Streamlining Your Move: Expert Tips for Stress-Free Downsizing

In this insightful podcast episode, hosts Judy and Dennis engage in a meaningful conversation with their guest, Scot Cruz from On the Go, Moving, focusing on the intricacies of moving from one home to another. The episode is dedicated to helping individuals who are planning to sell their homes and downsize into smaller, more manageable living spaces.

The hosts and their guest delve into a wide array of topics related to the moving process, offering valuable insights and practical advice. Here's a brief summary of the key points discussed:

1. **Effective Planning for a Smooth Move:** Judy highlights the importance of giving advance notice when planning a move, emphasizing that it allows for proper preparation and accurate cost estimation. The conversation touches on the various services provided by On the Go, Moving, such as full and partial packing, furniture disassembly and reassembly, and meticulous unpacking.

2. **The Art of Packing and Protecting Valuables:** Judy, Dennis, and Scot share their expertise on packing, including common mistakes people make when handling their own materials and the significance of properly packing fragile items. They also discuss the use of protective materials like newsprint paper and bubble wrap.

3. **Mitigating Damages During the Move:** The episode provides valuable information on the different valuation options available for mitigating damages during the moving process, including the basic option that covers items at 60 cents per pound. Additionally, downsizing tips are shared, such as creating a "maybe" pile and utilizing donation or dump removal services.

4. **Navigating Different Types of Moves:** The hosts and their guest explore a variety of moving scenarios, including downsizing to assisted living or nursing homes and handling out-of-state moves. They emphasize the importance of thoroughly vetting moving companies to avoid potential risks and scams and offer recommendations for reputable movers and storage options.

5. **Vetting Service Providers for Peace of Mind:** Scot and Judy discuss the significance of vetting service providers by checking multiple platforms for reviews and looking for approval from the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC). Scot also offers to connect clients with other services, such as estate sales and interior designers, to aid in the downsizing process.

6. **Rules and Restrictions for Long-Distance Moves:** The episode delves into the rules and restrictions associated with long-distance moves, including items that are prohibited from being shipped, storage options, the inventory system used, and an engaging story about moving a 26-foot-long couch.

7. **Handling Specialty Items and Disposing of Unwanted Belongings:** The conversation touches on the additional costs associated with moving heavy and specialty items like pool tables and pianos. The hosts and guest explore various options for disposing of unwanted items, including consignment stores, donation centers, schools, and gyms.

8. **Comprehensive Services by On the Go, Moving:** Scot introduces the array of services his company, On the Go, Moving, provides, including junk removal, hauling, and storage solutions.

9. **Recommendation for a Trusted Mover:** The episode concludes with Dennis and Judy expressing their satisfaction with Scot's sincerity and knowledge, making plans to recommend On the Go, Moving, as their preferred mover.

10. **Future Endeavors and Business Insights:** Judy and Dennis also discuss their future plans, including reaching out to the mover for lunch and considering the benefits of selling homes during the winter. They contemplate a Thanksgiving-themed podcast episode for their next project. Additionally, they touch on various business-related matters, such as email responses, sending reminders, boosting their podcast's reach, creating a business plan, and exploring advert

Transcript

Streamlining Your Move: Expert Tips for Stress-Free Downsizing- 

November 7

Due to editing the times listed are not always accurate.

And today we are here with our guest, Scott Cruz, from On the Go, Moving. And we're going to discuss getting ready, how to move.

And he's got some tips to make that move easier. Welcome, Scott. morning, everyone.

@2:52 – Scott Cruz

Thanks for having me.

@2:53 - Dennis Day 

OK. Scott, tell us a little bit about your business.

@2:57 - Scott Cruz

for Right, let me start over here. So we're located over here on the east side in Redmond, Washington. We offer moving and storage, and we've been a company that has grassroots here in Bellevue, actually.

Got started about 15 years ago. We've grown quite a bit. Servicing in the local area, we do King, Pierce, Snohomish County, primarily.

@3:20 - Judy Gratton

But we have mentioned some new markets. We've definitely got our stripes in terms of packing and moving for local and commercial businesses.

And again, we've been around about 15 years. I've been here for 14 of them. Wow.

@3:33 - Dennis Day 

Wow. OK. must like to do that. And why should a customer or a potential client choose on the goal?

@3:44 - Scott Cruz

So we have, let me start again here. On the go, moving has started out in Bellevue as a very small company.

There's about four or five of us actually that got this thing going. We've been servicing the area with our best practices for quite some time.

So we are very diligent. our training in our movers and packers. We also hire staff and employees to maintain for quite some period of time.

