Moving Day: What to Expect From Your Movers, Hour by Hour

If you've never hired movers, move day is a black box. Here's exactly how a professional move runs, so you know what good looks like — and what your job actually is (spoiler: pointing).

The first 30 minutes

1. **The walkthrough:** the foreman tours the apartment with you, confirms the inventory against the quote, and flags anything new *before* work starts — this is where honest companies protect the flat rate.
2. **Protection setup:** floor runners down, door frames padded, elevator pads hung. A crew that skips protection is telling you everything.
3. **The plan:** load order set — boxes staged, furniture wrapped in place, fragile items identified.

The middle hours

• Furniture gets blanket-wrapped and disassembled as needed — beds and tables coming apart is normal, not alarming
• The truck loads in tiers: heavy furniture at the walls, boxes stacked by weight, fragile on top — a packed truck is a Tetris wall, and that's good
• Your job: stay findable, answer "is this coming?", keep the essentials bag and valuables with you, and resist helping carry (insurance reasons are real)

Delivery and the finish

• Boxes land by room label — stand at the door and direct traffic; 30 seconds of pointing saves an hour of shuffling
• Beds rebuilt, tables reassembled, furniture placed where you want it (say so — moving it twice now is free; next week it isn't)
• The final walkthrough: check the truck is empty, note anything concerning on the paperwork *before signing*, then payment and tips if earned