HOME ORGANIZING
MOVE MANAGEMENT
A good moving company can do everything you hired them to do and still leave you with a house that needs a lot of attention.
Your belongings have arrived. The furniture is in place. But getting an entire household organized and functioning again is a completely different undertaking.
There are professionals who can help with all of it, although the distinctions between movers, move managers, and unpacking services aren't always obvious. Their work can overlap quite a bit. What really differs is how much responsibility you're handing over.
What's the difference?
Service
Moving company
What they handle
Transporting your belongings, often with optional packing and unpacking
When it makes sense
You're comfortable managing the rest of the move
Service
Move management company
What they handle
Coordinating and overseeing the larger relocation, including the people, schedules, and logistics involved
When it makes sense
You'd rather have someone else manage the process
Service
Professional unpacking and home setup
What they handle
Unpacking, organizing, and setting up the home for everyday living
When it makes sense
You want the house functional without spending weeks doing it yourself
These aren't necessarily three separate companies you'd need to hire. Some movers offer extensive packing and unpacking, and some professional organizing companies handle move-related work. The important thing is understanding exactly what each team will take responsibility for.
When movers are all you need
There's a lot to be said for a really good moving company.
They know how to protect your furniture, handle fragile belongings, load a truck efficiently, and get everything safely to its destination. Many will pack your belongings, disassemble and reassemble furniture, and unpack when they arrive.
For plenty of people, that's enough.
If you have the time and inclination to manage the details yourself, there's no particular reason to hire a move manager. You might even enjoy deciding where everything will go and getting your new home organized.
Just be clear about what you've booked. There's a difference between a crew that will unpack your kitchen boxes and a team that will thoughtfully organize the kitchen for you. Both are useful services, but they aren't quite the same thing.
What a move manager takes off your plate
With a larger move, the actual moving day is often the least complicated part to understand. It's everything leading up to it, and everything that needs to happen afterward, that requires so much attention.
There's the packing schedule, coordinating movers and other vendors, arranging storage if needed, keeping track of what goes where, and making sure the new house is ready for everything arriving.
Someone has to keep all of those pieces moving.
If you're doing it yourself, you become the person everyone calls with questions. You're making decisions between meetings, following up on schedules, and keeping track of things you probably don't have much interest in keeping track of.
A move manager takes on the coordination and oversight of that larger process. Depending on the company and scope of work, the service may also include the actual packing, unpacking, organizing, and setup.
It's particularly useful when you're moving a substantial household, coordinating several providers, or simply don't have the time to give a move the attention it requires.
You still have a say in what happens. There will be belongings to make decisions about, preferences to discuss, and things that need your approval.
But having someone else manage the work is very different from having to manage it yourself.
Unpacking is one thing. Setting up a home is another.
I think this is one of the most overlooked parts of moving.
People make arrangements for their furniture and belongings to arrive, but often haven't given much thought to what happens once everything is inside.
Take a kitchen. You've got dishes, cookware, pantry items, small appliances, utensils, and all those things that somehow accumulate in drawers over the years.
Getting them out of boxes is relatively straightforward.
Working out where everything should live, organizing the cabinets and drawers, making the most of the available storage, and setting things up in a way that makes sense for the people using the kitchen takes considerably more thought.
And then there's the rest of the house.
A professional unpacking and whole-home setup team handles that work room by room. The aim is a home that's not only unpacked but organized around how you actually live.
That's a different service from having someone empty boxes and put things wherever there's space.
What if you've already moved in?
This happens more often than you might think.
The move itself is finished. You're living in the house. But the guest room is full of boxes, half the closets are still a work in progress, and you keep telling yourself you'll get to everything when you have a free weekend.
At some point, it becomes clear that those free weekends aren't materializing.
You can absolutely bring in a professional team at this stage. There's no need to have arranged everything before the move or to hire someone to manage a relocation that's already happened.
Sometimes all you need is help getting the house settled.
How much of your move do you actually want to manage?
That's really the question I'd consider before deciding who to hire.
For a relatively straightforward move, especially if you have some flexibility in your schedule, good movers may be all you need.
If you're relocating an entire household while juggling work, family, and everything else that doesn't stop just because you're moving, it can be helpful to have a team overseeing the process.
You may already have movers you love but have absolutely no desire to pack the house or spend the following month unpacking it. In that case, a professional packing and unpacking team could be a better fit than full-service move management.
And if you've already moved, the conversation is much simpler. You don't need help with the move. You need help with the house.
There's no reason to assume you have to personally handle every part of the process.
A few things worth clarifying before you hire
The terminology can be confusing because different companies use the same words to describe quite different services.
Ask what unpacking actually means. Will the team simply empty boxes and place things where directed, or will they organize drawers, cabinets, and closets and establish systems for the home?
Find out who's managing the other providers. A moving company may do an excellent job coordinating its own crew without being responsible for your storage company, cleaners, installers, or other vendors.
Be clear about your own involvement. Even with comprehensive move management, you'll need to make certain decisions. What's worth understanding is how those decisions are presented to you and who handles everything in between.
These conversations will tell you far more than the service name alone.
Where Taylored Spaces Design fits in
At Taylored Spaces Design, we work with Los Angeles homeowners who want help with the larger move, the packing and unpacking, or simply getting their home organized once everything has arrived.
We're a professional, team-based company, and our work goes beyond transporting belongings. Depending on what's needed, we manage the moving process, coordinate the people involved, and handle the detailed work of unpacking, organizing, and setting up the home.
We offer three levels of service:
Full-Service Move Management - starting at $25,000, including movers
For homeowners who want us to coordinate and execute the larger move, including packing, managing the movers, unpacking, organizing, and setting up the new home.
Packing & Unpacking - starting at $15,000
For homeowners who have arranged their own moving company but want our team to handle substantial packing, unpacking, organizing, and setup.
Unpacking & Home Setup - starting at $10,000
For homeowners who already have movers arranged or have moved in and would like help getting the house in order. Larger whole-home projects can exceed $20,000.
Not everyone needs a move manager, and not every project needs to begin before moving day.
If you're considering professional help, we'd be happy to talk through where you are in the process and what would be most useful to take off your plate.