Packing and Unpacking Services in Portland
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
In a Portland house, the length of a pack day is set in the basement, under the attic hatch, in the crowded hall closet, and on the steep stairs every loaded box has to climb on the way out. Our packers plan those spaces first, because they decide how long the day runs.
Our packers work across Portland on whole houses, a single floor, or just the kitchen, billed at $56.40 per hour per packer with boxes at printed prices. We can also unpack at the new address and leave you with a plan for the cardboard.
Where a Portland Pack Day Goes Long
Many east-side Portland houses predate 1930. Whatever has accumulated in yours since then, the storage spaces are the ones worth a look before the estimate call.
The basement
A basement is where a pack estimate goes wrong. Paint cans, tools, holiday bins, a chest freezer, and ten years of "we might need this" sit below a low ceiling at the bottom of a narrow stair. Every box packed down there has to be carried up one at a time, so we pack the basement in smaller boxes than the rest of the house and bring it up first, before the main floor fills with staged cartons. Count the shelving units and the bins before the estimate call and tell us the number: steel racks and a wall of paint can hold more packing hours than the bedroom floor above them.
The attic and the half-story
Many bungalows and foursquares have storage tucked under the roof, reached by a pull-down hatch or a steep half-flight. Boxes coming out of those spaces need to be light enough to pass down a ladder hand to hand. We pack them at a small-box weight and label them "attic" so they can go straight back into the equivalent space at the new home.
Closets and built-ins
If your house has built-ins, such as a china cabinet, a window seat or bookcases beside the fireplace, remember that they stay with the house, which means everything inside them has to be boxed, and it adds up faster than people expect. Tell us if a glass-front cabinet is full of fragile pieces, because wrapping them one at a time adds time to the schedule.
The garage and the shed
Garden tools, bikes, camping gear and half-used bags of potting soil do not fit neatly in moving boxes. Long-handled tools are bundled and taped together, bikes are ridden unboxed with pedals wrapped, and anything wet or muddy is dried or bagged before it goes near a carton of linens. Fuel in a mower or a propane tank has to be emptied or left behind, so settle that before pack day. If your garage doubles as a workshop, say so on the call. A bench, a pegboard wall and a parts drawer are their own packing job, and the hour range should allow for it.
What Packing in Portland Costs
Get a Portland packing estimatePacking labor: dedicated pack day
- 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
Butterfield Moving is a licensed family company based in Hillsboro, and the card above is the one published on our site. A storage basement can add a packer or half a day, and we will say so on the call. The drive time from our Hillsboro yard is included in the hours and billed at the same hourly rate as the crew.
Released Value, Replacement Cost and Claims
Released value at $0.60 per pound is the legal floor, not a plan. Replacement-cost protection is available if you choose to purchase it. We will submit a claim upon request.
What to Do With the Cardboard in Portland
A whole-house unpack leaves a lot of cardboard, more than a single blue bin holds. Portland's curbside guidance handles the overflow simply:
- Break down and flatten every box.
- Tape extra flattened boxes into bundles no larger than 3 feet in any direction.
- Lean the bundles next to your blue recycling bin on pickup day.
- Packing peanuts and plastic air packs go in the garbage, never in recycling.
- Styrofoam goes in the garbage too, unless you take it to a drop-off recycler that accepts it.
Flatten as the rooms empty
A standing empty carton takes up a room; the same carton flat takes up a wall. On an unpack, you can ask the crew to break the empties down in the room they were opened in, take them out flat, and bundle them to the three-foot limit wherever you want them. If you are opening the boxes yourself, cut the tape on each one as you empty it and add it to the stack, so the cardboard never gets a chance to fill the hallway.
Where the bundles wait in an older house
Three-foot bundles have to sit somewhere between collections, and in a Portland house with a basement the instinct is to carry them down out of sight. That instinct costs a second trip: every bundle comes back up the same narrow stair on collection morning, one armful at a time, which is the trip pattern the pack day was built to avoid. Keep the bundles on the main floor, in the garage or under cover on the porch, a few steps from where the bin already lives.
The cartons worth keeping whole
A wardrobe box is $31.55 new and stands taller than the three-foot bundle limit, so it has to be cut down before it can go out at the curb. That makes it the one carton worth keeping whole and flat against the basement wall for the next move, along with a TV box if you bought one outright at $199.65. Small and medium cartons that came through the move square and dry are worth offering to a neighbor who is about to pack, and clean, dry packing paper folds back into one of them for the same reason.
Time the unpack against your collection day
An unpack that lands the morning after a collection leaves the bundles standing in the house for the whole cycle. Check the pickup day for your street before you pick a date, and the cardboard is out of the house inside the week. If the move itself lands mid-cycle, ask for the unpack a few days later, so the flattening and the collection fall in the same week.
Portland Packing Questions
How far ahead of the move should the pack day be?
One or two days ahead of the move keeps the house livable, close enough that you are not living among boxes for a week.
Will one pack day be enough for our house?
For most houses, yes, and the way to make sure of it is to send enough packers rather than more days. A basement and an attic above the living floors can push a large house beyond what it can hold, and we would rather tell you that on the call than halfway through it. Give Patrick a room count, and he will size the crew to the house.
Will you pack things stored in built-in cabinets?
Yes. Tell us which built-ins are full and roughly what is inside, because a loaded china cabinet and an empty one are a different number of packer hours.
What won't you pack?
That shelf of old paint in the basement is the usual question, so raise it on the call. The same goes for propane, ammunition, other hazardous products, and perishable food.
Can you unpack just the kitchen at the new place?
Yes. The crew can open the kitchen boxes and load the cabinets and drawers the way you point, so the first dinner in the new place starts at the stove.
What Our Customers Say
What the First Call Sounds Like
A pack estimate starts as a walk you give us out loud. You go room by room, attic to basement, and we write down what sits on the basement shelving, whether the attic hatch is still in use, and which built-ins are loaded. Those are the answers that move the number, and the living room takes about a sentence. Call (503) 506-4149 between 7 AM and 10 PM.
Call (503) 506-4149 → Free Portland 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™