Packing Services · Waterloo
Packing Services in Waterloo
Most moving days that run late do so because the packing was not finished. Packing is a job on its own, and it can be bought on its own.
Packing takes longer than anyone expects. A kitchen alone is a day for one person doing it properly: every glass wrapped, plates on edge, the good dishes double-boxed, the pantry sorted into what is coming and what is not. A four-bedroom house in Laurelwood with a finished basement is several days of work. People who are moving while working full time, moving with young children, or moving a parent out of a house they have lived in for forty years often find the packing is the part they cannot get done.
Three ways to buy packing
- Full pack. The crew packs the whole house, usually the day before the move, sometimes over two days for a large house. You are left with beds made and a bag of essentials. Everything else is boxed, labelled by room and stacked ready to load.
- Partial pack. The crew packs the rooms that are hardest or slowest — the kitchen, the china cabinet, the home office, the garage — and you do the bedrooms and linen closets yourself.
- Fragile-only pack. Glassware, dishes, artwork, mirrors, lamps, electronics and anything else that needs wrapping and a proper box. Everything else you pack.
Unpacking is available as a separate line on the quote: boxes emptied, kitchen put into cupboards, paper and cartons removed from the house. Most people do not want it, but for a downsizing move into a small condo, or a move with a newborn in the house, it can be the difference between living out of boxes for a week and being done on day one.
Materials
The packing crew brings its own materials: new cartons in several sizes, dish barrels, wardrobe boxes with a hanging bar, mirror and picture cartons, packing paper, bubble wrap for the few things that need it, and tape. Materials are itemised on the quote so you can see what is being used. If you have collected boxes yourself, they can be used where they are sound; grocery boxes with soft sides and no lids slow the load and are not worth the saving.
How a packing day runs
The packers start with the rooms you use least and finish with the kitchen and the bathroom, so you can still cook and get ready for work. Each box is labelled with the room it goes to and a short note on contents, and fragile boxes are marked so the moving crew stacks them last and on top. Anything you want to move yourself — documents, jewellery, medication, passports, laptops — is set aside in a spot you choose and not touched. Say so at the start and it stays that way.
Student and condo packing
For a student apartment near the university, a fragile-only pack of the kitchen and electronics is often all that makes sense. For an uptown condo move with a fixed elevator window, a full pack the day before means the crew is loading from the first minute of the booking rather than waiting on the last three boxes.
Packing a house someone has lived in for decades
The hardest packs in Waterloo are the Beechwood and Lakeshore houses bought in the 1970s and never left. Forty years of a family's life, a basement that has absorbed everything the main floor did not want, and an owner who needs to make a decision about each object. A packing crew can only pack what has been decided. For these moves the useful plan is to sort first, over days or weeks, with the "coming" and "not coming" piles clearly separated by room, and then bring the packers in for the coming pile only. It keeps the packing day to a day and keeps the moving day to a day.
What packing does not include
Packing is putting what you are keeping into boxes. Deciding what to keep is yours, and hauling away what you are not keeping is junk removal, a different service. The packers will happily set a "not coming" pile aside where you tell them, but they do not take it away. Cleaning after the move is also separate.
Timing
Book packing at the same time as the move so the two are scheduled together, usually with the pack the day before. In the last week of August, when student and family moves stack up, packing slots go as fast as trucks do. For a large house, a two-day pack finishing the day before the move is calmer than one long day.
Frequently asked questions
How much does packing cost in Waterloo?
Packing is priced by packer hours plus materials, and both are itemised on the quote. A kitchen is the biggest single line in most houses. A full pack of a family house is a multi-day job; a fragile-only pack is often a half day. Planning ranges are on the cost guide.
Do I need to be home while the crew packs?
It is better if someone is, at least at the start, to point out what is staying, what is fragile and what you are moving yourself. After that, most people leave the crew to it and check in at the end of the day.
Will you pack things I am throwing out?
Only if you tell us to. Set aside what is not coming and the packers work around it. Removing it from the house is junk removal, which is a separate service.
Serving Waterloo and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.