furthest room to the front door, and take everything out of it. Rugs that slide, a laundry basket on the landing, the chair that lives in the hallway. All of it moves before the day, not during it.
In the Capital Region winters this extends outside. Salt and clear the steps and the walk to where the truck can park, and do it early enough that it is not still ice at eight in the morning. Crews carry heavy things backwards down steps; a patch of ice is a genuinely serious problem rather than an inconvenience.
The do-not-load pile
Pick one spot, ideally a bathroom or a closet with the door shut, and put everything that must not go on the truck in it. Then put a sign on the door. Crews load what is in front of them, and the single most common way something goes wrong is a box that was never meant to travel.
That pile normally holds:
- Passports, deeds, wills, birth certificates and anything else that is painful to replace
- Medication, and anything you need in the next twenty-four hours
- Laptops, hard drives and chargers
- Jewelry and small valuables
- Keys, including the ones for the new place
- Anything flammable, corrosive or under pressure, which cannot legally go on the truck anyway
Propane tanks, gas cans, paint, pool chemicals and aerosols are the usual surprises. Plan to dispose of them or move them yourself, and check what your county accepts before the week of the move.
Parking and access
Where is the truck going to sit? On a wide suburban driveway in Guilderland or Clifton Park this is not a question. On a narrow street in Center Square, in downtown Troy, or anywhere with residential permit parking, it very much is.
If your street has permit parking or metered spaces, contact the city about what is needed to hold space for a moving truck, and do it well before the week of the move. Every additional meter the crew has to carry things is time on the clock and it adds up faster than people expect.
For buildings, confirm the service elevator is booked, the loading dock is available and any certificate of insurance has actually been approved rather than merely sent.
Label for the room it is going to
Label boxes with the room they are going into at the new place, not the room they came from. It sounds like a small distinction and it changes the whole unload. A crew reading destination labels puts every box where it belongs the first time; a crew reading origin labels stacks everything in the hall for you to redistribute later.
Write on the side rather than the top, because the top is not visible once boxes are stacked.
The things people forget
- Take down anything mounted on a wall, including brackets and shelves, unless you have arranged for us to do it
- Disconnect and drain the washer, and know where the shut-offs are
- Have the utilities on at the new place, particularly heat in winter and water
- Arrange for children and pets to be somewhere else for the day
- Keep phones charged, and keep one person reachable and able to make decisions
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Common questions
How to get ready for the crew: the short answers
Somebody who can make decisions should be, at both ends. Crews hit questions that only you can answer, like whether a piece comes apart or which room something goes in, and waiting for an answer is dead time.
Clothing can often stay in a dresser. Books, tools and anything heavy should come out, and glass or loose items should always come out. Ask when you book so the crew plans for it.
Anything flammable, corrosive, explosive or under pressure. That covers gasoline, propane, paint, aerosols, pool chemicals and similar. Plants and perishable food are usually better moved yourself.
Early, particularly in summer. Confirm your window when you book, and be ready before it starts rather than at the moment it does.
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