What's Included in a Full Packing Service? A Room-by-Room Breakdown

What's Included in a Full Packing Service? A Room-by-Room Breakdown

"Full packing" sounds obvious, the crew packs everything. But when you're comparing quotes, the honest question is: what does that actually mean in my kitchen, in my closet, in the garage full of stuff I've been avoiding? The generic answer is "the crew brings materials and packs your home." The useful answer is room by room, because that's how the day actually runs.

Here's what our crew does in each room of your Chicago home when you book full packing, plus what it costs you in hours (not dollars, that varies), and the small decisions on your side that make it go faster.

Before the crew arrives

You do less than you'd think. In fact, the whole point of full packing is that you're free to leave the home standing as-is. The one thing that helps most: a walkthrough with the lead when the crew arrives, ten minutes, to point out anything they should know. What's fragile. What isn't going. What's already been packed (if you did any of it yourself). What the "do not pack" zone is (usually your car, or one closet with a sign on it).

Everything else, boxes, tape, paper, wardrobe boxes, dish packs, is on the truck.

The kitchen

The kitchen is where packing takes the longest and helps the most. Even in a small apartment, a kitchen is easily half a day's work if you do it yourself, and the crew compresses it into a couple of hours.

• Dishes, glassware, and stemware get wrapped individually in packing paper and packed on their edges (not flat) in dish pack boxes. Dish packs are double-walled, sized for kitchen fragiles.
• Cookware and small appliances go in medium boxes, wrapped where needed.
• Pantry items are triaged: sealed nonperishables travel; open bags, refrigerated items, and half-used bottles are your call. Most crews will politely ask what to do with the open olive oil rather than assume.
• Silverware and utensils stay organized in their trays, wrapped or boxed depending on the tray.
• Knives are wrapped individually with the blades protected, then boxed together.
• Spices get boxed together, upright, so nothing spills. This is the one that always surprises people; a spice rack is a two-hour job you didn't budget for.
• Wine, if you have it, is wrapped and packed on its side in dividers. Note our note in the wine section of our higher-value collections guide: our trucks aren't temperature-controlled in transit, so for a serious collection, ask.

Typical time for a kitchen: 90 minutes to 3 hours, depending on size.

The bedrooms

Bedrooms are usually the fastest room per square foot of contents.

• Nightstand contents into small boxes, labeled by which side of the bed.
• Dressers: this is a choice point. If the drawers are full of clothes and other soft items, most of the time the drawers stay in the piece, taped or shrink-wrapped so nothing slides out. That saves a stack of boxes and time. If the drawers have hard, loose, or heavy items, they get emptied and boxed.
• Wardrobe boxes get set up for closet items. Clothes go straight from the rod into the wardrobe box, still on the hanger, so nothing gets creased or crumpled.
• Shoes, in their original boxes if possible, otherwise wrapped in pairs so nothing rubs.
• Bedside books, chargers, jewelry stands, décor, all wrapped and boxed by category.
• Under-the-bed storage (boxes of seasonal stuff, extra bedding) usually re-boxed or transferred to moving boxes as-is.

Typical time per bedroom: 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

The living room and dining room

• Framed art and mirrors get individual wrap with acid-free paper on the surfaces, corner protection, and mirror cartons. See our art-moving guide for the full protocol.
• Books: small boxes only, because books get heavy fast. Bookshelves themselves usually get disassembled if they're modular, wrapped in blankets if they're solid pieces.
• Electronics (TVs, speakers, gaming systems): TVs go in TV boxes (free-to-use, we bring them; you can also buy them to keep), speakers and small electronics wrapped and boxed, cables bagged and labeled by device.
• Decorative items (vases, sculptures, collectibles) wrapped individually.
• Rugs rolled and wrapped in a rug bag or heavy plastic; the underlayment goes separately.

Typical time: 1 to 2.5 hours per room.

The bathroom

Small room, deceptively long list.

