What's Your Job vs. Ours on Moving Day: A Chicago Mover's Straight Talk

What's Your Job vs. Ours on Moving Day: A Chicago Mover's Straight Talk

We've seen it all in four decades of Chicago moves, from perfectly organized penthouses where every box is labeled and stacked by 8 a.m., to studio apartments where the customer realized moving day was today about twenty minutes before the truck arrived. Both end up in the same place, a moved household. The difference is what the day feels like, and what the invoice looks like.

The single most useful thing to understand before moving day is the division of labor: what's yours to do, what's ours, and what belongs to a licensed trade. When those three lines are clear, the day is fast, calm, and about as cheap as an honest move gets.

Why prep matters (the honest reason)

Local moves are billed by the hour. That's not a trick; it's just how the math works. Every minute the crew spends waiting for the last box to be taped, moving toys off the stairwell to clear a path, or figuring out what's going and what's staying is a minute on the clock.

Prep isn't about impressing us. It's about not paying for the wrong thing. A ready home lets the crew get into a rhythm the moment they walk in, wrap, carry, load, repeat, without interruptions. Rhythm is what a well-run move feels like from the customer's side, and it's what makes the estimate hold up when the invoice arrives.

For the full checklist of what to prep, we've already written How to Prepare Your Home for the Movers on Moving Day. This post covers a different, related question: whose job is what?

Your job: boxes packed and closed

The single biggest task on your side of the line is having every loose item inside a sealed, stackable box before the crew arrives. Not most items, every item. The knick-knacks on the bookshelf. The spice rack in the kitchen. The random pile on the desk. The clean socks not yet in a drawer.

Two reasons this matters:

Loose items can't travel safely. They can't be stacked, they can't be padded, they can't be tracked. Whatever isn't in a box either doesn't move, or moves poorly.

Packing loose items on moving day adds hours. If our crew has to pack a kitchen while we're supposed to be loading a truck, everything else stops. That's the biggest way an estimate stops matching a bill, and it's entirely avoidable with a couple of extra hours the night before.

If you're not going to finish packing on your own, that's fine, tell us before moving day and we'll bring the extra crew and materials for our full packing service. Partial packing (just the kitchen, just the closets, just the fragile stuff) is a normal request too. The mistake isn't asking for packing help; the mistake is not telling us until the crew is already at your door.

Your job: appliances disconnected

This is the one section people are most surprised by, so we'll be explicit. Our crew members are trained movers, not licensed plumbers, electricians, or gas fitters. For safety and legal reasons, we don't handle utility disconnections. Before moving day:

Refrigerator and freezer: empty them, defrost them, and unplug them at least 24 hours before the move. This lets the ice melt, the interior dry, and prevents a wet mess in the truck. If your fridge has a water line, disconnect it and cap the line.

Washer and dryer: disconnect water lines (both hot and cold on the washer), and unplug the units. If your dryer is gas, a licensed plumber or gas fitter needs to shut the gas off and disconnect the line, not the moving crew, not you unless you're qualified. Same for a gas stove.

Any specialty faucet or gas appliance you're taking with you: have a licensed pro disconnect it. We want the old place to stay leak-free and your appliance to arrive in working order.

Bottom line: if there's a water line, gas line, or hardwired electrical connection, it's a licensed trade's job. Have those disconnections scheduled to happen a day before the move so nothing holds up the crew's arrival.

Our job: furniture, wrapping, and disassembly

Here's the reassuring part, and it surprises people every time: you don't have to disassemble your furniture. That's ours.

Our crew arrives with the tools, the training, and the practice to take apart beds, dining tables, dressers, desks, and bulky pieces safely. Hardware gets bagged and taped to the piece it came from. Bed frames come apart into headboards, footboards, rails, and slats. Tables lose their legs. Marble tops come off. Dresser drawers get removed and wrapped (or stay in the piece if they're full of clothing, ask us at the estimate). Everything gets wrapped in moving blankets and shrink wrap for the ride, and reassembled at the new home before the crew leaves.

This is standard, not an add-on, on any of our local moves. It's part of our furniture disassembly service, which lives inside the daily work our local moving crews already do.

The same goes for the truly heavy or awkward pieces, sectionals that need to come apart to make a turn, armoires that won't clear a doorway assembled, a fold-out couch that needs to be strapped closed before it moves. All of that is our craft, not yours to figure out.

Our job: protecting the home

Every move gets the same protection routine: floor runners on the carry paths, doorway padding where furniture will turn, and blanket-wrap on the pieces that need it. You don't need to buy floor covers or lay down cardboard. We bring it, we lay it down, we pick it up when we leave. On a home with unusually delicate finishes, tell us at the estimate; we'll add extras and slow the pace at the tightest corners.

Their job: buildings, permits, and parking

A quick note on the third party, your building or your street:

Certificate of insurance: most Chicago high-rises and many condos require this before a mover works. Send us the requirements as soon as your building sends them, we handle the COI same-day and always free.

Freight elevator: you reserve it with your building; tell us the reserved window when you book so we size the crew to the window.

Parking permits: where a block requires posted CDOT signs for the truck, we'll flag it in advance so it's handled by moving day.

The clean division, in one line

You pack the boxes, close them, and empty the appliances. Licensed pros handle any pipes, gas, or hardwired electrical. We handle the furniture, the wrap, the carrying, the load, the drive, the unload, and the reassembly. That division of labor is what a well-priced, well-run move actually looks like.

If you're not sure which side of the line something falls on, ask at the estimate. There are no wrong questions, and getting the answer before moving day is the whole point of the phone call.

Call (773) 275-4100, email info@wcmoving.com, or start with a free quote, and we'll walk you through what belongs on your list and what belongs on ours.