How to Prepare for Movers: Getting Your Apartment Ready Before They Arrive

Learning how to prepare for movers in an apartment or condo comes down to one standard: when the crew walks in, they should be able to start carrying within minutes. Most of the work that makes that possible happens in the last 48 hours, from confirming the service elevator to emptying the fridge and closing the final boxes. At Moving Co., billing runs in 15-minute increments after the first hour, so whatever you finish yourself shows up directly on the invoice.

Why the last 48 hours show up on the bill

An hourly crew is paid to carry. Every stretch of the job spent waiting for a box to be taped, a dresser to be emptied or an elevator key to turn up is billed at the same rate as the carrying. The federal Office of Consumer Affairs says as much in its moving advice for consumers: have everything ready when the movers arrive, or you may be charged for keeping them waiting.

At Moving Co., two movers and a truck cost $149 an hour, which is $50 an hour per mover plus $49 an hour for the truck. That rate applies on select non-peak dates, and peak-period pricing may vary. The first hour is the minimum, and after that time is billed in 15-minute increments. Twenty minutes spent waiting on unfinished packing turns into billed time that a sealed stack of boxes would have saved. The full breakdown is on our pricing page.

The published planning range for a one-bedroom condo or apartment is 2 to 4 hours with two movers, or $298 to $596. That is a planning range, not a quote, and a quick video walkthrough gets you a real estimate. Where a move lands inside the range depends on the building and on you: how far the truck sits from the door, how long the elevator takes to come back up, and how much of the apartment is ready to carry when the crew walks in. You control the last one completely. Our guide to how long a Toronto move takes by home size covers the rest of what stretches or shortens the clock.

Two days out: settle everything with the building

Building problems can’t be fixed on moving morning, which is why they come first. You book the elevator with your building, and we help by telling you what to ask for and talking to management if needed. Call or email the concierge or property manager two days ahead and confirm:

• The service elevator booking: the date, the start time, how long it runs, and whether it gets padded or needs a key or fob.
• The certificate of insurance: which names it must show and where it goes. Moving Co. provides the certificate your building asks for, naming the building, before move day, so pass on the building’s requirements as soon as you have them.
• The loading dock or entrance the truck should use, whether it needs its own booking, and how the crew gets from there to the service elevator.
• Any deposit, damage form or move paperwork the building wants signed.
• The arrival window you’ve been given, so the concierge expects the crew.

Then run through the same list with the building you’re moving into, because its elevator rules and certificate wording will not match the old one. If both buildings want a certificate, we produce both. Put both windows in front of the mover so the load and the drive are timed to the second building, not just the first. Our condo and apartment moving service works inside your booked elevator window and protects the hallways and the elevator cab.

Walk-ups and low-rise rentals, such as the flats above shops on Roncesvalles or the Danforth, have no elevator to book, but the truck still has to reach a door. Look at the street in front of the building: how the curb is signed, whether a laneway runs behind, and whether a hydrant or a bus stop sits right where a truck would want to stop. Toronto’s temporary on-street parking permits are for permit-parking streets and are restricted by vehicle type, so a moving truck generally doesn’t qualify; ask the landlord or superintendent where moving trucks normally load instead. The Office of Consumer Affairs also suggests thinking about snow removal along with parking, and in January a shovelled, salted path from the door to the curb is worth asking the super about before the day.

Two days out: close every box, then look for what you forgot

Two days before the move, packing should be down to the things you use every day. What’s left is less about effort than about being thorough, because the boxes that slow a crew down are the ones still open, the ones too heavy to lift safely, and the ones nobody remembered.

Seal and label everything. Sealed boxes stack in the truck and open ones don’t, and a box with a loose flap gets taped by a mover on your clock. Write the destination room and a word or two about the contents on two sides, not just the top, so the label can still be read when the boxes are stacked. Put heavy things such as books and tins in small boxes and light things in large ones, which is the packing rule the Canadian Association of Movers gives in its moving-day dos and don’ts.

Then go hunting. The things that stretch an apartment move are rarely in the middle of the living room:

• The storage locker, often down in the parking levels, and the bike room.
• The balcony: chairs, planters, and a barbecue with its propane tank removed and kept off the truck.
• Under the beds, the top shelves of closets, the cabinet behind the bathroom mirror and the space under the sink.
• The oven drawer, the dishwasher, the freezer door and the cupboard above the fridge.
• Anything stored at a friend’s place or in the car that is meant to go on the truck.

If the inventory has grown since you booked, tell the mover now rather than at the door. The Office of Consumer Affairs suggests asking ahead what it costs to add items on moving day, and the locker nobody mentioned is the usual culprit. If the packing isn’t going to get finished, our packing service costs $50 an hour per packer, with boxes and materials at cost, about $3 to $5 a box. Call (905) 752-7787 to add packers to the booking. For the full sequence from booking onward, our moving day checklist covers every week; this post sticks to the last two days.

