How do you price furniture moving?

[snokingkyle]

The way I currently handle it is that my pricing is high enough to where I have time to move a few items of furniture. But if the customer wants a lot of furniture moved, I feel like I'm not raising my price enough. I've heard of people who charge 2 to 3 times more per room if they're moving all of the furniture (beds, dressers, couches, etc). What are some good ways to handle this so that it's not so expensive the customer doesn't do it, but also still worth our time?

 

[Todd the Cleaner]

I’m like you, I don’t charge to move a few things but if I’m moving everything in the house I do charge for it. I don’t mind moving the living room set around or moving night stands but if it becomes excessive then I’ll start charging $5 per piece. I’ll give them the first 10 pieces included in the cleaning cost and then start charging. I don’t count things like dining room chairs I can throw in the kitchen and leave them there.

 

[jtsunbrite]

I’m like you, I don’t charge to move a few things but if I’m moving everything in the house I do charge for it. I don’t mind moving the living room set around or moving night stands but if it becomes excessive then I’ll start charging $5 per piece. I’ll give them the first 10 pieces included in the cleaning cost and then start charging. I don’t count things like dining room chairs I can throw in the kitchen and leave them there.

I don't charge five bucks apiece but I do ask if there is furniture and will I be moving furniture to clean, Usually I tell them its an additional 20 dollars a room to move furniture because of the time involved.

 

[Bob Savage]

Here's what I do.

If they insist on us moving something unreasonable (according to me), I explain to them that our insurance will not allow us to move items of that nature - filled bookcases, pianos, heavy dressers, beds, china hutches, etc.

I explain to them that we are to mainly there to clean wall to wall, open areas, and the traffic lane hard to remove soiling, which is where you walk, and not the carpet under big heavy things that never get walked on.

We do charge extra for bedroom furniture, and 99% of the time they'll say not to move the bedroom furniture then.

 

[awratchford]

I explain to folks that first whatever gets moved has to stay there till the carpet dries cause I ain't moving it back, secondly if I move it then longer time on project is billed at $100 per hour

 

[Kevin Dumas]

I had a woman one day, just couldn't understand why there was going to be a extra charge to move 52 (yup that's right) 52 pieces of furniture in a Large living/dining room.

 

[Fedri]

pfffff I don't move any beds or bulky furniture other than small peices and I don't charge for it because it is only 30 seconds of work. I encourage them to leave the heavy furniture, but if they want under the beds to be cleaned then I ask them to move them before I get there and then I clean and ask them to move it back once it dries with in 4-6 hours. Simple as that. Taking that bulky bed apart is a head ache, not worth of moving it for a small amount of money. I am not a mover, I am a carpet cleaner period.

 

[EVDOG]

We email all of our customers a preparation guide. It states what we'll move and what we won't move.

 

[jtsunbrite]

We don't move anything that sets flat on the carpet.

 

[mrotto]

I do allow two pieces of furniture that I will move in a Family Room or Living Room for two reasons. 1. These are larger rooms and there is plenty of room to move, clean behind and reset two pieces of furniture. 2. It is easier for me to move these two large pieces (usually a sofa and love seat or sofa and recliner) within the room rather for them to find another place in the house (and probably scratch the tile/linoleum) and that is included in the price. For any additional piece it would be $5 for small pieces and $10 up for larger furniture. Of course not pianos, filled bookcases, buffets, etc

Bedrooms are another story not only because it involves larger pieces of furniture, but the rooms are much smaller so you normally have two to three moves to get at all the carpet. So then I do increase the price per piece depending on the size - $5 for small pieces - $40 for beds and large dressers.

I do know a cleaner that does not move any furniture at all.

I guess it all comes down to setting yourself apart from other cleaners. Yes I am a carpet cleaner but if you want to pay my hourly rate, then I will be more than happy to make myself a furniture mover.

I would like to mention a trick I use for moving beds with support posts in the middle. If you put sliders on the four corners and try to move the bed, you may bend the support post so I put a square set of 4 blue blocks on each slider to raise the bed completely off the carpet to move it and then put tabs under the supports prior to removing the sliders.

 

[snokingkyle]

Thank you all for your input, it was really helpful!

 

[wandwizard]

I had a woman one day, just couldn't understand why there was going to be a extra charge to move 52 (yup that's right) 52 pieces of furniture in a Large living/dining room.

I've had the bad habit of saying the dreaded words, "Extra charge", too. I find it's better just to do the estimate, tell them what the charges will be, and let them respond. That might be harder to do if charging by the area though, I'm by sq. ft. and I definitely would have been a lot higher to move that much furniture, but all they would know is what my estimate came out to.

 

[DMS]

I charge 10 cents per square foot for furniture moving. Do not move beds, unless they are twin size and on wheels, dressers, hutches, entertainment centers. All breakables must be removed from pieces being moved. I direct new customers to a webpage for "cleaning preparation"