Des Moines Movers — Local & Long-Distance, with Real Quotes and a Real Crew

Our $160/hr local rate includes the crew, the truck, the fuel for in-metro moves, all the moving pads and blankets, dollies, hand trucks, basic floor protection, and standard valuation coverage. Everything is billed hourly. The only extra is a flat $100 add for items too heavy for our standard crew (large gun safes, heavy pianos, etc.). Packing services and full-value protection insurance are quoted separately.

Yes. We ask for a $50 deposit for local moves and a $300 deposit for long-distance moves to lock in your date. The deposit is applied to your final invoice on move day. We’ll send instructions for paying the deposit once you confirm your quote.

No stair adders. No long-carry adders. No surprise surcharges. Everything is billed at our hourly rate — if stairs or a long carry takes more time, you’re paying for the time, not a separate fee.

The one exception: items too heavy for our standard crew (large gun safes, heavy pianos, oversized antiques) carry a flat $100 add to cover the extra crew member and gear required. We’ll tell you upfront during the quote if that applies to anything you’re moving.

Packing is quoted separately based on your home and what you need packed. Costs depend on which rooms you want us to pack, how much we’re packing, and how many fragile or specialty items are involved. Contact us for an estimate and we’ll walk through your specific situation.

See our packing services page for more on what’s included.

Most local moves are one-day jobs. Typical ranges:

• 1-bedroom apartment: 2–6 hours
• 2-bedroom home: 3–7 hours
• 3-bedroom home: 4–9 hours
• 4-bedroom home: 6–11 hours
• 5+ bedroom home: Full day or two-day move

The biggest variables are stairs, packing status, and whether you’ve done prep work. Our written quote includes an estimated hour range so you know what to expect.

It happens more than half the time on residential moves. Closing date changes are handled case-by-case. Let us know as soon as the date shifts and we’ll work with you on rescheduling. Closing pushed a few days? We’ll try to shuffle the schedule. Pushed to a different week? We’ll move you to the new date if we have crew availability.

Yes. Most of our moves run on weekends, especially end-of-month Saturdays. Sunday work is available too — ask during the quote and we’ll work out the schedule with you.

Iowa weather doesn’t stop us unless conditions are genuinely unsafe. Snow, rain, summer heat — we move through all of it. The only time we delay a move is when safety is at risk: ice storms, severe weather warnings, or unsafe access to specialty items. If we need to delay your move, we’ll reach out as early as possible and reschedule.

Yes — we handle items most general movers refuse: pianos, gun safes, pool tables, antiques, hot tubs, gym equipment. Specialty items are quoted as add-ons. The standard hourly rate applies, plus a flat $100 add for items too heavy for our standard crew (large gun safes, heavy pianos, oversized antiques). We come with the right gear: piano boards, gun safe dollies, stair-climbing equipment, and custom crating materials.

See our specialty moving page for details on the items we handle.

A short list of items we won’t take on the truck or pack into boxes:

• Flammable items: paint, propane, lighter fluid, gasoline, fireworks
• Hazardous chemicals: pesticides, pool chemicals, fertilizer concentrates
• Perishable food: we don’t move food in our trucks
• Plants: long-distance, no. Local moves, sometimes — ask during the quote
• Loaded firearms: must be unloaded and cleared by you first
• Live animals: pets travel with you
• Cash, jewelry, important documents: we recommend you carry these yourself

For three categories, yes: cash, jewelry, and important documents (passports, deeds, social security cards, financial records). These items are small enough to carry in your own vehicle and the risk of loss isn’t worth even our standard insurance coverage. For heirlooms and items with sentimental value that are too large to carry yourself (antique furniture, family pianos), tell us during the walkthrough — we’ll prioritize handling, pad-wrap aggressively, and recommend full-value protection insurance if the declared value warrants it.

Yes. We’re fully licensed and insured under USDOT 4199938 and MC 1620099, both verifiable on the FMCSA website (search by USDOT number at safer.fmcsa.dot.gov). We carry standard cargo and liability insurance required of all licensed movers.

Released value coverage is included free with every move: 60 cents per pound per item. This is the federal minimum required of all interstate movers. For most items, it’s genuinely not enough — a 200-pound antique worth $5,000 would only be covered at $120.

Full-value protection is available as an add-on for an additional premium. It covers the actual replacement value of damaged items, not just weight-based payouts. For long-distance moves and households with valuable items (heirlooms, art, electronics, antiques), we strongly recommend full-value protection.

Our 4.9-star rating from 71 verified Google reviews is the result of three years of doing this work the way we tell customers we will: real quotes, no brokers, same crew quoting and loading, price-matches-invoice, and showing up on time. We don’t buy reviews. We don’t pay services to generate them. Every review on our Google Business Profile is from a customer we actually moved, and you can read them all yourself.

For local moves, we cover the entire Des Moines metro: Des Moines, Ankeny, West Des Moines, Waukee, Urbandale, Johnston, Clive, Altoona, Pleasant Hill, Grimes, Bondurant, Polk City, Norwalk, Indianola, Windsor Heights, and other central Iowa communities. For long-distance moves, we originate from the Des Moines metro and travel to destinations across the continental U.S.

Yes — long-distance moves out of Iowa are a core service. The same crew that loads in Iowa unloads at the destination. Pricing depends on home size and destination distance — ranges from $2,800 for a 1-day-drive 1-bedroom move up to $19,500+ for a cross-country 4-bedroom move. See our long-distance moving page for the full breakdown.