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San Diego County · same-day slots most weeks
on a truck,at a price
you already read.Hourly moving for apartments and small homes across San Diego County. Stair fees go on the estimate, never on the invoice.
Eight things we do
Pick the job you actually have. Each page carries the real hourly basis, what is included, and the access fees that can apply.
01Local movingAnywhere inside San Diego County, billed by the hour.From $149 per hour for two movers and a 16 ft truck (sample rate)
02Long-distance movingDedicated truck to Phoenix, the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest.Quoted on weight and mileage from a certified scale ticket03Commercial and office movingFriday night out, Monday morning working.Quoted per project after a walkthrough, with after-hours rates published up front04Packing and unpackingFull pack, partial pack, or just the kitchen and the china.$65 per hour per packer, plus materials at list price (sample rates)05StorageVaulted storage in transit when the dates do not line up.Sample: $85 per vault per month, about 250 cu ft per vault
06Senior movingDownsizing, retirement communities and estate clearances.Hourly rate plus a downsizing coordinator at $55 per hour (sample rate)
07Piano and specialty itemsUprights, grands, safes, treadmills and surfboard quivers.Upright piano $275 · gun safe over 600 lb $325 · treadmill $95 (sample fees)
08Junk removalThe garage pile, the broken dryer and the mattress nobody wants.Sample: quarter truck $145 · half truck $245 · full truck $425Not sure which one fits?
Twenty minutes on a video call and you leave with a cube count, a truck size, an hourly rate and every access fee written down.
01Count each bedroom separately. Mattress sets carry as one article.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
02Sectionals count per piece. Tell us if legs unbolt.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
03China and stemware ride in dish packs, never in medium cartons.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
04Appliances need disconnecting 24 hours ahead. Defrost the freezer.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
05Back up drives yourself. We do not carry loose hard disks.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
06Drain fuel from anything with an engine before move day.
Room subtotal 0 cu ft
Your cube sheet
0 cubic feet
About 0 lb of packed household goods, at the standard 7 lb per cubic foot.
An estimate, not a quote. Nothing becomes a price until someone has seen the stairs.
What we cannot legally carry
Every household goods carrier in the United States works from the same non-allowables list. Crews are trained to stop and flag these at the walkthrough, which is much easier than discovering a propane cylinder in a carton at the transfer point.
No moving company in the country may load these. It is a hazardous-materials rule, not a preference, and one aerosol can is enough to void the load.
These are refused because a trailer in July reaches 140 degrees and nothing survives it.
We will load them if you insist, but we will ask you twice not to, and no valuation tier makes you whole on a lost passport.
Where does it go instead? San Diego County runs household hazardous waste collection sites that take paint, solvent, pool chemicals and batteries at no charge to residents. Ring us and we will tell you which one is nearest to you and what their hours are.
Put this on your checklistSC
Every flight above the first at either address
$75 per flight
A flight is one full storey, counted from the truck to the door. A split-level entry with seven steps is not a flight. Walk-ups in North Park and Golden Hill are where this shows up most, so we photograph the stairwell during the survey and write the number on the estimate before move day.
EL
Any tower move without direct truck-to-door access
$90 flat
Covers padding the cab, the certificate of insurance your HOA asks for, and the extra walking. Book the freight elevator yourself and send us the reserved window; most downtown buildings only release 8:00 am to 12:00 pm or 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
LC
More than 75 feet from the tailgate to your door
$85 per 50 ft increment
Measured on the walking path, not in a straight line. Gated Eastlake communities and beach alleys are the usual culprits. If you can reserve two street spaces with cones the morning of the move, the long carry often disappears entirely.
SH
A 26 ft truck physically cannot reach the address
$250 to $450
We park the box truck legally nearby and ferry the load in a cargo van. Low-clearance garages, the narrow lanes above La Jolla Shores and some hillside cul-de-sacs need this. We tell you at the survey, never on the day.
BA
Items over 300 lb or needing rigging
Piano $275 · gun safe over 600 lb $325 · treadmill $95
Bulky articles get a four-wheel piano dolly or a stair-climbing hand truck, a second lead and their own line on the inventory. Hot tubs, slate pool tables and anything needing a crane are quoted separately after a site visit.
AP
Disconnect or reconnect of washer, dryer, fridge or range
$65 per unit
We handle water lines and dryer vents. Gas lines are capped and reopened by a licensed plumber, not by movers, which is a California requirement and not a policy we can waive.
Valuation and liability
Two boxes on a bill of lading decide the whole answer. Most people tick the free one without reading it, so here is what each option actually pays out on a real item.
No charge, included
Basis: 60 cents per pound, per article
A 40 lb television that cost $1,200 settles at 40 × $0.60 = $24. That is the whole payment, not a deductible.
Fits: Small, low-value loads, or a move where you carry the fragile things yourself.
Sample: $18 per $1,000 of declared value
Basis: Minimum declared value of $6.00 per pound of shipment weight
A 4,200 lb household must be declared at a minimum of $25,200. At the sample rate that is about $454 with a $500 deductible.
Fits: Most household moves. Anything with furniture you would actually replace.
Varies by carrier
Basis: Whatever your policy says about goods in transit
Many renters and homeowners policies cover belongings in transit at a reduced limit. Call your agent and ask for the goods-in-transit sub-limit before you decline Full Value.
Fits: Households already carrying a scheduled-items rider.
Sample premium figures. Your written estimate carries the rate and deductible that apply to your shipment.
Chapter 03 · Move day
A local move is not eight hours of lifting. It is a sequence, and knowing the sequence is most of what stops the day feeling chaotic. This is the actual run sheet a Little Box crew works from.
