Packing and Unpacking in Tigard, and Who Owns the Cartons Afterward
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Tigard settles the question of who owns your empty cartons, and it settles it at the curb. Tigard Municipal Code 11.04.040 says that "solid waste placed out for collection, whether or not source-separated, belongs to the franchisee when so placed," and the same section adds that "no person shall take or remove any solid waste placed out for collection." Flatten sixty boxes, stack them beside the cart, and they have changed hands.
That turns a chore at the end of an unpack into a decision at the start of a pack. The cartons you order are the cardboard you will be standing over three weeks later, and in Tigard the moment they go out is the moment the choice closes. So we count boxes on the estimate call, and we bill only the ones you use.
What Tigard's Code Does With a Flattened Carton
The line is the curb, and it is written down
Tigard operates solid waste collection under an exclusive franchise, as set out in Chapter 11.04 of the municipal code. The part that reaches a household in the middle of a move is two sentences long. Subsection 11.04.040(F): "Solid waste placed out for collection, whether or not source-separated, belongs to the franchisee when so placed." Subsection (H): "No person shall take or remove any solid waste placed out for collection by a franchisee or permittee under this chapter."
What those two sentences close off
Carrying the stack back into the garage on second thoughts stops being your call. So does handing it to the neighbor two doors down who closes in November. The same section adds that "no person shall deposit material in or remove material from any drop box or container supplied by a franchisee without permission of franchisee," so a bin standing open at the end of a shared driveway is somebody else's bin.
Why a packing job meets this rule and a load day does not
A load day moves existing furniture. Packing and unpacking create something: a few hundred square feet of corrugated board that was flat in our van in the morning and is waste by the end of the month. Tigard has a rule about where that goes, and it is the one part of a move the city treats as a change of ownership.
What Tigard's Code Leaves Open to the Household
The franchise is exclusive, and the same section then carves the household back out of it three times. Each carve-out is a route the cardboard can take while it is still yours.
Take it yourself, under a weight limit
TMC 11.04.040(D) says nothing in the franchise shall "prohibit any person from collecting or transporting any waste, produced by that person, from the site at which it is produced, in a vehicle with a gross vehicle axle weight rating of no more than ten thousand pounds directly to an authorized disposal or recycling or resource recovery facility." A family SUV with the seats down clears that rating comfortably. A loaded moving truck sits well above it, so a cardboard run is a Saturday errand for the car.
Pass the cartons on while they are yours
The code also declines to "prohibit a generator of source-separated recyclable material from selling or exchanging such material to any person for fair market value for recycling or reuse." Used moving boxes have a market, because somebody is always two weeks behind you. A listing posted on unpack day, with a photo of the stack and a pickup window, clears most of it off the driveway while the choice is still in your hands.
Charities are written out of the franchise by name
Furniture that will not fit the new rooms has its own clause. The franchise cannot "prohibit the collection, transportation and reuse of repairable or cleanable discards by private charitable organizations regularly engaged in such business or activity including, without limitation, Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, and similar organizations." That is the route a donation stop runs on. We can add one on moving day for items in good shape for the charity, and it stays on the same bill.
The Box Count Is the Part You Control
All of that argues for one habit. Decide the number of cartons early and keep it honest, because every carton is a thing you own twice, once full and once flat.
The counting happens on the estimate call
We ask about kitchen cabinets, garage shelves, how many closets, whether anybody in the house collects books. We load the van to that count, with a margin on top, and bill the boxes you use, so the margin costs nothing, and a run back across town costs an hour.
Per use or to buy, on the box you need once
A TV box is $55.85 per use or $199.65 to buy. One television makes that an easy call, and a wall of them in a media room makes it a different one. Wardrobe boxes at $31.55 work the same way: they save a morning of folding and leave the largest pieces of cardboard in the house afterward. Smalls are $6.30, mediums $7.45, larges $9.45, and the mediums are the ones people over-order.
Flatten indoors, decide outdoors
Our crews unwrap, break the empties down, and carry them out to the garage as the rooms fill. A flat stack in the garage is yours. The same stack beside the cart is the franchisee's. Keeping it inside until you know which route it is taking is the whole trick, and it costs nothing but floor space.
Unpacking in Tigard, Where the Cardboard Shows Up
A pack day fills boxes and an unpack day empties them, which is when the volume arrives. A four-bedroom house's kitchen, linen, and garage cartons flatten into a stack taller than the cart they will never fit inside. The crew sets each box on the counter beneath its own cabinet before opening it, so you make the calls and we do the carrying out.
Two cartons worth keeping back
Hold a couple of mediums and a roll of tape aside before the stack goes anywhere. Something wants boxing again in the first month: the shelf that will not hold what you thought it would, the spare room that becomes an office. Two mediums at $7.45 each cost less than a trip out.
The garage stack, and the run of empties beside it
If shelving and hooks are a project for after move-in, the garage cartons land on the floor for a while. We stack them along one wall with the things you want first at the front, and the empties go in a run of their own so the two piles stay apart.
What a Tigard Pack Day Costs
Butterfield Moving is a licensed family company based in Hillsboro. Nothing on this card moves because of the curb rule. The rule changes what you order, and ordering less is the only saving inside it.
Price a Tigard 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
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 time from our Hillsboro yard is included in the hours, billed at the same hourly rate as the crew, and is never a separate line on the estimate. There are no deposits, and rescheduling is free with one to two weeks' notice.
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.
Tigard Packing and Cardboard Questions
Can your crew take the flattened boxes away on the truck?
No. TMC 11.04.040(D) limits that errand to a vehicle rated at no more than ten thousand pounds gross vehicle axle weight, carrying waste the household produced, straight to an authorized facility. Our trucks are above the rating. The family car is below it.
We put the stack out and then wanted it back. Is that allowed?
Once it is out for collection, the code states that it "belongs to the franchisee" and that "no person shall take or remove any solid waste placed out for collection." Put the stack out on the morning of your own collection day, and the window where it sits in the open is short.
How many boxes will we actually need?
That is what the estimate call works out. We count by room and by cabinet, and the unused boxes come back with us.
Some of our furniture will not fit the new floor plan. What happens to it?
A donation stop goes on moving day for pieces in good shape for the charity, on the same bill. Tigard's code names Salvation Army, Goodwill, and St. Vincent de Paul among the organizations the franchise leaves alone, so that route is open to you.
What Our Customers Say
A Tigard Packing Estimate Starts in the Cupboards
The first call is a conversation about cabinets and closets. We walk the house with you over the phone, room by room, counting cartons as we go, and the number we land on is the number of pieces of cardboard you will be standing over at the end of the month. A larger home can have a free walk-through with Patrick. The line is (503) 506-4149, answered from 7 AM to 10 PM, with messages left outside those hours returned.
Call (503) 506-4149 → Free Tigard 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™