Movers?

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

I'll be moving from Somerville to Cambridge in September and would like to (for the very first time) hire movers to do the work for me. I want this to be as cost-efficient as possible and wondered if anyone had any good recommendations.

This would need to be someone who has a buddy or two that works with him because I have a couple of couches to get up a few flights of stairs!


cross-posted to centralsquare and somervillemass

Comments

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Although not EVERYONE I know has had good experiences with Dragonfly Movers, most people I know have, including me. They did a good job, broke nothing, and actually came in under their estimate.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

What was there estimate and what did you pay, if you don't mind me asking?

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't remember the numbers, but what happened was that I told them how much stuff I had (pretty exactly), and where I was moving to and from, and the configuration of the entries to both places so they'd know how much of a pain it would be. They told me it would take X amount of time and quoted me based on that much time, but it ended up taking about an hour less than they thought, so I paid less than their quote.

I do remember they gave me a bit of a discount, too, because they had another job that day. They could use the same truck for my job, though, and the same number of people, so they didn't have to go back to their home base to get a different truck or more people: that made it easier for them, so they gave me a $10/hr discount.

Here's their website (http://www.dragonflymovers.com). You can either fill out the form online to get a quote, or you can call them.

[warlord-mit.livejournal.com]

I had a good experience with Gentle Giant.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

what sort of $ figure are we talking?

Thanks

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

Mini Moves in Arlington is good.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

how much did you pay if I might ask?

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

Do you know if they have a website?

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Absolutely loved Man With A Van (http://www.manwithavan.org/) (and they actually post rates on their website, which is unusual and great). Some really awesome guys, v. cheap rates, especially if you're lucky enough to use them off-peak. I hired them to move a bit more than your average one-bedroom apt's worth of stuff (you know how much it was, you helped me pack it), which was, with all my bulky furniture, two vanloads, rather than the one I had estimated -- but they moved it all anyway, in the rain, going past the allotted 2 hours into their overtime rates (also quite reasonable). I think I paid them three-hundred something in total, and that included the rather-more-than-an-hour back-and-forth from Brighton to Somerville to fetch the second (full) load of stuff. They were very efficient packers, totally nice even though I'd underestimated how much stuff I had, very reassuring when I started to panic, and really, those rates are unbeatable.

Unfortunately if you are looking for beginning of September, they were already booked for it when I called them in the first week of July. And they were also booked for mid-July, as it's a fairly heavy time, so for this more recent move I used a man with a pickup I found on craigslist, who worked for an absurdly low rate of something like $35 an hour and was also friendly and great. However, I'm assuming you have too much stuff to use him (even with friends with cars helping me load up stuff there were *considerably* more than two pickup-loads full, and he's also just one guy to help with the lifting). However I can look up his number if you like, as I do recommend him highly.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

My move date is seriously flexible. i have the whole month of september, so I emailed them to say, "whenever at all that you're available" so hopefully that'll help me.

[jennyelfenmass.livejournal.com]

Echo with great experiences with Man with a Van. My bf used them this summer and had nothing but praises for them in terms of efficiency and handling.

Ditto the Man with a Van

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

I've used them twice and the move was less than $200 including tip. Great movers!

Re: Ditto the Man with a Van

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

That's incredible. Hopefully they will have a time someday in September.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

Man With a Van it is! I think since I have so much flexibility, I can grab a time that's not peak and save a little. Also, I do still intend to move a lot of stuff myself, slowly, I just dread those two loveseats and will be so thankful to have two movers!

[jennyelfenmass.livejournal.com]

Two moves. One within Cambridge, one from Cambridge to Watertown.

First one: Nick's Moving - mid Nov 2003. Two men and a full sized truck, $90 an hour, two hour min. They finished in 2.5 hours. Very good, fast, and friendly.

Second move: Aviv Movers - mid July 2006. Three men and a full sized truck, $109 an hour, 3 hour min. They were done in 2 hours. Very fast and good as well. Only the lead guy spoke english well, the other two were alright, so giving instructions where to put things (I had tagged all my boxes) took a little time. Overall though, I was happy.