Listen for Olympia in the web-series Allston Xmas

Olympia knows all about the drama surrounding moving on September 1st in Boston, after all, we’ve been doing it for 20 years! When we heard that a web-series called Allston Xmas was being made about this infamous moving day in Boston, we had to check it out.

David from the Allston Xmas crew stopped by the Olympia warehouse for an unusual purpose: to record the sounds of our trucks to be used in the sound mixing for the series. Olympia mover Dan helped by operating a truck to produce the sounds that David needed. Not a usual day on the job for our movers!

The web-series is described on their Facebook page as “Anthology web-series that follows a few dozen young people as their friendships, relationships, and attachment to material things are put to the test on moving day in Boston.” Appropriately enough, the series will be released online starting September 1st! Be sure to check it out, and keep an ear out for the sounds of the Olympia trucks!

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What is a Cube Sheet?

InventoryWhen you call a reputable moving company, they’ll work with you to create a cube sheet (also known as an estimated inventory) for your move. A cube sheet is a list of all the furniture and boxes that you plan on including in your move.

In this article, we’ll explain what a cube sheet is, what it’s used for, and how to read one.

Creating the Cube Sheet

For most Olympia clients, the cube sheet will be created when the the sales consultant meets you at your home for the survey. He’ll do a walk through of your home, consulting you throughout on what you plan on moving. Meanwhile, the consultant will enter all your furniture and estimated number of boxes into his or her tablet. Our sales consultants can enter the information into their tablets extremely quickly using specialized moving software.

For smaller moves, such as one bedroom apartments, the sales consultant can complete the estimated inventory by going room by room with you over the phone and discussing what needs to be moved. Our sales consultants are all trained to ask the right questions to guide you through the process and ensure that we have the level of detail needed to provide you with an accurate quote.

Depending on the size of your home and complexity of your move, it can take 10 to 45 minutes for the consultant to put together the cube sheet live on site.

Our moving software contains hundreds of types, sizes, and variations of furniture pieces and boxes. So when the sales consultant adds a furniture piece to your inventory, the software knows what the average cubic feet is for that furniture piece. The software then produces a document with the subtotals and totals of cubic feet for your move. The total cubic footage is the main piece of information the sales consultant will use to plan and estimate the cost for your move.

When the walk through is finished, the sales consultant will produce the estimated inventory. This is called a cube sheet within the moving inventory because essentially what needs to be determined is the volume, or cubic feet, of all the items that need to be moved. This information is used to determine how many trucks and crew members are required for the job, and if it’s an interstate move, what is the estimated weight of the move.

Reading a Cube Sheet

Click here to see what a sample cube sheet looks like. To make it clear for the consultant and client to read, the inventory is divided by room. There are three columns. The first column is the quantity of the item, or how many of each item is in that room. The second column is the description of the item. The third column is the estimated volume, or cubic feet, of that furniture item.

The cube sheet also contains information on packing. Some boxes will say “PBO” in the description, which means “packed by owner.” That means that we are entering the box so that it’s included in the total cubic footage, but the client plans on packing the box themselves. Others will say “CP” in the carrier description, which means “carrier pack.” That means that Olympia will be providing and packing that box. A container summary at the bottom of the inventory will list all the boxes Olympia will be packing and providing for your reference.

The estimated inventory is provided to you along with the quote for your reference. Olympia recommends that all our clients check over the inventory to ensure that it’s fairly accurate. Remember, this is what your sales consultant is basing their estimate on, so if the inventory is inaccurate, that means the sales consultant didn’t have the correct information for your quote. Being on the same page as our clients for what’s being moved is important to Olympia, that’s why we take the time to create the estimated inventory with you, and give it to you for your reference. If anything changes between the time of survey and your move, be sure to let the sales consultant know so he can adjust your estimate accordingly. Major changes such as adding or removing large furniture pieces or many boxes can make a difference in our planning for your smooth move.

Do I Need a Cube Sheet?

If a moving company refuses to put together a cube sheet or estimated inventory to plan your move, that is a red flag that you are not working with a reputable company. A good moving company will take the time to understand and plan your move before providing you with a moving quote.

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Tools to Create a Floor Plan For Your New Home

Not every part of moving is fun. One of the most enjoyable things about relocation is planning your new house and how you’re going to make it feel like home.

One useful exercise for your planning is creating a floor plan for your new home. Floor plans can help you:

  • Decide the right spot for each of your furniture pieces in the new space
  • Determine whether to sell some of your furniture because it will not work or fit at the new house
  • Figure out whether any furniture you’re considering purchasing will work in your new home

Ultimately, figuring these things out in advance can help you save money on your move!  The crew rearranging furniture until it’s in the place you want can add time and money to your bill. Spending the cash to move furniture that you end up deciding to sell is also a waste of your hard-earned money.

