Packing and Unpacking in Salem, With the Work Laptop Kept Apart
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
The City of Salem lists the State of Oregon as its largest employer. That says nothing about who lives in your house. But if someone in it works from home for a state agency, the state's remote-work policy has the agency supply the basic equipment for that job, so one room holds things that belong to the employer: a laptop, a docking station, a monitor or two, maybe a headset and a folder of work papers. Those items need a different plan from the kitchen.
Butterfield Moving is a licensed family company based in Hillsboro, and Patrick Butterfield, who runs it, prices Salem pack days on the phone himself. The packers who come to a Salem telework house drive down from our Hillsboro yard, about an hour, so pack days here are booked for the next day or later. Each packer bills $56.40 per hour for boxing before the move and unpacking after it. In the telework room, the first job is working out what is yours and what is not.
Before You Book: The Work Laptop
Will your packers box my work laptop?
We would suggest it rides with you. A hard drive is better off in your own car than in a carton on a truck, and a state laptop is a hard drive with extra rules attached.
Can you pack everything except that room?
Yes. Partial packing is a regular service for us. Leave the telework room off the list, or have us pack only the furniture and personal items in it once the agency equipment is set aside. The rest of the house can be packed in full, or just the rooms you would rather hand off.
Say which it is on the call rather than on pack day, because the answer moves the estimate. A telework room left off the list takes packer time and boxes out of it. A room we pack around tagged equipment is closer to a full room because the crew still works the closet, shelves, and furniture in it.
Salem Packing and Moving Rates
Unpacking at the new house uses the same packer rate.
Price a Salem pack dayPacking 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
If we also move the household, Salem moves run on our Salem card rather than the Portland-area one:
If the truck is ours too: Salem moving crew and truck
- Daytime, Monday through Saturday, 8 AM to 5 PM: two movers $170.75/hr, three movers $236.95/hr, four movers $303.15/hr
- Minimum on a weekday: 2 hours. Minimum on a Saturday: 5 hours
- Evenings after 5 PM, or any Sunday, 5 hours minimum: $221.05/hr, $312.35/hr or $403.65/hr
- Holidays, 5 hours minimum: $259.35/hr, $360.15/hr or $466.80/hr
The drive time from our Hillsboro yard is included in the hours, billed at the same hourly rate as the crew. Cartons you already own are welcome, and if you kept the original carton for a monitor or printer you bought, that is the best box the device will get.
If you telework, pick a pack day when you can step away from calls for a few minutes at a time. We can leave the office room for the end of that day, so you keep working at your desk through the morning while the packers take the kitchen, closets, and bookshelves. When they reach the office, the tagged items should already be out of the way.
Released Value, Replacement Cost and Claims
Your own things from the telework room are subject to the same terms as the rest of the house. 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.
Packing a Room Where Some of the Equipment Belongs to the State
Oregon's statewide Working Remotely policy, number 50.050.01, applies to state employees "where not in conflict with an applicable collective bargaining agreement." Your agency or your contract may add its own rules, so read the lines below as questions to take to your supervisor.
Sort the room by owner before pack day
Under the policy, "The agency provides basic technology equipment and related devices necessary for the employee to perform their assigned job duties," and that equipment is "for agency business only." In practice, a telework room can mix the agency's laptop and dock with a desk, chair, and printer you bought yourself. Put a sticky note on every agency item the day before we arrive, and ask the packers to work around anything tagged.
The policy also lists "The asset tracking survey" among the things a remote employee acknowledges and documents. If your agency keeps a record of what it issued to you, ask for a copy before pack day and tag against it. A list from the agency is a better guide than memory, especially for small items like a spare charger, a headset or a second keyboard.
Cables are where the sorting slips. An agency charger and a personal one can look identical on the floor behind a desk. Unplug the agency set yourself, put every cord and adapter in a bag with the device it belongs to, and tag the bag too. Walk the room with the packers before they start, so nothing of the agency's is boxed by mistake.
Security in Transit Is Part of the Policy
The policy says: "Employees will ensure the appropriate level of security for state information and equipment in transit or at the alternate workplace." That is the reason we suggest the laptop, any work phone, and any papers with agency information go in your own vehicle. A box on a moving truck spends the day out of your sight. If your agency is fine with a monitor or dock going on the truck, pack it in its own labeled carton, apart from household boxes, and ask the crew to load it last so it comes off first.
Ask who ships it before you pack it
Section 7(b)(B) of the policy reads: "Agencies are responsible for paying for equipment to be shipped to and from the employee." The policy does not say whether a household move counts. If a large monitor or a second screen is headed back to the office anyway, ask your IT contact whether they would handle it, and leave it off our list.
Your own desk, chair and printer
The policy also states: "The state is not responsible for loss, damage, repair, replacement or wear of personal property." So the sit-stand desk you paid for is household furniture like the rest. If we move you, our crew takes the desk apart on move day and rebuilds it at the new house within the hourly rate. A personal monitor goes back in its original carton if you kept one, or gets wrapped and boxed by our packers with its stand and cable in the same box. A printer should have its ink or toner cartridges taken out first. Ask to have that room set up right after the beds so it is ready for the next workday.
Salem Telework Packing Questions
Does your coverage apply to agency equipment on the truck?
We cannot answer that for your agency, and we would rather you hear it from them. Ask before the equipment goes on the truck, and get the answer in writing if you can.
Two of us work from home for different employers. Does that change the tagging?
Use a different sticky-note color for each employer, and tell the packers which color means which. Personal items in each workspace get packed and labeled by room like everything else.
Should I tell my supervisor I am moving?
Under the policy, the alternate workplace can be "within the employee's residence," and remote-work agreements are kept in the state HR system. Whether a new address needs an update is a question for your supervisor, and it is worth asking before the move date is fixed.
Can the unpacking wait until after my first workday in the new house?
Yes. Unpacking can be its own visit, billed at the packer rate, and the boxes can stay stacked by room until then. If you already know the week, book that visit on the same call as the pack day, so the two are planned together.
What about the paper files in my desk?
Your own records, like tax files and manuals, can go in small boxes packed by our crew. If agency papers and your own are mixed in one drawer, sort them before pack day. A folder that could go either way belongs with you.
What Our Customers Say
A Telework Room to Pack in Salem? Call Patrick
The call opens on one question: which rooms do you want packed, and is the telework room one of them? That answer moves a Salem estimate further than anything else you will tell us. The phone is picked up between 7 AM and 10 PM, weekends too, and Patrick can price your Salem pack day on that call or set up a walk-through for a larger home. Call (503) 506-4149.
Call (503) 506-4149 → Free Salem 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™