So we're not really hiring day laborers. We don't work with contractors and things of that nature. So the employees that we have have actually been with us.

I've got quite a few movers and packers that are going to their seventh, eighth and ninth years with us.

So in terms of following up with our following suit with our best practices, with our culture, with the training that we've gone through and just having the passion to continue moving forward and the best foot in the best way that we can.

We have a very, very good group here that's been with us for quite some time and just kind of knows the ins and outs of not only the services we provide, but they have just a passion for making this company the best it can be.

@4:50 - Dennis Day 

Awesome.

@4:51 - Judy Gratton

I can speak to that because they've done work for us for our clients and our clients have been very satisfied with them and I was very impressed.

when we even the first time we spoke, I did little research and they got great five-star reviews on Google and they have been so receptive and friendly and our clients left them.

So there you go.

@5:16 - Dennis Day (John L Scott Real Estate)

You've got a five-star review review right there. right, tell us what can people do to make moving less stressful.

@5:28 - Scott Cruz

So a plan of attack is definitely what I would recommend most. We do. I mean, we can move a client.

I'm short. Notice it's not a problem, but that already creates a high stress environment and a lot of difficulty moving in itself at the very stressful and just the situation itself is very financially taxing whether it be moving from an apartment to apartment buying a new home, buying and selling a home.

The process is long and involving. So in terms of planning things out a little bit, giving a little bit of notice as to when you're looking to move gives us the ability to prepare.

provide estimates that are correct to the project itself. We can talk over numerous amounts of options like packing, disposing, maybe steps before the move that would be accommodating before we actually enter into the project and help keep costs a little more minimal.

So definitely a little bit of forewarning, some communication, a little bit of research as to what best suits the project itself.

I'll be the first to admit if it's a move that's really, really far down south, Puyallup going to Olympia.

@6:29 - Judy Gratton

There's a good chance from a financial aspect. We may not be the best fit and we're happy to kind of provide some guidance as to where they could look if we're not the best fit.

if we are, look into what the project would take for us to facilitate. So a question for you, how long would you suggest that how many, how long do you think, how far out do you think people should contact you to start this?

@6:59 - Scott Cruz

That's a great question. And a lot of it would be kind of subject to the particular move itself. So a good example would be if you are selling a home and you are needing to have the packing service, the moving service, things are bit up in the air because you don't know when the closing is on the new home.

three weeks notice is going to put us in the best situation possible in terms of coming out for a free onsite estimate, looking at all the options that we can provide and kind of helping to narrow down what services are needed versus which are not.

@7:29 - Judy Gratton

So in the larger move projects, larger homes, commercial entities, things of that nature where it could be a multi day process.

I'd say at least three weeks in advance would be just kind of the best marker to go for smaller moves like, you know, when it comes to assisted living studio apartments, one bedrooms where it's a little quicker and easier to facilitate packing to them take numerous days, things of that nature.

About two weeks, maybe 10 days in advance, puts us in a good spot. Wonderful. And I know that the last time.

I think you moved for us. You did move them over to Eastern Washington. So you do go outside of the area.

I'm sure there's additional costs involved with that, but you do it. And you mentioned services. So you can pack for people.

If they don't want to do it themselves.

@8:19 - Scott Cruz

Yes, we do. We provide full packing services, partial packing services. And when I say full, that means providing all the boxes and material for packing, coming over and facilitating by condensing all these smaller articles into boxes, labeling and having those just as easy to access as possible for our clients.

So yes, full size or full service packing, partial service packing. We are just coming in to assist in the process and maybe the client took a little effort ahead of time to pack up what they wanted to do ahead of time to aminimize some costs.

The full move service. in terms of disassembling, reassembling furniture, placement of furniture in the new home, getting boxes allocated to the right rooms.

That would be the full service for moving. So all of those services we definitely do provide.

@9:05 - Judy Gratton

We do try to kind of understand the needs of each client because every move is little bit different. client's needs are a little bit different.

Their goals for the project are usually just in terms of what the priority is can vary from client to client.

So we try to be pretty specific to what their needs are and build out a move project that's going to fit their needs.

That's great. That's wonderful to hear. So do you, I can you unpack on the other side or do you just pack on this side and then place boxes in the appropriate room on the other side?

@9:38 - Scott Cruz

Great question. We do offer unpacking services, however, not to get too nitty gritty here. The state of Washington does have a lot of particulars that we have to uphold.

