Moving Day Etiquette 101: Thanking Your Movers

A keystone of moving day is the people who help you through it, transferring boxes upon boxes of your personal items to your new home. If you’ve moved out of your hometown, it’s likely you have only a handful of nearby friends and family to help out, or maybe you’re totally starting fresh in a new city. In either case, your biggest moving help on the big day is probably going to be the team of folks you hire from local moving services. Do you know the top-notch etiquette to keeping your moving help ready and rolling all day? Besides keeping things organized and the moving route convenient, here’s what you can do.

1. Have some basic refreshments ready.Moving boxes and furniture is hard work any day. Have at least some water and a few snacks ready to offer to your movers. If you want to get fancy, juice, lemonade, coffee, or tea (anything non-alcoholic) and some light snacks would surely be very welcome, especially if it looks like it’s going to be a long day.
2. Make sure there’s an accessible bathroom nearby.Movers need the bathroom, too. Make sure that there is a functioning bathroom in your house (or at least somewhere nearby) that they can get to when necessary.
3. Tip them.Tips are not always expected by moving help, but of course it will likely be welcome. The industry standard is 5% of your bill split between the number of movers, but of course you could raise or lower this depending on how the day went. If you plan to tip, make sure you have cash on you to do so.
4. Leave them a good review.Especially true for local moving services, reviews on their website or other online platforms are always super helpful for drumming up more business and building a reputation. Leave positive reviews for your movers if you had a positive experience with them.
5. Say “THANK YOU”!The simplest one: literally verbally thanking your movers. Everyone appreciates a good sincere “thank you” for their hard work.

Keeping your movers happy is pretty simple. They’re doing their job and don’t expect much more than your agreed on payment, but simple kindness and consideration makes a moving day go smoothly and harmoniously. Follow these easy tips and you’re poised to be a favorite customer.