Packing Service for a move

[gscoobs.livejournal.com]

I have a local move coming up and am thinking of using a full service mover or packing service. There is nothing I dread more than packing and unpacking a kitchen, never mind the rest of my stuff (2 bed, 2 bath).

There are a lot of great moving recommendations on here, but I haven't seen anything about packing. Has anyone had success without paying an arm and a leg?

I wonder if it makes sense to leverage a full service mover or have someone pack separately from task rabbit or something similar. All ideas and recommendations are very appreciated!

Comments

[laurie crist (from livejournal.com)]

I would recommend against a TaskRabbit or non professional mover. The packaging from an experienced mover is amazing, they did things with boxes and materials it would never have occurred to me to do, and they likely have insurance and guarantees. Locally I've used Intelligent Labor and Benezra Boxes, both are recommended, but not cheap. Good Luck!

[totient]

If you have the mover also do the packing, then when (not if) something gets broken there will be no finger pointing about whose fault it was, the packer or the mover. Also professional packers are 10 times faster than you are. The last time I had an apartment that size (*) professionally packed it took one guy six hours to do the entire thing.

(*) actually it was a 3br, not 2, but we'd spent the previous two weeks getting it meticulously clean, which I'm sure helped.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Definitely get a mover who can do packing for you.

Bigfoot has packed and moved us twice in the last 2 years. I don't remember details about the first time, but we had no problems. The second time was this past December - two guys showed up at 8am on packing day. By noon, everything in our 3-bed 2-bath apartment (including basement and garage) was packed and ready for the moving truck to come the next day. The whole move went off without a hitch. Our total cost for the packing and local move was around $1900, several hundred less than the estimate they had given us. I don't know what your budget is for moving, but I thought we got great value for what we paid.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Just a tip: check on their costs of packing materials and whether you can supply those on your own. My only experience in this was a friend who moved and he mentioned the charge of $10 per roll of packing tape, which was used in excessive amounts (I think they used 20 rolls total, including retaping all his boxes--but it was for a x-country move so extra care may have been warranted).

[geoffroi.livejournal.com]

Intelligent Labor packed some of my stuff when I moved, and moved me. They were great. Everything was well labeled and well protected. I'd use them again in a minute (but hope to never move again!).

[hr-macgirl.livejournal.com]

Some friends of mine used Benezra (http://benezraboxes.com/packingservices.htm) and were very happy with them.

[gscoobs.livejournal.com]

Thanks all!

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Ten years ago my roommate used Gentle Giant packers when she realized she'd run out of time and health to get her possession ready to move, and they did a great job.