What can’t go on the truck, and where it goes in Toronto

Movers won’t load some things at all. The Canadian Association of Movers’ list of things your mover won’t move includes aerosol cans, ammunition, cleaning products, fire extinguishers, gasoline, propane tanks, house paints, welding gas, open alcohol containers, open or perishable food, plants and pets. Its moving-day sheet adds that perishables, meaning anything that needs refrigeration, and hazardous materials shouldn’t go with the mover on any kind of move.

Some things a mover would carry still shouldn’t ride in the truck. The Office of Consumer Affairs says items that heat or cold can damage, such as candles and medication, should travel with you, and so should your phone, wallet and jewellery. In a Toronto January or July, the back of a truck is a long way from room temperature.

Two days out is the right time to deal with the leftovers, because the City’s disposal options need a trip or an appointment. Toronto treats propane and other gas cylinders, aerosol cans that aren’t empty, paints, solvents, fire extinguishers and many cleaners as household hazardous waste, which can’t go in the garbage, the Blue Bin or the Green Bin. You can take up to 50 litres or kilograms per visit to a Drop-Off Depot. The City’s Toxic Taxi pickup costs nothing but needs at least 10 litres or kilograms. In City-serviced apartment buildings it has to be booked by the property manager or building staff, so ask the office early if you want to use it. Don’t leave paint or propane sitting in a hot car trunk while you sort out the rest; the City warns against exactly that.

Last, set aside what only you should carry: passports, keys, the paperwork for the new lease or closing, medication, laptops and anything you couldn’t replace. Pack them into one bag that goes in the car, not the truck.

The kitchen: start emptying the fridge two days ahead

The kitchen is the slowest room to pack and the one most likely to be half-done on moving morning, mostly because of the fridge. Plan the last two days of meals around what’s in it.

Health Canada’s food safety guidance for power outages gives a useful sense of the clock: an unopened fridge keeps food cold for about 4 hours, a full freezer keeps food frozen for about 48 hours, and a half-full one manages about 24. A move isn’t an outage, but the same timing applies once the fridge is unplugged, and perishables aren’t going on the truck anyway. Anything you want to keep cold needs a cooler in your car or space in a friend’s fridge.

Empty, unplug and defrost the freezer the night before, leave the doors open to dry, and lay a towel underneath for the meltwater. Take out glass shelves and drawers and pack them separately. Our crew unhooks washers, dryers and fridge water lines and hooks them up again at the new place, so list them when you book. Many movers leave that to you; the Canadian Association of Movers’ tip sheet tells customers they’re responsible for unhooking appliances, including ice makers. Anything on a gas line is different: under Ontario law, work on fuel-fired appliances belongs to a TSSA-registered contractor. The CAM sheet also warns that TVs can sustain internal damage if they’re unplugged fewer than 24 hours before a move, so switch yours off and unplug it two days out rather than on the morning.

Furniture: empty it, measure it, decide what comes apart

Empty every drawer: dressers, desks, nightstands, filing cabinets and the TV stand. A loaded dresser is heavier on the stairs and harder to balance in an elevator, and its drawers slide open when it’s tipped. Clothes can go into suitcases or boxes, which also keeps them clean.

Decide what comes apart before the crew arrives. At Moving Co., simple furniture disassembly and reassembly is included in the hourly rate, and complex disassembly is $25. Ask which category your pieces fall into when you book. If you take something apart yourself, put every bolt, cam lock and dowel in a bag and tape it to the piece it came from, never into a random box. Our furniture assembly and disassembly service covers the pieces you’d rather not touch.

Measure the big pieces against the whole route, not just the new room. In a condo that means the unit door, the turn from your entry into the corridor, the service elevator’s door and cab, and the same again at the new building. A sofa that came up in a roomy passenger elevator may not fit the service elevator going down, and a sectional that arrived in boxes may not fit through a doorway once it’s assembled. Tell the mover about anything that looks tight, and read our guide to protecting furniture during a move for the pieces you’re worried about.

The night before: stage the apartment for a fast load

Staging is the step most people skip, and on a 15-minute clock it’s the cheapest one to do. The aim is a short, clear route from every box to the door.