And one of those specifics that can be a little bit of a nuance for someone moving into a new home is when we provide unpacking services, we are only able to put these small articles out of the box.

onto a flat surface. Meaning if we unpack your kitchen we can't put your dishes away, we can't put your utensils away, and that can be bit daunting and overwhelming for a client if we're just unloading tons of boxes and putting stuff on flat surfaces everywhere.

@10:12 - Dennis Day 

a lot of the times our client will defer not to have that one or maybe have a partial unpack.

Another service we do provide too is once unpacking is completed, whether it's by us or at the client's discretion over period of time, we do also offer debris removal, where we'll come through and pick up the boxes, white paper, and debris from the move and recycle it does come at a minimal fee, but we will offer that service and come back through and pick everything up.

I heard you offer a free on site estimate? Is that correct?

@10:41 - Scott Cruz

Yes we do. Yeah so upon request we can not come out for free on site estimates, doesn't need to be time permitting so we do have you know the client that will call with three or four days notice from a move and we may not be able to get there for an on site estimate, giving it their free, can everybody wants one.

the move is fairly large or if we can't articulate the move, It needs very well via a phone call through or through some emails.

We'll typically advise that, hey, let's come do an onsite estimate and get a better scope of the project itself, especially again, kind of back to the larger homes or commercial projects if they want an estimate for packing and moving versus just an estimate for moving.

The details then vary a bit in terms of how we would pack, which is how the typical customer would pack and what that preparation looks like.

So we will come out for free onsite estimates. Thanks to that question quickly. But we do need some advance notice on that.

So that's kind of back to the first part of our interview here.

@11:34 - Dennis Day 

So that kind of brings us to if somebody doesn't choose you to do the packing, what are some common mistakes you've seen people who pack their own materials to?

@11:48 - Scott Cruz

Great question. So when it comes to fragile boxes, we will pick up a box and hear some glass rattling inside.

And we'll typically let the client know it, hey, this is a high risk if we put it. In our truck, we are going to be driving down the road there, and they're going to bump up and down.

We will then offer to either repack, or we can load it in the client's car for just a safer travel.

So that's a pretty common one. Another is open top boxes. The box is open. We can't really stack on it.

And kind of to that same point there, have had quite a few clients that will fill a box only about halfway.

So it makes a little bit tough to stack on those. They can kind of implode or just not really support the weight of additional boxes being on top of them.

To which point, we can definitely find a way to resolve that during the loading process. And we'll just write top load on them and move them to the top.

But our goal isn't to have a half empty box and stack on the bottom by any means, but we don't also always know when we're moving them in and out.

So half full boxes, open top boxes, fragile is not being rep appropriately for the travel they're about to make.

Those are some pretty common things that we see. The others are that items just aren't really packed. The customer didn't really know how to pack them.

They kind of left it out for us, which is not a problem, but it will drive the expense of the move up as we're now doing some preparation on items that we had expected to be packed when we were doing the initial estimate.

@13:11 - Judy Gratton

So when you're talking about fragile items, how do you suggest that people pack fragile items safely?

@13:19 - Scott Cruz

Great question. There's a multitude of options out there in terms of packed materials. So know a lot of us are pretty familiar with bubble wrap, just putting bubble wrap around fragile items and getting loaded in.

We actually don't use bubble wrap, we use this called newsprint paper. It gives us the ability for say like a wine glass.

We can take and wad up a ball of newsprint, put it inside the cup as well as wrap around it, and it gives it a lot more structure and just a little more safe keeping for the travel.

So we use newsprint, we use bubble wrap when needed. A lot of clients will get to the electronics portion of how to pack, you know, to have a desktop, they'll have monitors, they'll have things with this nature that are fairly fragile as well and not really know how to fit it.

into a box. A lot of times we have a client brings that for our attention. We can do a pad wrap on those which are included in the moving service.

We'll have about 60 moving blankets on our truck to wrap. Anything basically if not in a box, there'd be a lamp, a couch, items like a TV or a monitor.

We can wrap those items as well. There's also decor that will come up. So larger vases, statues, of that nature where they're just a bit challenging to wrap or sometimes take up a singular box held by itself.

Depending on the value of the item or the fragility of the item, we may recommend, hey, just one box, let's put a lot of paper in there, let's make this thing travel safely.

So those are some of the the efforts ahead of time if a client is looking to pack, is focusing on the smaller stuff, you can get consolidated into boxes and in my opinion, there's never really overuse of white paper or bubble wrap when it comes to protecting your fragile eye.

@14:52 - Judy Gratton

And I've made, I've been shipping things back to Virginia and not been doing a very good job on a couple of them which

It's very disappointing. They didn't make it very well. But so when you're talking to that, so I imagine with all your best efforts, sometimes things do get broken, how is that addressed?

you have insurance? How do you look at it if something is broken?

