The Best Instagrams from Allston Christmas 2014

Allston Christmas has come and gone, but our memories of this year’s Boston Moving Day will stay with us via the Instagrams Boston residents shared from the scene. From the piles of trash, to the weird finds, to the traffic, we compiled the best Instagram pictures from Allston Christmas 2014. If you’re currently suffering through unpacking, just take a moment to be thankful that this wasn’t your moving experience!

By bostontweet
By brandonbowser3
By codysonofsteve
By daggums
By dj_nicholas_minaj
By erinelaine06

By hernewleaf
By jmkurisko
By karypary
By kemead
By kimbixby
By kimieye
By ltfinklelstein
By p1koh
By radiosthesia
By paulnshapiro
By paulsmithrichards
By radiosthesia
By spnkmffn
By ttttimmy
By uber_bos

We’re guessing these moves would have gone smoother if this was the picture in front of your house on moving day:
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The Best Tweets of Allston Christmas

Our Comprehensive Moving Resource Center
Video of Our Crew in Action
Free Printable Moving Box Labels

The Best Tweets from Allston Christmas 2014

The city of Boston has survived yet another Allston Christmas. This unofficial holiday is definitely best enjoyed at home, enjoying the tweets from the miserable folks on the scene.

Boston does what they do best and livetweeted the moveageddon. We rounded up the best tweets from Allston Christmas 2014. Thanks for making us laugh Boston! Until next year!

The Questionable Moving Practices

Continue reading “The Best Tweets from Allston Christmas 2014”

Countdown to Allston Christmas 2014

via BikeyfaceOnly a few weeks until we hit the infamous moving day in Boston: September 1st.

This year’s September 1st weekend will be unique as it falls exactly on Labor Day. The Olympia Moving & Storage crew and staff is forgoing a day off filled with beach lounging and barbecues to help Boston move furniture to 4th floor walk-up apartments. Perhaps Moving Day falling on a holiday will help alleviate traffic on the streets clogged with UHauls, time will tell.

Also unique this year: September 1st will be the launch date of a webseries about the pains of moving on Allston Christmas. Check out the trailer of the webseries:  Allston Xmas.

Allston Xmas Trailer from Jared Vincenti on Vimeo.

The Labor Day moving weekend Boston moving schedule is almost full for Olympia, and we’ve added capacity to make this the biggest September 1st moving day yet. Bostonians are prepared as well, we’re seen more early bookings for Labor Day moving weekend than ever before. The first move on the September 1st schedule was booked on May 7th!

Are you moving on September 1st in Boston? Or first piece of advice is to avoid it at all costs. Moving on off-peak days will help reduce cost and stress. But if you absolutely must move on this day, reviewing our September 1st roundup may help your move day go smoother…at the very least help you laugh about it.

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!

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Olympia Moving at Special Olympics MA Summer Games

It was an exciting weekend for athletes around the state as team Olympia pitched in to help with the Special Olympics Massachusetts Summer Games logistics. Our team, comprised of volunteers from the office and our crew, were kept busy performing free services for Special Olympics. Even company president, Michael Gilmartin, and VP of sales, Piet Gauchat, gave up their weekends to run the on-call logistics truck for the event. Olympia helped with every facet of the event’s logistics, including:

  • 12 pick-ups and drop-offs of food and equipment
  • Athlete move-in to their dorms
  • Event logistics assistance & equipment transportation
  • Event break-down
  • Athlete move-out and luggage distribution

Matt Ruxton, Vice President of Sports for Special Olympics Massachusetts, said: “I wanted to say thank you for all that you did to make this past weekend such a success. It truly was a great weekend and we could not do it without your help. You guys are the ones who make the event possible and all the success is due to your hard work. ”

One of the local program directs said: “This was the most efficient / well run weekend during my 7 yrs. The check-in, buses, staging, awards, etc. all went well. overall a great weekend. Great job!”

Here are some pictures from the event. You can see more pictures in our Facebook album.

Read our official press release about our involvement.

