They're faster than any movers you've used

Okay, a couple weeks and no post, what’s my lame excuse? I was packing and moving! What’s that you say? My girlfriend has been blogging the entire time up until before the move? Okay you caught me, I’ve just been very lazy. Still, doing a daily web comic and packing takes up a lot of time. Since now the moving is over and I’ve got my desk/computer set up I thought I’d do an entry on the amazing movers we used.

My girlfriend has used these Japanese movers several times and always talks about how fast they are. First question usually is “do you have to be Japanese to use them?” The answer is “NO!” They do speak English, but you’d be hard pressed to find them since they’re not really wired, and it’s unlikely you’d do a google search for “Japanese movers” when you want to move. I did a google search and they do indeed have a website (albeit very simple and bare bones). 

TaroTaro was taken maybe?

Anyway, I had lived in my apartment for six years so I had a fair amount of stuff. In fact, I’d say of all the people I know I probably have more stuff from my entire life than most people have in one place. Reason was that my parents sold the house I grew up in so my sister ended up packing my childhood toys and possessions and giving them to me. Still though I don’t think I have all that much, most of it felt like books, manga and DVDs.

Six years worth of stuff

So, how long would you guess it took to move all of stuff? There’s also a fan, office chair and futon bed. The white shelf wasn’t moved. A friend of mine guessed 2.5 hours, but it only took HALF AN HOUR. I have an elevator in my building, but in this case it felt more like that the elevator was slowing these three Japanese guys down because they had to wait for my tiny elevator to go up and down. My girlfriend lived in a one floor walkup and had I think at least 3X the amount of stuff I do (with bigger furniture) and they also finished loading her stuff to the truck in 30-40 minutes. I was amazed when I got her text message that they were done.

Lots of stuff. Took a bit more than 3 hours to move, and it's not even all of it.

Our new place has an elevator too. The entire job took three hours and 15 minutes. We were done before lunchtime. The movers were saying they wished they had photographs of our packing job to use as an example. The biggest help is the plastic wrapping. When we work at anime conventions all the DVDs our company is going to sell comes on a big wooden skid with the boxes all wrapped together with big plastic wrap. You can buy small rolls of this at Staples. It’s really good for wrapping furniture or combining lots of storage containers so they can all be lifted together.

This really helped expedite things, but even so these guys are fast. For my futon mattress the guy folded it in half, taped the ends, wrapped the entire thing in plastic, and then one of the other workers (short Japanese guy with huge arms) carried the thing entirely on his own out of my apartment. I wish I had a photo of him holding it.

So if you decide to use these guys, do a good packing job. I was told stories about them showing up at an apartment to find people weren’t done packing or people had tons of boxes none of which had been taped closed. Since they’re on a schedule, they’ll just re-schedule instead of being late for the next one. They apparently used to have a rate based on how much stuff you had, but they charge hourly now, but unlike I’m sure other moving companies work, these guys aren’t taking their sweet time because of it.

If you live in the New York area and are moving now or in the future I’d very highly recommend these guys. It was the first time I’ve ever hired movers, but I’m pretty darn sure they’re much better than the average movers out there.