The two-day move: pack one day, move the next

• You want full packing and the home is larger than an apartment.
• You are short on time, energy or help, for example with a newborn or a demanding job.
• You want the move day itself to start early and finish in daylight.
• The building gives you a limited elevator window on move day.

When a move does not include full packing, a single day with a larger crew is often more cost-effective; a 4-mover crew can usually finish a big house in one day. We will tell you which we think fits.

• Set aside what you are taking in your car and mark it do not pack.
• Set aside a first-night box.
• Remove valuables and documents.
• Empty the fridge and freezer; we do not move perishable food.
• Tell the foreman which rooms to pack first.

A large home with full packing can be more than one day's work. Even when it is not, splitting the move into a packing day and a moving day changes how the move feels. On day one the crew packs while you are still living in the home; on day two they load, drive and unload into the new one. Nobody is packing the kitchen at 9 PM with the truck waiting. We do this regularly, and it is a simple request: tell us your preferred dates and we schedule both.

Each day has a morning arrival window: 8 to 10 AM in the South Bay and Peninsula, 9 to 11 AM in San Francisco and the East Bay. The crew calls 30 minutes before arriving each day. On the packing day, the crew packs room by room and labels boxes; furniture stays in place. On the moving day, the truck arrives, everything is wrapped, loaded, driven and unloaded, and beds and tables are reassembled. Both days need to be open on our calendar, so book early.

Both days are billed by the hour: $175 per hour for 3 movers or $235 for 4. With the Golden Package for full packing, add $70 per hour; it covers all packing supplies and packing labor and applies to the whole completion time. Without Golden, packing supplies are charged as used. On a multi-day local job, payment is collected at the end of each day, by cash, money order, Visa or Mastercard. There is no deposit.

The night between packing and moving, most of the home is in boxes. Plan for it. Keep out a set of sheets, towels, toiletries, chargers, medication and a change of clothes for everyone. Keep one box of kitchen basics unpacked, or plan takeout. Pack valuables and important documents yourself and keep them with you; with full packing, that is the one thing we ask you to do.

For reference, David tells customers that a 2,200 square foot 4-bedroom typically takes 7 to 9 hours to move without packing, which is already a full day. Add packing to that and two days is the natural fit. The crew size for a 3-bedroom over 1,800 square feet or a 4-bedroom home is normally 4 movers.