@15:19 - Scott Cruz

Great question here. And I'm going to kind of answer this in a very whole sense for basically all movers in the state of Washington.

So we are all governed by the state of Washington via a commission called the UTC. And they actually hand down exactly how all of us that are local movers here in Washington state need to offer valuation options.

every movers out there, if they claim they've never damaged anything, haven't been in business very long. Or in my opinion, might be not telling the whole truth.

When it comes to damages, at the start of every move and even leading up to the process of booking the move, we typically try to get this information out.

We send all of it before customers On an estimate, they'll have all the valuations options presented to them in writing.

We do try to just touch on them at least briefly. Not every client wants to hear the minutiae of the extent of what each option holds.

But there's a free option included in the service. And it's called basic value protection. very limited and sounds exactly like it is.

It's very basic. It covers every article we move at 60 cents a pound. So if you have a 100 pound couch for instance, and it got torn, damaged, or anything where it's under our chain of custody, it's 100 pounds, 60 cents a pound, yield a $60 valuation or reimbursement for that item.

And so on and so forth for everything that we would have movement over. There are additional options that do cost extra.

And again, a lot of the clients that we work with when it comes to these valuation options, this is just specifically how the UTC says we have to do it.

They put the writing together. We present it. That's really the only flexibility we get is who our carrier is, but we don't get flexibility in the language of how it's written.

and every mover will offer the exact same. The additional valuation options are done an expense value instead of a weight value.

And we simply look at the entirety of the shipment and get a general sense of what the value of the shipment is, provide a quote as to what the cost would be to cover all of the items.

And unfortunately, it's not a pick and choose.

@17:20 - Judy Gratton

know we all want to save our TVs and our price possessions, but it's an umbrella coverage, meaning we have to cover the whole shipment.

We provide a quote based on the volume that we're moving. And a customer at that time can choose whether they want additional valuation or not.

Oftentimes, especially in what we see in larger moves with like home insurance, there are already cover drop-ins in place.

But we do always advise that our client look into that prior to purchasing the additional cost. Oh, OK. I didn't even know that.

That's good to know.

@17:50 - Dennis Day 

Well, Scott, are this podcast in our businesses geared around helping people downsize? Do you have some specific tips and tricks that would help?

people who are moving generally from a large family home to something quite a bit smaller.

@18:08 - Scott Cruz

Great question. This is always a tough topic to look at. We've done some walkthroughs of homes that are 4,000 square feet and they're moving to 2,500 square feet and they have the mindset that all that's going to ship over and it can be a challenging conversation sometimes.

But just as a basic rule of thumb, we always advise that a client can walk through the home, start to pick out items that they don't feel like they would need to take to the new place.

The downsizing process, a lot of clients will already go through and say, hey, not this stuff, but I want all this.

Even then, when we get to that point, can still be a, hey, look, just don't think all this is going to fit.

We definitely advise prior to the move to start building out a maybe pile. Something that'd be okay with letting go, but it would be ideal if it made it.

This is very specific to downslug of the new homes. Out of state moves where they're loading a pod or a truck to take web out.

when they're trying to write size the space they have with the amount of items they're looking to take with them.

And we try to be as guiding in this process as we can. There are also a lot of clients that just need ahead of time to have maybe a dump removal or donation runs done prior to moving.

We do offer those services as well. If a client would just like to have a kind of one-stop shop with us where we can do donation runs, we can do dump runs, things of that nature.

And oftentimes in the downsizing process, it'll come to a point where just maybe a couple items can't go and a client will just ask at that time if we dump or donate the items, which we can take on kind of in the moment.

@19:38 - Judy Gratton

Ideally, we would have this stuff figured out ahead of time in the move project as we coordinate and plan this out.

But we can also be reactive to those situations as well and offer those services. Go ahead, Dennis. 

@19:54 - Dennis Day 

Have you experienced people who are moving from not just downsizing from the big home to another smaller home, but to say assisted living or to a nursing home.

@20:08 Scott Cruz

You know, we actually work with a lot of clientele in this particular market. And we do work with assisted living communities who will recommend us as they've just enjoyed their experience and interactions with our crew and our team.

We actually recently had a call where they were just so so pleasantly happy with our lead. His name is Jackson.

He went out. He just provided an excellent service. He's very accommodating to the tenants that were there. He would, you know, shift out of the way of the elevator and let other clients, know, tenants that live there, take the elevator as needed, things of that nature.

