In the moving industry, we sometimes take simple things for granted. Each of our moving trucks are stocked with 3 stacks (72+ pads) of moving blankets. These moving pads are used to protect the furniture and belongings that we move for folks every day.
Here’s WHY:
Our movers rely heavily on these blankets, to insure nothing is scratched or dinged during a move. They also allow us to maximize our load by stacking pieces of furniture without damage. Sometimes they use rubber bands to secure the blanket in place, other times they will use packing tape. At the end of a day, they will all have been refolded, stacked neatly and strapped to the wall of the truck. They truly are an integral part of what we do every day as professional movers, but most of the time we don’t even give them a second thought.
On Monday we showed up to load a client’s rental truck for them. They are well on their way to Dallas by now, with a creative but well packed truck. They knew they had some antiques and special pieces that they especially wanted protected when loaded, so as part of the truck rental, they rented a bag of moving pads (At least that is what the rental company called them). They came 12 to a bag and all together they might have equaled 2 of our blankets. Now to be fair, the rental description says they are 4’x6’ and I guess they probably were. The problem was that when you stretched them to their full size, you could see right through them. We ended up using 3 blankets per piece. You can imagine that 12 blankets didn’t last long. We quickly ran out of their moving pads and we had to get creative. To pack the rest of the load, we improvised by covering furniture with rugs and by scavenging the dumpster for cardboard to protect items.
The moving pads that we use are 6’ by almost 7’ and they weigh about 6 pounds each, providing great protection for everything we are moving. When we blanket wrap a chair and secure it with rubber bands, then we know it is safe and that we can load it without concern of damage. With 72 quality moving pads on our truck, each costing $12 each, we have already made an $800+ investment to protect your furniture. This is an additional value that good moving companies bring to the job, which you can’t get from a rental truck.