Full-Service Moving: What’s Actually Included (and What Isn’t)

“Full service” gets used loosely in this industry. Some companies mean they’ll carry your boxes. We mean you don’t touch a box. Here’s the actual list, including the things a full-service move doesn’t cover, so nothing surprises you on the day.

What’s included

• A plan before the truck. A walkthrough, by video or in person, so the crew size, truck, and hours are set in writing before anyone shows up.
• Packing, with materials. The crew arrives the morning of the move with boxes, paper, tape, and dish packs and packs the house on site, room by room, labeled. Nothing is dropped off ahead of time for you to deal with. Fragile items get individual wrapping.
• Furniture protection and disassembly. Blankets and stretch wrap on everything, legs off, beds apart, mirrors out, hardware bagged and labeled.
• Home protection at both ends. Door jamb pads, floor runners, banister wrap.
• Loading, transport, unloading. On our trucks, with our crew, tied down in tiers.
• Placement by room. Boxes go to the room on the label. Furniture goes where you point.
• Reassembly. Beds, tables, and anything we took apart go back together.
• Wrap and debris out. The blankets, wrap, and paper leave with us. Unpacking is available as an add-on if you want empty boxes gone too.

What’s not included, and why

• Junk removal and disposal. We move things to a new home; we don’t haul things to a dump. If you’re purging, do it before, or book a disposal service alongside us.
• Hazardous materials. Propane tanks, paint, pool chemicals, gasoline, fireworks. No licensed mover carries them. Plan to transport or dispose of them yourself.
• Live things. Pets ride with you. Plants are legal to move locally but hate hot trucks; they’re better in your car.
• IT and appliance hookups. We disconnect and reconnect basic washer and dryer lines; we don’t plumb, wire, or configure networks.
• Extremely heavy or specialty items without a plan. Pianos, safes, marble, and large art aren’t excluded; they’re planned separately from photos, with a crew sized for the piece and heavy-item pricing by weight class on the written quote.

How full-service moving is priced

Local full-service moves are billed by the hour at one all-inclusive rate based on crew size. Wrapping materials, basic tools, and standard disassembly and reassembly are in that rate; packing materials are added when the crew packs for you. There’s a 3-hour minimum, then 15-minute steps, and the clock starts when the crew arrives and you sign, not when they leave the yard. Monday through Thursday is the discounted weekday rate. California’s Double Drive Time rule applies when the drive between your two addresses runs over 15 minutes, and a licensed mover will tell you that before you book, not on the invoice. Full price tables live on our Moving Cost page.

Full service vs. hiring help by the hour

Labor-only help loads a truck you rented with boxes you packed. It’s cheaper on paper and a completely different product. The gap shows up in three places: the packing (a professional dish pack survives; a grocery box of plates often doesn’t), the liability (a licensed mover is responsible for your goods in transit; a gig laborer isn’t), and the day itself, which ends at dinner instead of Sunday night.

Who full-service moving is for

People with more house than time. Families with kids underfoot on move day. Anyone with a lease deadline and a full-time job. And honestly, anyone who’s done the DIY version once and would rather not do it again. If that’s you, the full-service page walks through how the day runs from the first phone call to the last box.