This really appreciated his understanding to the environment he was in as he was conducting moving services. So oftentimes we'll get recommended to those locations.

And they can be very challenging processes, whether it's, you know, somebody moving into the location or, you know, the more challenging, if some one passes and they to vacate the.

facility to which we will again look at the project itself, what are the needs, what's happening, usually a move in.

It's going to be a pretty small situation. They'll have pretty large furniture. They want moved in. need to be practical about those and we will advise as we're there.

We've had two piece hutches that are about 10 feet long and they just don't fit that well in the discipline.

They really don't. mean, if we need to make it happen, we'll accommodate, but we'll typically say, hey, maybe one couch instead of two, know, things of that nature seem to understand the living situation they'll be in.

The fact that they need space to move around their furniture and just be accessible within their home. When vacating location like that, oftentimes, you know, the children of the person is passed, it needs to facilitate the move out and just kind of figure out where they had them go.

Oftentimes in these situations, it'll be allocated to a multitude of children that need to take on the furniture and or they just need to vacate and have somewhere to go, but don't have a spot to which we will offer storage.

We have a storage facility right here in downtown Redmond, where we can take on these items and just give them a little bit of breathing room between, you know, these difficult situations and when they want to, you know, address the furniture.

@22:14 - Judy Gratton

So, you mentioned briefly something about someone going out of state. Do you handle out of state moves? Can you do?

@22:22 - Scott Cruz

We do.

@22:23 - Judy Gratton

Do them or.

@22:26 - Scott Cruz

That's a great question. It's so when it comes to out of state moves, we mostly primarily we're looking to kind of stay on the West Coast.

We will go inland a little bit like Arizona area. We don't do East Coast moving. There's just a lot of different logistics and licensing that are needed for really far moves like that.

And for us, it's just not a situation that speaks well to the services that we offer to go those type of distances.

So we will work West Coast area and inland a little bit, but in terms of out of state, larger moves like that, when a client calls in with the

Those needs, there are a few different options, one of which would be to have them rent out their own pod or their own truck or a different courier service that maybe doesn't offer moving and we can provide loading or unloading services that moving to or from Washington.

In terms of they want, you know, just the one. One thing you learn provider to take them from Washington to these coast.

We have partnerships with a lot of other state movers that will facilitate that we recommend just from our experience with them.

We've recommended clients to them and gotten glowing reviews. They provide great service. We've come on different projects over the years.

@23:34 - Judy Gratton

So we would have recommendations. It is not something we can facilitate. There's been a lot of news coverage of moves that have not gone well where things have been stolen or the worst case scenario is they thought the movers were good and then the movers hold their items hostage on one or on the other side.

And so. So when you say you're recommending people and you're, have you run into that? Do you, how do you suggest that people make sure that they've got legitimately good movers that are not going to take them to the cleaners or whatever?

@24:19 - Scott Cruz

Always the scary situations. You know, people don't typically move more than maybe once a year or so. So when it comes to vetting a moving company and having to embark on this process, it can be very stressful and, you know, people start getting a bunch of quotes and they just want to land something that's financially within their budget.

So they may, you know, just take on option as they get exhausted through this process. And that can definitely be open to some of the risks in the industry itself.

I know that how we try to promote ourselves and make it very clear to our clientele or potential clients, you know, all of our movers, again, they're our employees.

So they're all background checked, know, they're vetted through our process. So if they all go through training. So in terms of...

This meeting is being recorded. When it comes to looking at a service provider and what's going to best fit their needs and oh it's got to go out of state or maybe they have to ship internationally, something of that nature.

course the basics of check and good reviews is definitely where one should start. And I don't just mean on one platform.

It's definitely beneficial to check a couple. know, you help your Angie's List, better business bureau, Google reviews, know, check a couple of different platforms.

Try to have a conversation. You know, it's one of those things where if you're getting a bad feeling, you may want to follow the gut instinct on that.

@25:49 - Judy Gratton

Okay, so there's no... Like you mentioned, was it UTC? Is that a place you can check for?

@25:56 - Scott Cruz

You absolutely can't. And we, when we, you know, Engaged with the client, we do send them the UTC brochure and guidelines for the customer themselves as a consumer.

And that one, that's actually required by the state to do so. But two, it just goes over all their rights as a consumer.

But as well, if they visit the UTC website, they can find all service providers that have been approved by the UTC in the state of Washington.

So if you don't see them on there, that would be a red flag.

@26:26 - Judy Gratton

So UTC stands for what?

@26:30 - Scott Cruz

Utilities and Transportation Commission. Okay.

