Moving in winter in upstate New York without losing the day to the weather
Winter is when the calendar is open. What has to be cleared, what the plow does to your parking, and what should never ride in a cold truck.
Moving in winter in upstate New York is normal and often easier to book. It works when the walk from the door to the truck is cleared and salted before the crew arrives, the floors inside are protected, anything that freezes travels in a heated car, and everyone accepts that a real storm moves the date rather than the crew.
Winter is when the calendar is open
Between mid-November and March the phone is quieter, and that is the whole case for a winter move. Leases still turn over at the end of the month, so those days are still busy, but a mid-month weekday in January is the easiest date to get in the whole year. People who have to move in winter tend to dread it. People who choose to are often the ones who get the crew they wanted on the day they wanted.
The one thing winter takes away is daylight. Start early. A crew loading in the dark at four in the afternoon on an icy sidewalk is slower and less safe than the same crew at eight in the morning, and there is no way to buy the hours back.
The path is your job, the truck is ours
Everything the crew carries goes out backwards down your steps, and a patch of ice under a sofa is a genuinely dangerous thing rather than an inconvenience. Before we arrive, shovel and salt the steps, the walk, and the stretch of sidewalk between the door and where the truck will stand. Do the same at the other end, or make sure someone has.
Then look at the curb. The plow that cleared your street overnight left its snow in a bank along it, and a truck cannot back up to a bank. If the space where the truck needs to be is walled off, it needs digging out, and that is a morning-of job for whoever is on site.
In Albany the city expects the sidewalk in front of a property to be cleared within a set time after a snowfall, so on a move day the rule and the practical need happen to point the same way.
Snow emergencies and the space you held
When a storm is big enough, the City of Albany declares a snow emergency, and parking switches to one side of the street on a schedule the city announces. The space you arranged on Tuesday can be on the wrong side by Wednesday morning, and the cars that moved off the other side are now in it. Check the city's alerts the night before, and if a storm is coming, assume the plan for the truck needs redoing.
The suburbs have their own versions. Colonie, Guilderland and the villages all post their own snow parking rules, and a cul-de-sac in Clifton Park that has not been plowed yet is as blocked as any downtown street.
Inside the house
We lay runners on the main route through the house and protect the door frames, and even so, a winter move brings the outside in. Salt on the soles of a crew's boots is hard on wood floors, and a door held open for hours is hard on a furnace. Clear a spot by the door where boots can be knocked off, keep the heat on, and accept that the floor by the entrance will need a mop at the end.
Keep the heat on at the new place too, from the day before. Walking furniture into a cold house is unpleasant; walking it into a house where the pipes have frozen is a different day entirely.
What should not ride in the truck
The back of a truck in January is as cold as the air outside, and it stays cold for the whole trip. Some things do not survive that.
- Houseplants. An hour in a freezing truck kills most of them. They go in a heated car, wrapped.
- Anything liquid: cleaning products, paint, drinks, the contents of the fridge door. Frozen bottles split.
- Electronics and instruments. They survive the cold; what damages them is coming back into a warm room, when condensation forms inside. Let them sit sealed and warm up slowly before turning anything on.
- Pets, obviously, and medication, which should be with you in any season.
- Candles and anything with a battery. Cold does odd things to both.
If a storm lands on your date
It happens a few times a winter, and the rule is simple: we do not put a loaded truck on a road the state is asking people to stay off. If the forecast turns, we call the day before and move the date, usually by a day or two. Building that flexibility into the plan is the honest way to move in winter here. Tell your landlord at both ends that the date has a weather clause. Nearly all of them have lived through a Capital Region winter and expect it.
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Common questions
Moving in winter in upstate New York without losing the day to the weather: the short answers
No. Winter is the easiest time of year to book in the Capital Region, and a winter move goes fine when the walk is cleared, the floors are protected and the plan allows for a storm moving the date.
In falling snow, yes, as long as the paths are clear and the roads are open. In a storm that closes roads or triggers a travel advisory, we move the date rather than the crew.
Shovel and salt the steps, the walk and the curb where the truck will stand, at both ends. Keep the heat on. Put plants, liquids and electronics in the car rather than the truck.
Parking rules change, so the space you arranged for the truck may be on the wrong side of the street. Check the city's alerts the night before and expect to redo the parking plan.
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