We can’t wait to continue to help out Special Olympics Massachusetts the rest of the years as their official logistics sponsor! Learn more about this partnership at olympiamoving.com/specialolympics

Olympia Moving & Storage Donates Logistics Services to the Special Olympics Massachusetts Summer Games

Olympia Moving Sponsors Special Olympics Summer GamesRead the Press Release on the Boston Globe website

Press Release:
Olympia Moving & Storage Donates Logistics Services to the Special Olympics Massachusetts Summer Games
As part of their year-round sponsorship, Olympia Moving & Storage, a moving company in Watertown MA, is the official logistics sponsor of the annual event for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Watertown, MA June 2, 2014

Olympia Moving & Storage, a premier Boston area relocation company, will be the official logistics sponsor of the Special Olympics Massachusetts Summer Games. This is the second year Olympia will be donating their services free of charge to the non-profit organization.

Summer Games is taking place the weekend of June 6 – 8, 2014 at the Harvard University Athletic Complex and at Boston University. Over 1,900 athletes with intellectual disabilities from around the state will be competing in 6 sports, including track and field and aquatics. As one of Special Olympics Massachusetts’s largest events, Summer Games showcases the abilities of these athletes and encourages healthier lives in their communities.

Olympia Moving will be doing the heavy lifting of transferring the equipment needed for the weekend’s sports and social events, as well as the much-anticipated Opening Ceremony at Boston University.

Employees from Olympia Moving are volunteering their time to welcome the arriving athletes to the games and move them into their dorms at Boston University. The relocation company will also assist with closing the event.

“The Special Olympics Massachusetts team has been great to work with over the past year,” says Michael Gilmartin, President of Olympia Moving & Storage. “It’s been especially valuable to see our Olympia Moving team work directly with these athletes and be inspired by their joy and determination.”

Mary Beth McMahon, President of Special Olympics Massachusetts, is looking forward to Olympia’s continued support of the Summer Games. “We rely so heavily on volunteers in every aspect and the work Olympia did helping our coaches with the move in and move out and helping our Games Management Team work more efficiently and effectively with logistics is really priceless.”

Olympia’s support of Summer Games is part of their year-round sponsorship of Special Olympics Massachusetts. The moving company is entering their second year of this partnership. Last year, Olympia Moving & Storage contributed almost $50,000 in monetary and in-kind donations to Special Olympics. To learn more about Olympia’s sponsorship, visit http://www.olympiamoving.com/specialolympics

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Contact:
Olympia Moving & Storage
Rachael Fischer, Marketing Manager
617-231-1290
[email protected]
www.olympiamoving.com

About Olympia Moving & Storage:
Olympia Moving & Storage is a full-service moving company in Boston, Massachusetts and Washington, DC. Since its inception in 1993, Olympia has built an unparalleled reputation for delivering exceptional local moving, interstate moving and international moving services. In addition to residential moves, Olympia offers specialized services for companies preparing for an office move. Olympia Moving is the preferred mover for numerous universities, law firms and real estate organizations. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our 85% customer referral rate and our numerous awards. For more information, visit http://www.olympiamoving.com or call 800-222-4744.

5 Tips for Appreciating Your Moving Crew

Olympia Moving CrewOur policy at Olympia Moving & Storage is to do everything in our power to make your move as smooth and easy as possible. Our crew will always work hard for you through rain, heat, and 4th floor walkups. However, we do sometimes have clients ask what they can do for our hard-working guys.

Our crews are there to do a job and never expect anything more, but if you want to go above and beyond, these are the five little things the crew say they appreciate the most on moving day:

1. Keep them hydrated.

Keeping cold water or Gatorade available is a lifesaver, especially on hot days.

2. Plan ahead.

You can cut down the crew’s heavy lifting if you know where the items will be placed in your new home. Label your boxes and make a floor plan for the furniture. Moving the sofa from room to room to decide where it looks best is tiring for the crew & adds time and money to your moving bill.

3. Provide lunch.

If the crew is with you for the entire day, it’s always a nice gesture to order pizza or sandwiches for their lunch break.

4. Tip for a job well done.

Though not necessary, if you feel your crew did a great job, a tip is always appreciated. Click here to learn what’s customary for tipping moving crews.

5. Pass on the praise.

When you move with Olympia, you’ll receive and e-mail survey asking for your feedback. Any specific comments about the crew get passed to their supervisors, so they can reward good work and improve training. You can also support your crew by posting on online review of their work on Google+ Local, Yelp, Angie’s List, and more. Click here to view all the links to our online review profiles.

Also check out:

Videos of our Moving Crew in Action
How to Prep and Protect Furniture For Moving
Tips for Moving With Kids