Packing and Unpacking in McMinnville for Homes With a Wine Collection
Family-Owned & Operated | ODOT #275978 · USDOT #3604556 | $56.40/hr Per Packer | Google 4.8★ Rated | Open 7 AM–10 PM, Every Day
- ODOT For-Hire Carrier #275978USDOT #3604556Licensed & InsuredBBB A+ AccreditedGoogle 4.8★ RatedFamily-Owned · Hillsboro, OR
Packing a house with a wine collection comes down to a few decisions that an ordinary pack day overlooks. Which bottles ride in your own car. Which hour of which day the truck loads. What a broken case would actually be worth on paper. And where the bottles wait at the new place while the rack is still in pieces. This page walks through each one for a McMinnville move.
Butterfield Moving is a licensed family company based in Hillsboro. A McMinnville pack day begins about 50 minutes up the road at that yard, so pack days here are booked for the next day or later. Each packer bills $56.40 per hour, and the published box prices are below.
What the Wine Changes About a McMinnville Pack Day
A wine-growing area that carries the city's name
The federal rule behind the name, 27 CFR 9.181, says the McMinnville viticultural area is "located in Yamhill County, Oregon, and is entirely within the Willamette Valley viticultural area." The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau established it in January 2005. A house here can hold a case in a closet or a wall of racking, and the two are different jobs. Tell us roughly how many bottles are in the house when you call. That number moves the box count and the packer hours further than the room count does.
A cargo box with no temperature control
Our trucks have no temperature control, and the wine rides in the cargo box for the load, the drive, and the unload. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals for the McMinnville station put the average July high at 83.3°F and the average July low at 54.0°F, so a summer day here carries close to thirty degrees between its coolest hour and its warmest. The timing is your call. You can pick an early start so loading happens in the cooler part of the day, choose a date outside the warmest months, or keep the bottles out of the truck entirely. Check the forecast for the week before your date, and if a hot spell is coming, call us about an earlier start. We will book what the calendar allows.
The bottles that belong in your car
In summer you can ask the crew to flag heat-sensitive items for your car. With wine, that list usually starts with the bottles you could never buy again: a birth-year vintage, a gift, the last of a case. Pick them out before pack day and set them in one spot, so the packers leave them alone and you load them yourself.
Cartons: what is on our list, and what is not
Our published supplies include small, medium, large, and wardrobe boxes, plus TV boxes, and each one carries a printed price. Divider cartons for wine sit outside that list, because we do not stock them. We can buy them in for your move and bill them onto you, and the divider cartons we source hold twelve bottles to a box. They reach your estimate as a quoted cost, since they have no published price, so give Patrick your bottle count on the first call and ask him for the carton figure before you book. If you kept the shipping cartons your wine arrived in, say so on the call; we can use your own boxes.
What a carton of bottles weighs, and what goes on top of it
A full case runs about 35 pounds, and a carton packed tight with loose bottles can come out heavier than the books beside it. 12 bottles are in a case, so a full divider carton weighs about as much as a case, and the bottle count gives you both the carton count and the pounds. Ask the crew to keep the bottle count per carton low enough that the box closes flat and sits square, and to load them where nothing heavy lands on top. Bottles lying on their sides in a divided carton travel better than bottles standing loose with paper stuffed around them, so the carton question and the packing question are the same question.
The wait between the truck and the rebuilt rack
A freestanding rack comes apart for the move and goes back together at the new house as part of the hourly rate, and beds go back together first. Until the rack stands again, the bottle boxes need a place to sit, so pick the room and tell the crew, and those boxes go straight there. If you want to unpack the wine yourself later, say so, and the cartons stay closed in that room until you are ready. When the crew takes a rack apart, we can photograph it first and bag and tag its hardware, so it goes back together the way it stood.
