How much to move your stuff?

June 12, 2012 6:49 AM

What would the going rate be for paying someone in the north-eastern U.S. (not Boston or New York) to move your already packed apartment (including heavy appliances and furniture) into storage?

Asking as the mover rather than the movee...

posted by ennui.bz to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Response by poster: Just to be clear, the apartment is already packed in boxes. So the move involves many boxes and some items that nominally require more than one person to transport.
posted by ennui.bz at 6:51 AM on June 12, 2012

Are you asking for the hourly wage typically paid to some burly, uninsured guy you find on Craigslist, or are you asking what it costs to hire professionals with their own truck, dolly, blankets, etc.?

(I won't know the answer either way, but it seems like important information)
posted by jon1270 at 7:47 AM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think there's a pretty competitive market for this. In London UK, I pay £20/hour which includes two guys to carry boxes, and one large van.
posted by roofus at 8:05 AM on June 12, 2012

I'm in a higher-priced city, so my perceptions are unlikely to apply to your region, but why don't you check the rates on craigslist for your area as a comparison?

Generally, there's a 1 hour "travel time" charge, plus a 2 hour minimum, so for an hourly rate of "X", the cost is 3*X for the first two hours, plus "X" for every hour thereafter.
posted by deanc at 8:15 AM on June 12, 2012

I think I paid about $400 to have many of my late father's (boxed) possessions moved from his apartment to the Salvation Army a few towns over. In rural Massachusetts.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:08 AM on June 12, 2012

You need to call around. In Seattle it is $40/hr/guy for professionals. In DC it is around $60/hr/guy.
posted by k8t at 3:43 AM on June 13, 2012

I just did this in NorCal and it was $95/hour for two guys with a truck. Pack, move, unpack.
posted by eleslie at 6:15 AM on June 13, 2012