• Medicine cabinet and vanity contents into small labeled boxes.
• Toiletries: anything liquid gets a taped cap and often a plastic bag around the whole bottle before it goes in the box. This is not a step to skip.
• Towels and linens either boxed or used to cushion other fragiles (an efficient move often has bedding wrapped around lamp bases).
• Cleaning supplies: same rule as toiletries, sealed and bagged. Some are hazardous (bleach, ammonia, drain cleaner) and either travel carefully in a marked box or don't travel at all; ask the crew.

Typical time per bathroom: 30-45 minutes.

The closets

Closets are usually where DIY packing collapses. Wardrobe boxes are the crew's answer.

• Hanging clothes go straight into wardrobe boxes on the rod.
• Folded clothes on shelves get boxed together, or transferred to wardrobe boxes if you have room.
• Shoes, purses, and accessories wrapped and boxed by category.
• Linen closets boxed with towels and sheets used as padding for other things.
• The one weird shelf with old cards, tax paperwork, extension cords, and mystery cables gets one honest look from the crew, who'll ask what to do with it. Some things get boxed; some get pointed at a discard pile.

The garage, basement, or attic

The rooms nobody wants to pack, and where full-packing pays off the most.

• Tools: boxed by category, with heavy tools in small boxes, hand tools in medium. Sharp things wrapped.
• Yard equipment (shovels, rakes) bundled and wrapped, gas equipment (mowers, blowers) drained of fuel before the move; that's a Federal DOT rule for moving trucks, not our preference.
• Bikes, sports gear, holiday decor: bikes wrapped, boxes labeled by season.
• Seasonal storage either re-boxed or moved as-is if the containers are sturdy.
• The stuff you've been meaning to sort: this is where the crew will ask a lot of questions, or where a smart customer runs a donation pickup or furniture removal as part of the same day. Less to pack is less to pay for.

What's NOT included

Being straight about the limits:

• Cash, jewelry, and valuables stay with you, not in the boxes. Any legitimate mover will tell you this at the walkthrough.
• Important documents (passports, closing papers, deeds) same rule.
• Hazardous materials: fuel, propane, ammunition, corrosives. Not on the truck; disposed of or transported separately by you.
• Perishable food, plants, and pets: standard exclusions from any interstate mover.
• Anything you specifically want to pack yourself, tell us at the walkthrough. Personal items, drawers you'd rather not have opened, whatever. It's your home.

How labels work

Every box gets labeled by destination room at the new place (not the room it came from), on two sides. If you tell us your bedroom at the new place is smaller and the current guest room becomes the office, the boxes reflect that. This is what makes unloading day fast: boxes land in the right rooms without a scavenger hunt.

For extra-specific items ("kitchen, high-priority coffee maker" or "bedroom, open first"), the crew will mark them accordingly if you flag them.

Full pack vs. partial pack

If reading this made you tired, you're not alone. Some customers ask us to handle the entire home; plenty ask us to handle the parts that are genuinely painful, kitchen, closets, art, china cabinet, and pack the everyday things themselves.

Partial packing is a normal request, not a special one. Ask about it at the free quote if that's what fits your week.

The hour count

For rough planning, a full pack of a whole home usually runs:

• Studio or 1-bedroom: 3 to 6 hours, one crew
• 2-bedroom: 6 to 9 hours, larger crew
• 3-bedroom home: 8 to 12 hours, larger crew still
• 4-bedroom or larger: often a two-day pack (day one packing, day two moving)

Those are ranges, not promises. The actual number depends on how much you own, how it's currently organized, and how many rooms are heavy on fragiles.

Ready to hand it off?

Our full packing service pairs with our local moving, one crew, one quote, one operation. Materials come with the crew; you're not buying anything separately unless you want to stock up ahead of time from our moving supplies.

Call (773) 275-4100, email info@wcmoving.com, or start with a free quote, and we'll build the packing plan around your actual home.