Where the Bottles Live Now, and How They Can Travel
A collection can sit in more than one place. Use this to sort yours before the estimate call, one row at a time, and bring the answers to the second column with you.
| Where the bottles are now | Settle before pack day | How they can travel |
|---|---|---|
| Freestanding rack in a dining room or hall | Bottle count and whether the rack comes apart | Boxed on pack day; rack wrapped or taken apart |
| Wine fridge, under a counter or standalone | Emptied and unplugged ahead of move day | Bottles boxed; the empty fridge moves like an appliance |
| Cases stacked in a garage or closet | Whether the original cartons are still sound | In their own cartons when sound, or repacked |
| Shelving in a basement or cellar room | The stair and the carry to the door | Boxed where it sits, then carried up the stair |
| The few bottles you cannot replace | Which ones, set aside in one spot | With you, in your car |
A McMinnville Pack Day With Wine, Start to Finish
The count.
On the call, we ask where each group of bottles lives, how many there are, and which ones you are driving yourself. It is also when to purchase replacement-cost protection, which is available if you choose to.
The set-aside.
When the crew arrives, you show them the set-aside bottles first. They stay in their spot, and the crew works around them for the rest of the day.
Bottles before furniture.
The crew boxes the bottles and can mark each carton with its contents and the up end. The rack and the empty wine fridge come after, once nothing is left on them.
The landing.
If you booked unpacking, the bottle cartons go to the room you chose, and the crew opens them after the rack is rebuilt and set up where you want it. Before the truck leaves the old house, walk the rooms with the crew, including the cellar shelves and the garage corner, so no carton of wine stays behind.
McMinnville Packing, Unpacking and Box Prices
Price a McMinnville pack dayPacking or unpacking labor, per packer
- 1 packer: $56.40 per hour
- 2 packers: $112.80 per hour
- 3 packers: $169.20 per hour
- 4 packers: $225.60 per hour
Boxes and supplies
- Small $6.30 · Medium $7.45 · Large $9.45 · Wardrobe $31.55
- TV box $55.85 per use, or $199.65 to buy
Moving crew and truck, if you book the move too: Monday–Saturday, 7 AM–7 PM
- 2 movers + truck: $150.35 per hour · 3 movers + truck: $206.75 per hour · 4 movers + truck: $263.15 per hour
- 3-hour minimum · $56.40 per hour for each additional mover or packer
- Evenings after 7 PM Mon–Sat, and Sundays (3-hour minimum): $195.20 / $273.40 / $351.60 per hour
- Holiday rate (3-hour minimum): $230.50 / $325.50 / $420.50 per hour
The drive from our Hillsboro yard is part of the hours, billed at the same hourly rate as the crew. The minimum for a pack-only day is settled on the estimate call.
Released Value, Replacement Cost and Claims
Default coverage pays by the pound, and a wine label has no pounds to add. Released value at $0.60 per pound is the legal floor, not a plan: a case weighing 35 pounds comes to $21 under it, whatever the labels say. Replacement-cost protection is available if you choose to purchase it. We will submit a claim upon request.
McMinnville Packing Questions
If I box the wine myself, is that carton covered?
A carton our packers filled and our crew moved is one we will submit a claim on. A carton you sealed yourself is a harder case, because nobody but you saw what went in it or how. With a case of wine that matters more than a box of towels, because the bottles you most want covered are the ones worth the most per pound. If you have bottles like that, either let the packers box them or drive them yourself.
Can the pack day fall on a different day from the move?
Yes. Booking packers for the day before the truck means the load starts with every carton already sealed and labeled. Both days are scheduled with the drive from our yard in mind.
We are moving from McMinnville into the Portland area. Does the card change?
A move between McMinnville and the Portland metro runs on the hourly card shown above. Some destinations run on a different card, so give us both addresses. Farther out, to the coast or central Oregon, a move gets a written quote on mileage and weight.
What Our Customers Say
A Bottle Count Is the First Thing Patrick Asks For
Call (503) 506-4149 with the address you are leaving, the one you are heading to, and a rough bottle count. The one decision that call has to reach is which bottles ride in your own car and which go on the truck. The crew size, the box count, and the load hour all follow from where you put that line.
Planning the whole move? See moving in McMinnville, all the packing options we offer, and how we handle office relocations in McMinnville.
Call (503) 506-4149 → Free McMinnville Packing Estimate, 7 AM–10 PM Every Day
Hours
Monday–Sunday, 7 AM–10 PM. Messages left outside those hours get returned.
Butterfield Moving LLC · 2092 NE Aloclek Dr, Suite 516, Hillsboro, OR 97124 · Moving…Like Butter™