Eight stops, scroll sideways
Book a date7:00 am
The lead pulls the job packet, counts pads, dollies, wardrobe cartons and shrink wrap against the cube sheet, and checks tyre pressure and lift gate on the truck.
01You: Nothing. Sleep in twenty more minutes.
8:00 am
You get a call from the lead when the truck leaves the yard, with a real ETA rather than a four-hour window. Crews carry the same phone number all day.
02You: Have parking held and the elevator booked if your building needs it.
8:20 am
The lead walks every room with you, confirms what stays, tags the non-allowables, and lays neoprene runners and door jamb pads. Nothing moves until this is done.
03You: Point out the two items you are most worried about. Every customer has two.
8:45 am
Case goods are blanket-wrapped and shrink-sealed. Bed frames, table legs and mirror brackets come apart, and the hardware goes into a labelled bag taped inside the item it belongs to.
04You: Keep the kettle out. It is the last thing we pack and the first thing you want.
10:30 am
Heavy case goods build the wall, cartons tier by weight, and soft goods fill the voids. Every article gets an inventory tag and a condition code read out loud.
05You: Walk the empty rooms and check closets, the water heater cupboard and the mail slot.
12:15 pm
On a local move we go straight there. The clock keeps running during the drive, which is why we would rather you knew the actual drive time up front.
06You: Meet us at the new place and bring the keys, the gate code and the HOA form.
1:00 pm
Cartons go to the room written on the side. Furniture is reassembled, beds are rebuilt, and the crew asks before putting anything against a wall you might regret.
07You: Decide where the sofa lives before it comes off the truck. It saves half an hour.
4:30 pm
We reconcile inventory tags, break down and haul away the cartons you have already emptied, and go through the bill of lading line by line, including any access fee.
08You: Note anything damaged on the paperwork now. A claim is much simpler with it written down.
Packing materials
Running out of cartons at nine at night is the classic mistake. These counts come from our own pack jobs, split across the four standard carton sizes, so you order once and order right.
| Material | Qty | Each | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small carton, 1.5 cu ftBooks, canned goods, tools. Never more than 40 lb. | 25 | $1.85 | $46.25 |
| Medium carton, 3.0 cu ftThe workhorse. Kitchen items, toys, small appliances. | 30 | $2.45 | $73.50 |
| Large carton, 4.5 cu ftBedding, pillows, lampshades. Light and bulky only. | 15 | $3.25 | $48.75 |
| Dish pack, 6.1 cu ftDouble wall with cell dividers. Required for china and stemware. | 3 | $6.95 | $20.85 |
| Wardrobe carton with barHolds about 2 ft of hanging closet rod. | 5 | $12.95 | $64.75 |
| Unprinted newsprint, 25 lb bundleInk-free, so glassware does not arrive grey. | 2 | $28 | $56 |
| Packing tape, 2 in. x 55 ydThree strips on the bottom of every carton. | 8 | $3.75 | $30 |
| Bubble wrap, 24 in. x 50 ftFor screens, art glass and ceramics. | 2 | $22 | $44 |
| Mattress bagQueen and king. Keeps kerb dust off the fabric. | 2 | $9.95 | $19.90 |
Sample kit price for 2 bedrooms
$404
Delivered next working day across the county, free over $150.
Unused cartons come back for credit for 30 days after your move.
Same-day moves
We hold two crews back every weekday for same-day and next-day work. Call before 11:00 am and there is a good chance we can be at your door by two.
Same-day slots are first come, first served and depend on the board.
Last month in San Diego
We publish the damage number because hiding it would be the tell. Two stemware pieces out of 38,400 cartons is a good month, and both were settled under Full Value Protection within eleven days.
Read what people wrote
Since 2011Founder and operations lead
Started Little Box with one 16 ft truck and a flip phone above a taco shop on 30th Street. Still writes the dispatch board every morning at 6:15.
Since 2014Crew lead, bulky articles
Runs every piano, safe and slate job on the board. Will spend twenty minutes measuring a landing turn rather than five minutes regretting it.
Since 2017Move coordinator
Builds the cube sheets and writes the estimates. If a number on your paperwork looks wrong, she is the one who will find out why in under an hour.
Since 2016Lead packer
Trains every new packer on the dish pack and the void fill. Claims he can hear a badly packed carton from across a room, and he is usually right.
Since 2019Warehouse and storage manager
Runs the vault racking and the inventory system at Kearny Mesa. Knows which vault your grandmother's sideboard is in without opening the laptop.
Since 2018Commercial project lead
Plans office moves backwards from Monday morning. Has never yet had a client open late, and mentions it about once a week.
Since 2011
Nearly everything on this site exists because something once went badly and we wrote down how to stop it happening again.
Marisol bought a used 16 ft box truck and rented an office above a taco shop on 30th Street. First month: nine moves, all of them apartments.
After one too many arguments about stairs at four in the afternoon, we started photographing stairwells at survey and printing the fee on the estimate. It is now the thing customers mention most.
Moved out of the alley parking and into a yard with racking. Storage in transit started the same year because closings kept slipping and people kept renting units they did not need.
Dontae built the piano and safe programme so we stopped subcontracting the hardest lifts to people we could not train.
Same dispatch board, written at 6:15 every morning. Same rule: the number on the estimate is the number on the invoice unless you added something.
Four steps, start to finish
No call centre, no sales script, no price that changes on the day. Fill this in and a coordinator picks it up within one business hour.
Would rather talk? (619) 555-0197, 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
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