@26:34 - Judy Gratton

All right. And that, I think those are excellent. I know a lot of people are very concerned about that today.

I think, right, those are some really important, excellent things. You know, number one, you said, look for a company who has employees, not just a workers.

And that they've got standards, correct. And then you mentioned checking out reviews and especially on the Better Business Bureau.

And then the UTC, that should give them a pretty solid thing that I would hope that they could hold on to.

@27:09 - Scott Cruz

So, I believe that would be a good foundation to just know that the service provider you're looking at is qualified has, you know, walked the walk they're supposed to do when it comes to, you know, just being a service provider and being a.

What the best way to say it would be that one, they do a good vetting process, but two, it just simply means that they will have a UBI number.

They do have the right to be conducting moving services in our industry in the state of Washington. And these vary from state to state.

So we're really just talking about kind of our, our location here in Washington. But that definitely at least says that you're working with a provider that can provide services legally.

@27:52 - Judy Gratton

You, when, as we mentioned, we were working with people primarily at this point who are downsizing. And we've had someone on that does estate sales.

Do you have connections to other services that might be beneficial? If they're working with you, can you make suggestions?

Like if they wanted to do an estate sale, do you also have connections?

@28:21 - Scott Cruz

Or people? Yes, we do. When it comes specifically to the question of the estate sale, I would be able to get you in touch with someone, again, that we've worked with and that we feel could provide the necessary tasks and leadership on a project like that.

So we work with some entities that are in real estate, in estate sales, and some even if you want to get a little more specific to it that works specifically with the elderly community when they need to just kind of allocate furniture in different directions or prepare for a sale.

Another particular branch of industry that we work with would be interior designers. we... a lot of service of them, work in tandem with them.

But when it comes to us needing to recommend to a client, it's just just getting started, doesn't know what steps to take first.

will usually be some direction I give them, especially in the larger homes where they really need to prepare for a sale, know, get some of the furniture moved out so that the home is prepared to be shown for a sale.

You know, it's kind of one of phase one, phase two, phase three type of moving projects. And we'll, you know, walk our particular portion of the project as each comes up.

@29:29 - Judy Gratton

And then definitely advise, you know, hey, here's where you can get some answers. Hey, here's someone that can walk the process and hey, here's someone that will just provide the service altogether.

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And you mentioned when you were talking about disposing of things and taking things for donation, what do you do or what do you suggest to be done with food?

A lot of times when they're moving long distances, you know, perishable items, in particular are a problem.

@29:58 - Scott Cruz

It's a great question. Yeah, and when it is a long distance move, there's actually, you know, as someone prepares for long distance move, those projects just have a lot more encompassed in them.

There's a lot of things that are just not allowed to be shipped. know, kind of anything that goes boom, you know, no propane tanks, no latex paint, stuff like that.

When it comes to perishable items, that's just essentially a no-no. If it's an open bottle or opened anything, whether it be oil, food, stuff like that, that is perishable, it's just going to be not allowed to ship in that particular regard.

So if you're working with a professional service provider, it's packing. They'll walk you through that process. If it's a client packing their own boxes, a common phrase called a PBO, a pack-by-owner box, and they do put items in there.

The box would be disposed of if there was leakage or something like that, and they would put the items at risk that maybe they wanted to keep in there that would then be disposed of if they are improperly packing for an out-of-state move.

When it comes to local moving, the name of the game is a little bit different. rules are are a lot less strict because it is a one day transport.

But for us on local moving, we don't move basically anything in a fridge or freezer.

@31:09 - Judy Gratton

And so what would you have people do with that stuff? do you have suggestions of events?

@31:14 - Scott Cruz

We definitely do. I'm asking it. Yes, if a client has a cooler or something like that that we can pack up for them, we'll just simply offer to put those items in their car.

If we are going to pack them in a box, we just can't be the ones to actually transport the items.

So what we do is kind of wait till the very end of the load. We're just about ready to shift over to the new home.

And we'll say, hey, we can pull this in a box for you, load it in your car. We'll get to the new home and immediately unload it.

Hopefully it's a fridge available to us to unload into. We've had a situation where that wasn't the case. And it's like, well, we've got to think of something quick.

@31:50 - Dennis Day 

You have temporary storage?

@31:52 - Scott Cruz

We have long-term and short-term storage capabilities.

@31:56 - Dennis Day 

OK. And it's a handle that you're locked where you're trying to

@32:00 - Scott Cruz

and so forth are? That's correct. Yeah, our main location here in Redmond is actually an 80,000 square foot warehouse where we can do intakes of short term, whether it be a couple of days.

