My mother is considering moving from one apartment to another. This
would be to and from a one-bedroom apt., normal amount of stuff. They
are about an hour's drive apart, in the Chicago area. How much would
it cost for movers, assuming she does her own packing? Would
appreciate any feedback or experience.

Chicago will be higher, there's the mob to pay off of course. Outside
of Chicago but still in the midwest US you can do a move like that for
500-600 tops. Here you get a truck and 2 men for about 90-100, or a
truck with 3 men for 120 or so. (I say men, I've never seen a female
mover). Takes an hour or so to load, and hour or so to unload, an hour
travel, and they charge for driving to and from where their home base
is.

Money well wrth it, if you can swing it.

"Heathcliff" writes:
My mother is considering moving from one apartment to another. This
would be to and from a one-bedroom apt., normal amount of stuff. They
are about an hour's drive apart, in the Chicago area. How much would
it cost for movers, assuming she does her own packing? Would
appreciate any feedback or experience.

5 years ago, I got this quote in suburban chicagoland from an Allied
agent.

2 men + van 4 hr min $87/hr
3 men + van 4 hr min $118/hr

The hourly rate includes where they have to drive from their offices
to get to your home, drive time to hte destination, and I believe
drive time back to their base--a consideration I neglected to factor
in.

Non pros generally pack poorly and don't use nearly enough packing
paper to make a tight box that can withtand the weight of other
similarly sized boxes to the height of a moving van without crushing.

To get boxes and paper, I used City Supply in Bensenville, IL. They
had pretty decent rates for 50lb bales of packing paper, and uniform
size boxes. Avoid uhaul and the like--they'll rape you on packing
supplies.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/