• Stack sealed boxes in one or two rooms near the entrance, heavy ones at the bottom and grouped by destination room, and keep them out of the hallway itself.
• Clear the route from the furthest room to the door of rugs, shoes, plants and small furniture.
• Strip the beds and bag the bedding so the frames can come apart right away.
• Pick one “not moving” spot, such as a bathroom or a closet, and put a sign on the closed door. Your carry-on bag, documents, keys, cleaning kit and anything staying behind go there.
• Keep one bathroom usable with soap, paper towel and toilet paper until the very end.
• Decide where pets will be. A closed room with a note on the door, or a friend’s place for the day, keeps a cat from slipping out while the front door is propped open.
• Charge your phone and confirm the arrival window and the elevator time one last time.

If you want the earlier weeks on paper, our week-by-week Toronto moving checklist comes as a printable list you can tick off.

Moving morning: the first 15 minutes with the crew

Be at the door or the dock when the crew arrives, with the elevator key or fob if your building uses one. Spend the first few minutes walking the lead mover through the apartment: what’s going, what’s staying, which pieces are fragile or heavy, and what’s behind the “not moving” door. Five minutes of that saves a lot of back-and-forth later.

Floors are the other early conversation. The Office of Consumer Affairs suggests asking the mover to use drop cloths or runners at both locations. Don’t ask the crew to take their boots off, though. The Canadian Association of Movers explains in its FAQ on handling that working without safety shoes is unsafe on floors and stairs, and that professional movers protect flooring with runners instead. Moving Co. protects the hallways and the elevator cab as part of a condo move.

After that, stay reachable rather than underfoot. Keep the route clear, don’t repack boxes in the hallway, and save new decisions for the walk-through at the other end. Before the truck pulls away, check every closet, the locker, the balcony, the dishwasher and the freezer one last time. At the new place, the Office of Consumer Affairs recommends checking off each item and noting anything missing or damaged before you sign for the delivery.

What to finish before the crew arrives

On a well-prepared apartment move, the crew spends its billed time carrying. The jobs below are the ones that turn into waiting time when they’re left for the morning.

Each of those is small on its own. Left together for moving morning, they stack up on the clock.

Moving soon? Book the crew and the elevator first, then work through the last 48 hours above. Call (905) 752-7787, any hour, or request a quote online.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I prepare for movers in an apartment?

Two days before the move, confirm the service elevator, the certificate of insurance and the loading dock with your building, and finish packing. The night before, empty and defrost the freezer, empty the drawers, bag furniture hardware and stack sealed, labelled boxes near the door with a clear path. On moving morning, meet the crew and walk the lead mover through what’s going and what’s staying.

Should everything be packed before the movers arrive?

Yes. Every box should be packed, taped shut and labelled before the crew walks in. Movers bill for their time, and the federal Office of Consumer Affairs warns that waiting time can end up on your bill. Moving Co. has a one-hour minimum and then bills by the quarter hour, so packing that isn’t finished becomes time on the invoice.

Do I need to empty my dresser drawers for movers?

Yes, empty dressers, desks and nightstands before moving day. Full drawers add weight on the stairs, make a piece awkward to manage in a tight elevator, and can slide out when it’s tipped. Put clothes in suitcases or boxes, and move anything valuable or irreplaceable from those drawers into the bag you carry yourself.

Should I take my bed apart before the movers come?

You don’t have to. At Moving Co., simple furniture disassembly and reassembly is part of the hourly rate, and complex disassembly is $25. If you do take the bed apart yourself, strip it the night before, put the bolts in a bag and tape the bag to the frame so nothing goes missing between apartments.

What should I not pack for the movers?

Leave out anything movers won’t carry. The Canadian Association of Movers lists gasoline, propane tanks, aerosol cans, paint, cleaning products, ammunition, fire extinguishers, welding gas, open alcohol, perishable food, plants and pets. Keep medication, documents, keys, jewellery and electronics with you as well. In Toronto, leftover paint, propane and aerosols go to a City Drop-Off Depot as household hazardous waste.

When should I defrost my freezer before moving?

Empty, unplug and defrost it the night before the move, with the doors open and a towel underneath, so it’s dry when the crew arrives. Health Canada’s outage guidance gives a full freezer roughly two days before food thaws and an unopened fridge only about four hours of cold, so plan meals to use up perishables first.

Will movers charge me if they have to wait?

With hourly movers, waiting is billed time. The Office of Consumer Affairs notes that you may be charged for keeping movers waiting. At Moving Co., time after the first hour is billed in 15-minute increments at $149 an hour for two movers and a truck on select non-peak dates, with peak-period pricing that may vary. Finished packing and a confirmed elevator keep waiting off the bill.

Do I have to book the service elevator myself?

Usually, yes. The booking is between you and your building’s management, so reserve it as soon as your date is set and give the mover the window. Moving Co. works inside your booked service-elevator window, protects the hallways and the elevator cab, and gets your building the certificate of insurance it requires before move day.