Packing in a town that moves on orders
Plenty of packing jobs here are exactly what you'd expect — a family across town, a house going on the market, someone who has looked at the kitchen cabinets and decided life is too short. But a good share of what we pack in this valley is tied to a report date, and that changes the job.
Packing is billed hourly by crew size plus the materials we actually use. You're not paying for boxes we didn't pack. Want a firm ceiling on a full-house pack? We'll walk the house and put a not-to-exceed number in writing before packing day.
If you're doing a PPM, the packing is yours to arrange
On a government-scheduled move, packers are handled for you. On a personally procured move it's your call, which is where we come in — and where the paperwork starts to matter as much as the packing tape.
We provide itemized invoices and receipts for both labor and materials, separated the way a claim wants to see them, so nothing has to be reconstructed from memory weeks later. What qualifies and how it's calculated is set by your installation transportation office, and those rules do change — confirm the current version with them before packing day. The full picture of how we support PPMs, including weigh-ins, is on the Fort Benning military moving page.
When you're in a course and the packing falls to someone else
This is Benning. Between Ranger School, Airborne, OCS, and the long infantry and armor courses, a lot of households here get packed while the soldier is out of contact — and packing is the single hardest part to do alone, especially with kids in the house and a deadline that doesn't move.
So hand it off. We'll take direction from whoever you've told us is deciding, keep one point of contact who actually knows your move, and send photos if you want eyes on something. It's the one part of a PCS you can genuinely delegate, and it's the part most worth delegating.
Full pack, partial pack, or just the hard part
Full packing: we bring everything and pack the whole house, usually the day before your move, so loading day starts on schedule instead of with a scramble.
Partial packing: you handle clothes and books; we take the kitchen, the TVs, the mirrors, the art, and anything breakable. This is what most families choose and it's the smart pick — it puts the professional work exactly where it earns its keep.
Unpacking: at the new place we can unpack, set out the kitchen basics, and haul off every empty box and all the paper the same day, so you're not living in a cardboard maze while you're also in-processing somewhere new.
What should never go on the truck
Worth saying plainly, because in a PCS these are the things that cause real problems if they're in a box somewhere in a truck:
- Orders — every copy, and more copies than you think you need
- Medical and dental records for everyone in the household, and the pet's too
- Passports, birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards
- Power of attorney, especially if one of you is signing for the other
- Awards, certificates, and anything that would be genuinely painful to replace
- Uniforms you'll need to report in before the household goods arrive
- Laptops, medications, jewelry, cash, and the chargers for all of it
We'll flag these during the walk-through and leave them out of the pack rather than assume you've set them aside.
Packing for storage between courses
Packing for a storage unit isn't the same as packing for a move that ends this week. Things sit longer, summers here are brutal, and in six months nobody remembers which box the good pans went into.
So it gets packed differently: proper paper rather than plastic against wood and upholstery so nothing sits sealed in its own moisture, boxes labeled by room and contents rather than just room, and the things you'll want first packed last and loaded where you can reach them.
Short notice
Orders drop late, a course slot opens, the report date moves up. Packing is usually the thing that makes a fast move possible at all — a crew does in one day what a family does in a frantic week. If your date is closer than feels comfortable, call before you assume it can't be done.
One seasonal note: May through August is PCS season, and packing crews book up the same way trucks do. Three weeks' notice in summer is worth a great deal.
Long carries make packing quality matter
If you're in one of the Uptown loft buildings, every box gets carried further than it would anywhere else — down a corridor, into a freight elevator, out to wherever the truck could legally stop. Boxes packed well are the ones that stack tight and ride steady through all of that, which is one more reason we'd rather pack them than inherit a wall of boxes taped shut at midnight.
What it costs
Hourly by crew size, plus the materials we actually use, with 5% off for active duty and veterans. For what the move itself typically runs, see local moving in Columbus. Packing yourself and just need supplies? Grab them from our moving supplies — same boxes our crews use.