Packing in Old Southwest Reno

Old Southwest Reno is where the city's older residential streets are. The Census figures for this ZIP count 16,788 households and a median home of 5.1 rooms, and they also show that more than six homes in ten are at least forty-five years old. A home that age has usually collected a household's worth of belongings with a story attached, and the packing is done with that in mind.

Why the age of the home changes the pack

Homes built before 1980 hold things that were bought to last: solid wood dressers, glass-front cabinets, heavy mirrors, sets of china. Those items are not packed like a shelf of paperbacks. Each plate is wrapped on its own and stood on edge in a dish-pack carton, and mirrors and framed pictures travel in picture cartons. Furniture gets pads and wrap before it ever reaches the truck.

Rooms, bedrooms and the third floor of the closet

At 5.1 rooms, the median home is a typical family house: about 5,200 three-bedroom homes and about 5,000 two-bedroom homes, plus close to 3,000 with four bedrooms and over 1,000 with five or more. About 57 percent are single-family detached. The larger homes often have a basement, an attic or a detached garage, and those spaces are where decades of storage collects. Tell the estimator about them, and the pack and the cartons are planned to match.

Valuables and sentimental things

The median home value in this ZIP is about $703,700, according to the Census Bureau, and the contents of homes at that level often include art, antiques and instruments. Pieces that do not fit a standard carton can be crated; see custom crating and fine art and antique moving. Valuation coverage options are explained on the valuation page.

Packing a long-held house for downsizing

Many Old Southwest moves are downsizing moves, where part of a household goes to a smaller home and part goes to storage or family. We can pack in two groups, one for the new place and one for vaults, with the cartons marked so nothing is mixed. Read about senior moves and downsizing for how the crew sorts as it packs.

Questions to settle at the estimate

• Which rooms get a full pack and which you will pack yourself
• Whether any pieces need crating
• What goes to the new home and what goes into vaults
• Which stairs, porches or tight turns the crew should know about