Another one is called SIT, which is storage in transit. Just simply means storage for less than 90 days, but it's kind of little differently.

And then long-term storage or perm stores where we be essentially 91 days or further, but we have all storage capacities available for that.

We're a climate controlled unit. We have perimeter sprays done here or quarterly, so we don't have any bugs or critters to have to deal with.

So in terms of our storing process, I'd say we're a little above what a lot of storing places offer in terms of one, climate control, two, sprays being done.

And three, we actually offer all the protective measures for your furniture if you store that. So if you went to a public storage, we can't leave our pads and shrink wrap on.

If you store here, it's included in the price as protective measures for your goods during the stay.

@33:00 - Dennis Day

and move out or move in the whole process. Fantastic. And how do you keep track of all this stuff, whether it's moving from one place to another or then storage?

@33:12 - Scott Cruz

Great question. So when we have a storage manager, the full-time storage manager through Friday with us, does all the intakes, we do an inventory for every movement that comes in here.

We'll do an itemized list of each article that we have, and then we'll have that sent to our client so they have a copy as well.

But we have a archive of all items that come in, and we check this list off when it moves out.

We do our storage by a vaulting system. So there are large seven by five by five wooden crates that will store all of the items in.

Each one is numbered, so that goes into our system here that just tells us which ones are occupied versus which ones are not.

And then we tag each one with our client's name, with the invoice number, the amount of vaults they have, and the amount of oversight.

items they have. So there's an item that can't be stored in the vaults due to weight, size, or needing specific storing needs.

@34:07 - Dennis Day 

will be considered an oversized item to which they're also catalogued on the inventory as well as our intake process.

Just as a odd question, what is the weirdest thing you have ever had to move?

@34:21 - Scott Cruz

That's a great question. We actually did a move for the David Barton's gym. My driver gave me a call and said, hey, I need a bigger truck.

I was like, what forward? It's moving one couch.

@34:31 - Judy Gratton

He sent me a video, not a picture. We had to take a video of the things we could see how large it was.

His couch was 26 feet long. was one singular piece. Oh my gosh. How did you do that? How do you, I mean, it's going to break in the middle or something?

@34:47 - Scott Cruz

Honestly, everything is exactly true. So it was, I don't want to say light enough to make it seem like it was light.

It was very heavy piece, but it was manageable enough to pick up from either end with two of us.

I was actually on this piece with another move. where when we picked it up, every step we took this thing would rattle and bow in our arms.

So what wound up doing is putting some rollers underneath it with some boxes to support little bit higher just so we could have them all supported while we carried it.

@35:13 - Judy Gratton

we moved it here to stores. They're actually doing a reupholster on it. And then we moved it back in.

But it was definitely one of probably the top 10 weirder items that we've come across. We've had to move.

just didn't believe it when I got the call. was 26 feet. Witness it. I was 26 feet. Oh my gosh.

What about you mentioned weight oversized or over, you know, over heavy panels come to mind? That seems to be one of the bagaboos that I frequently run into.

Either people don't want them anymore or they're really heavy. So is there additional charge? And if they don't want an idea where to go with them?

@35:55 - Scott Cruz

Let's handle the first part of that question first. In terms of heavier items, specialty. items, there is an additional cost per item.

We had a client that had a pool table, a extremely large gun safe, a piano, and a hot tub all in the same move.

Each one does actually have an additional cost for it. It's the same cost throughout per item. But what it really comes down to is the specifics of the piece itself.

Can we facilitate the move? So for instance, a pool table, we don't provide disassembly for those. They're extremely difficult, and they require balancing when they get put back together, which can be, it's just out of our scope.

It's not something we offer. do offer third party options for those types of items. will facilitate and move it.

We just don't disassemble and reassemble them. Piano, pool tables, excessively heavy refrigerators and washers and dryers, things of that nature that would require not only a very specific crew that would know how to do these items, but it also requires specific equipment.

a reefer dolly that will strap on there that has rollers and sliders on the back that will protect property if we move them.

Piano sleds, again same deal, they'll offset the weight and they, one, provide us a sliding maneuver versus a lifting and trying to carry it down tough corridors.

So these are the items that we would have an additional fee for but can provide the service. will say though, it's on a case-by-case basis that we'll take a look at it, make sure it's within our scope if it's something that is just way too risky.

It is something we would potentially pass on based on circumstance. I'm sorry Judy, what was the second part of your question?

@37:36 - Judy Gratton

You know of any place when people, because we run into this a lot, people will go, oh I'm leaving the piano, or I'm leaving the pool table, that's a good one.

