Downsizing moves out of a Hyde Park bungalow that has held forty-five years of family living, or a Lincoln Park condo a recent widow now wants to leave for a one-floor 55-plus building in Park Ridge, or a Lakeview greystone whose owner is finally heading south to a Sarasota or Naples winter home, are a different shape than a renter’s move. The crew slows down, the inventory line gets longer, and Eddy spends the walkthrough listening as much as measuring. The Waley specialty here is the patience to let the Hyde Park homeowner decide whether the dining sideboard her mother bought in 1968 is going to Park Ridge or to the granddaughter in Evanston, while the crew quietly pads the rest of the room.
One floor up to one floor down, or a 55-plus community
A lot of the Waley senior calendar is moves out of two-story Lincoln Park brownstones and Bucktown three-flats into one-floor Lakeview courtyard condos, Skokie 55-plus communities, Park Ridge ranch houses and Northbrook independent-living buildings. The other big shape is the southbound snowbird: Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Hyde Park retirees who keep the Chicago address as primary but move three rooms’ worth of furniture, the wine collection and the wardrobe down to Florida or Arizona each November and back in April.
Family coordination and the unpack-day
Trish takes calls from adult children in Evanston, in California and on Zoom for parents moving out of Hyde Park, and Janelle handles the property-management paperwork at the 55-plus building on the destination side. The unpack day — with the crew returning the Tuesday after move-day to break down cartons, set up the new bedroom and put the kitchen back on the shelves — is the part most adult children ask for first, and it’s on the same Waley calendar as the move itself.
What's Covered
- Slow, patient walkthroughs by Eddy on downsizing jobs — no stopwatch on which dining sideboard goes to Park Ridge and which goes to the granddaughter in Evanston
- Adult-child coordination on the phone or by email with Trish, including out-of-state family in California, Arizona, Florida or Atlanta who can’t be in the Hyde Park house on move-day
- Unpack-day option booked on the same Waley calendar so the new bedroom is set up, the kitchen is on shelves and the cartons are out of the house the Tuesday after
- Janelle handling the 55-plus community paperwork and certificate of insurance on the destination building — Skokie, Park Ridge, Northbrook, Lake Forest, Evanston
- Snowbird southbound coordination for Lincoln Park, Lakeview and Hyde Park retirees wintering in Florida or Arizona, with the spring return date locked at the same time
- Donation-day handoff to Salvation Army, Brown Elephant or Habitat ReStore Chicago for furniture the family doesn’t want and the new home won’t fit
What's the Cost?
Two uniformed W-2 Waley movers and the 26-ft straight truck run a posted Logan Square hourly of $185 an hour; if your room count slots cleanly into a half-day — studio, junior one-bedroom, or a tight in-building swap — Eddy will quote it as a locked flat instead, starting at $545 all-in.
Everything the day calls for is folded into that hourly figure: the two W-2 movers themselves, the 26-ft Waley truck, quilted blankets, masonite floor runners, two-wheel and four-wheel dollies, ratchet straps, walk-boards, and the lake-effect winter mats we put down off the porch in any month with salt on the sidewalk. Fuel adders, third-floor stair charges, long-carry charges from the alley to the door — none of those line items show up on a Waley invoice, period.
Get My Quote