What labor-only means
A full-service mover shows up with a truck, a crew and a contract. You pay for all three, plus the inventory, the drive and the valuation on your goods. Labor-only is the stripped-down version: you rent the truck or the container, the crew loads it, you drive it, and the same crew or a different one unloads at the other end. For a move across Denver it usually costs a fraction of the full-service price.
The trade: you run the day. Book the truck and park it where the crew can reach it. Pack and close the boxes. The hours start when the crew arrives, so an unready apartment is paid for twice: once while they wait, once while they work.
Pack so it lifts
The crew moves what you packed. Pack each box for someone who’ll carry it down 2 flights.
- Fifty pounds is the ceiling. Books, records and dishes go in small boxes. The large boxes are for pillows, bedding, lampshades and clothes.
- Tape the bottoms twice. A box that opens on the stairs ends the day early. Tape the seams as well as the center line.
- Label the room, not the contents. “Kitchen” on two sides and the top. The unload crew reads the label and the box goes where it belongs without a question.
- Beds and tables come apart the night before. Bag the hardware, tape the bag to the piece, and the crew carries flat panels instead of a frame that doesn’t fit through the door.
- Keep a box out. Chargers, medications, a change of clothes, the kettle, the dog’s bowl, toilet paper. It rides in your car.
Empty the drawers unless the piece is small and light. A full dresser weighs more than two people can carry safely, and the drawers slide out on the stairs.
Protect both places
Most moving damage is to the building, not the furniture: a gouged door jamb, a scraped wall at the turn of the stair, a scratched floor where a dresser was dragged. A good crew brings floor runners, door-jamb protectors and moving blankets. If you’re supplying the gear, cardboard flattened over the floors and old blankets around the furniture do the same job.
If you live in an apartment building, ask the manager about the elevator. Many buildings require you to book and pad it, and some allow moves only during set hours. Ask about truck parking, too. A loading zone you can reach beats double-parking with the flashers on and a ticket on the windshield.
Hiring a company with a truck
A labor-only crew for a local move is a simple deal. The moment a company takes your belongings onto its truck for a move across a state line, you’re in federal territory, and it’s worth knowing the rules. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration runs Protect Your Move, where you can look up any interstate mover’s registration, complaint history and safety record before you sign.
The scam the agency warns about most is the hostage load: a low estimate, a truck full of your things, then a demand for far more before they’re unloaded. Its fraud prevention guide says to get written estimates from more than one registered company, to be wary of any mover who quotes by phone without seeing the goods or asks for a large deposit in cash, and to know that an interstate mover must give you a copy of your rights before the move. Complaints go to the agency’s national database.
For a move within Colorado, the state’s Public Utilities Commission licenses household-goods movers. The same checks apply in spirit: a written estimate, a real address, and a name you can look up.
The day itself
- Truck collected and parked, ramp down, before the crew’s start time.
- Boxes closed, labeled and stacked by the door. Furniture disassembled and hardware bagged.
- Walk the crew through once: what goes, what stays, what’s fragile, where the truck is.
- Heavy furniture first and toward the cab, boxes after, light and odd shapes last. Strap each section before the next.
- At the other end, label-side out, boxes to their rooms, beds together first so there’s somewhere to sleep.
- Walk both places before the crew leaves. Note any damage then, not a week later.
Water for everyone, cash for a tip if they earned it, and a plan for the pizza. Moving is work. With the packing done the night before, it’s a morning’s work instead of a day’s.