And then the people who buy it don't want it. And so then it's kind of like we're left with what do we do with this and I'm not kidding, I have taken beautiful pianos to the dump.

I'm paid to have them hauled off to the dump. because nobody wanted them. I've tried churches, I've tried boys and girls clubs, everything I can think of.

Do you know of places? Do you have recommendations that you provide for people you're working with as to where to put things?

@38:16 - Scott Cruz

Definitely one of the more challenging situations that does come up and especially in the home-to-home transfers buying and selling that is where it most frequently occurs.

We've been in that same situation of, hey, do you know where to go with these items? honestly, there's some places that we'll say yesterday might say no tomorrow, so it is kind of a varying situation.

I can say that if it's a highly unique item, um, consignment stores are a good spot to check, um, in terms of donation centers, honestly, when it comes to like musical equipment, I would recommend schools, just to see if that's something that they would be open to or gyms for gym equipment, things of that nature.

otherwise, yeah, donation, I mean, we can try ourselves. Mission Army, we can look at places that offer like section 8 housing that might be able to take on these items.

But the consistency, this isn't there unfortunately. I've had plenty of places to say yes to this item and know to that item or yes last week and know this week.

So it can be a difficult process to walk through and you kind of just have to put in the work and make a lot of calls to find an option.

If you need a quick option, it winds up being typically the dump and a pretty stiff cost.

@39:27 - Judy Gratton

It's really sad to see that happen, but it more and more you do. People just don't want them anymore.

So anyway, Dennis, do you have any other questions?

@39:39 - Dennis Day 

Scott, Scott, do you have anything that you'd like to add that would help potential movers in the future?

@39:47 - Scott Cruz

I definitely appreciate both of you guys with time today. When it comes to moving to a super stressful process, it's one of those things where you usually have numerous things going on.

You're trying to find a new place to live. You're trying to vacate your old place. There's a lot of cost involved.

a lot of time involved, and people are full time at work. A quick phone call over to us, or just checking out our website and requesting a quote.

We can at least take that portion of the stress off of your plate pretty quickly. We can get a quote over to you in a quick fashion.

If it's something that needs an on-site estimate, we'll work with you on time. when we can get out there, what works for you, things of that nature, whether be an afternoon, potentially early morning before we go to one of our moves, something like that.

But our goal is to be as accommodating in our portion of these projects as possible. Timing definitely helps. So if we only have a week to get the project done, it's just going to build some stress regardless.

we are looking to facilitate as much as we can. So again, just to kind of go over the recap of services, packing and unpacking, partial packing, relocation within counties or within Washington State as a very simplistic process for us.

Everything is provided. So if you're looking at And to just take that portion of the stress off your plate, we can provide all material moving, truck size, amount of movers that are necessary to facilitate these processes.

can do junk removal. We can do hauling services. We will provide storage, it be short term or long term.

We got a lot of places at Stella House this day, but can't move into the house in the week.

@41:23 - Dennis Day 

So just to take some of that stress off and be able to facilitate the entire project. That's all of our capabilities kind of in house here.

Thank you. Do you rent trucks for those do it yourselfers?

@41:35 - Scott Cruz

We do not. That's a great question. We will help do it yourselfers load a truck or unload a truck, especially if they're leaving the state or coming into the state, but we do not actually rent out our trucks.

@41:46 - Dennis Day 

Okay. Well, thank you, Scott.

@41:49 - Judy Gratton

have to say, yeah, I was just in contacting their company. And speaking first with Jessica, I don't know if she's your receptionist.

just exactly what her title is and then also speaking with Scott. And I've spoken to other movers. The difference was night and day.

I am so impressed with your sincerity and caring and you really, I feel you go out of your way.

And so again, I'm going to give you another five star review right here and I think he's got so much for joining us today.

It was incredibly informative. I think I was writing down questions. don't want to forget those final. So it was great talking to you.

Thank you so much.

@42:38 - Dennis Day 

Thanks, Scott. And give us a website people can go to.

@42:46 - Scott Cruz

www.onthegomoving.com. You'll get on right up to our front page there and right up to the right hand side of the request to quote box.

@42:52 - Dennis Day 

We also have all of our services listed there as well for any moving needs that our clients may have.

Thank you, Judy. Thank you. got so much for coming give us all this fantastic information and that is it for this podcast.

We appreciate your business and that's it for today from getting your edge how to write those your home and life podcasts and goodbye.

@43:15 - Judy Gratton

Bye bye.

@43:18 - Scott Cruz

Thank you both.