It can even be fun if you use one of these easy and free tools to create a floor plan:

floorplanner

Floorplanner.com

This free website makes creating a floor plan fool proof, and is probably the most robust free floor planner online. Their drag and drop tools make it easy to add rooms, doors, windows, all types of furniture and more. It’s also easy to customize the size of all the items to fit your needs. You also have the ability to add your own photos and videos to the floor plan so it feels like your real home. Floorplanner.com lets you save multiple options and designs in your account.

 

 

 

 

MagicPlan

Magic Plan mobile app

This mobile app actually works in conjunction with floorplanner.com. Magic Plan makes getting started with a floor plan even easier. All you have to do is take pictures with the app and it will draw your floor plan with measurements for you! Then, import what you started with Magic Plan into your floorplanner.com account to customize and play with it.

 

 

RoomScan

Room Scan mobile app

Room Scan is another popular and highly rated mobile app for floor planning that will automatically draw a floor plan for you. The main difference is this app automates the plan and measurements by holding your phone against each segment of wall, which reviews say create very accurate results. This app is a little more popular than the Magic Plan app, which is the similar app above that automates the plan through pictures. The drawback is that this app does not integrate with other tools like Magic Plan does.

 

 

HomeStyler

HomeStyler

Like floorplanner.com, Homestyler has a website tool and mobile component. HomeStyler has a heavy emphasis on home design. One neat feature of this tool is that in addition to the ability to drag and drop furniture, you can insert real furniture from dozens of real home design brands such as Ethan Allen and Jonathan Adler. The mobile app specializes in placing real furniture products in photographed layouts of your actual room. This tool is much sleeker than floorplanner.com, but floorplanner.com is a little more practical and easier to use.

 

 

The Right Olympia Moving Truck For Your Relocation

We’ve become known in the Boston and Washington, DC areas for our shiny black moving trucks.  Many of our employees are self-admitted truck nerds, and there’s always a buzz of excitement when we add new trucks to the fleet.  As the company continues to grow, we’ve been able to purchase many different trucks to better meet the needs of our clients.

Sometimes, to get the job done right, you need more than just any moving truck.  Below are some of the trucks available in our fleet.  Which truck is right for your move?

Straight Truck

Olympia Moving Straight Truck
This is the “classic” Olympia Moving truck. We use these trucks for most of our local moving clients. These trucks are 30 feet in length and about 14 feet high. The straight truck can fit about 8,000 lbs of household goods, which is average in terms of what most families have in a single family home.

Crew Cab Straight Truck

Olympia Crew Cab Truck
This truck is one of the newest additions to our fleet. The crew cab has all the same features as the straight truck, except the cab has a back seat, allowing more crew members to ride in the truck. This is especially handy for moves that require more than 3 crew members, but only one truck. The crew cab truck is 38 feet long and can hold about 10,000 lbs of household goods.

CDL Truck

Olympia CDL Truck
This truck is similar to a straight truck, but is slightly larger at 34 feet long and holds more, about 10,000-12,000 lbs of household goods. We use these trucks on shorter distance interstate moves, relocations that are 600 miles in distance or less. Another difference is that this truck requires the driver to have a commercial driver license to operate.

Cube Truck


Olympia uses the cube truck for local moves when a big truck is not needed, such as apartment moves. The cube truck is especially handy for tricky moves in urban cities. For a small loading dock in Washington, DC or a narrow street in Boston, this is the best moving truck to get the job done. The cube truck is 16 feet in length and holds about 2,000-4,000 lbs of household goods, which is average in terms of what most families have in an apartment.

Tractor Trailer


The 18-wheeler tractor trailers are mainly used for long-distance interstate moves. These are big trucks, 88-90 feet in length and can hold 22,000 to 30,000 lbs in household goods. These trucks are meant for the driver to have multiple families’ shipments in the trailer in order to make long distance moving more cost-efficient for our clients. If a client is moving long distance and a tractor trailer is too large to park at their residence, we’ll assign a shuttle truck to the move, which is usually the straight truck above. Click here to learn more about shuttles.

Olympia has a few different kinds of trailers in their fleet. Most of our clients moving long distance will see a Wheaton tractor trailer at their home, the brand of our interstate partner. We also have Clark & Reid tractor trailers in our fleet, our executive moving brand. Click here to learn more about our interstate moving brands.

Pack Van & Pickup Truck

Olympia Pack Van  Pick Up Truck
Also new to our fleet are our Olympia pack van and pick-up truck. These vehicles are mainly used for packing services or to deliver materials to our clients. We also use the van to transport crew members to large commercial moves.

Besides our growing fleet, we also rent Ryder trucks to help us cover our busiest days, or other vehicles for specialty moves, such as refrigerated trucks.

No matter what kind of truck you need for your move, Olympia has you covered!

You might also be interested in:

Who’s My Interstate Moving Company Again?

What is a Moving Shuttle?

What Equipment Do Professional Movers Use?