Snowstorm on Teton Pass, a driveway with a ten-minute window, a piano going up a narrow staircase: none of it surprises us anymore. What still trips up a move is the stuff nobody planned for. After years of doing this in the valley, there is a short list of things we wish every client knew before moving day.
None of them are complicated. All of them make your move calmer, faster, and safer for your things. If you are comparing moving companies in Jackson WY, these are the stress-free moving tips we would give a friend.
1. Access matters. Check your driveway and road clearance first.
The move starts before the first box. It starts with how we get the truck to your door. Jackson Hole has driveways with ten-minute access windows, gated entries, narrow mountain roads, and second-floor balconies that face the wrong way in January. Before moving day, walk your route. Measure the gate, look up at the low branches, and figure out whether a 26-foot truck can actually turn around.
If access is tight, we will figure it out. We have a Gradall lift for a reason, and we have moved into homes where the only way in was up and over. But tell us early so we plan for it, instead of solving it cold at 7am with a truck idling in the road.
Winter changes everything about access here. A driveway that is wide and flat in July can be a sheet of ice with a snowbank where the truck needs to park in January. If your move is in the cold months, think about where the plow has pushed the snow, whether the approach has been sanded, and how far the carry will be if we cannot get the truck close. We would rather know all of that a week out than discover it on the morning of.
Spring has its own version of the same problem. Late April and May are mud season, and as the frost comes out of the ground, dirt roads and driveways that were solid all winter turn soft. A loaded truck can sink or rut a driveway that looked perfectly fine the week before. If your move lands in that window, tell us about your road surface. We may stage closer to pavement and shuttle the last stretch rather than risk getting stuck or tearing up your approach.
What to check before we arrive: driveway width and slope, overhead clearance, gate codes, where a 26-foot truck can turn around, and whether snow, ice, or mud will be on the approach.
2. Book early. Jackson Hole move windows are tight.
This is not a national market. The valley has a short list of good crews and a long list of people trying to move during the same few weeks. Summer fills up fast. The weeks around ski season fill up fast. The crew you want on the day you need is not a guarantee if you wait.
So when you know your date, call us. Booking early means you get our crew on your day, not whatever is left on someone else’s calendar. Call us and we will give you a straight answer about what is open.
If you are not local, the timing here may surprise you. A lot of homes in the valley change hands or get furnished on a tight schedule, and designers from out of state often need furniture received and held before a building is even ready for delivery. If that is your situation, the sooner we are talking, the better we can hold space and plan the delivery for the day the house is actually ready. Early is always cheaper and calmer than rushed.
3. Do not leave loaded boxes sitting out overnight. This is bear country.
This is the kind of thing you only learn by living here, and it catches newcomers off guard every year. The wildlife in this valley is smart, and a box that held food, or anything that still smells like the pantry, is an invitation if it is left in the driveway, the garage with the door open, or the bed of a truck overnight.
On a move that runs more than one day, that matters. We stage and store with wildlife in mind, and we will tell you which boxes are fine to leave and which ones need to come inside. If you are packing the kitchen ahead of time, keep those boxes sealed and indoors until moving day. It is a small habit that saves you from finding a mess, or worse, in the morning.
4. Do not pack the things you are leaving behind.
It sounds obvious. It is also the most common slowdown we see. The donations, the trash, the items going to a friend, the stuff that stays with the house: separate all of it before we get there. Every box we load that should not have come is time and money spent moving something twice.
Set aside a clearly marked “do not load” zone and we will respect it exactly. Ask before assuming is how we work, and we would rather check than carry something you wanted to leave. The same goes the other direction. If there is something easy to overlook, the firewood, the contents of a shed, the things in the garage rafters, point it out so it does not get left behind. A move only feels finished when nothing got forgotten and nothing got hauled that should have stayed.
5. Tell us about special items upfront. The piano, the custom furniture, the pieces you are worried about.
We know you are nervous about the antique, the piano, the dining table your family has owned for three generations. You probably do not need to be, and here is why: we deal with this every single day. The piece you are stressing about is a routine Tuesday for us. People are often surprised by what we can move. For us, there is always a technique.
But we can only protect a piece properly if we know it is coming. Tell us about pianos, oversized art, custom or built-in furniture, safes, and anything that has to come apart before it moves. Everything gets wrapped before it leaves the house. How we take it is how we deliver it, in the next place, every time.
When you flag special items early, we show up with the right materials and the right plan. The piano gets the right blankets and the right number of hands. The custom piece that was built in place gets taken apart carefully and rebuilt the same way on the other end. Nothing leaves the house unwrapped, and nothing rides loose in the truck. No surprises on the truck, and no surprises when you open the door at the new place.
The short version
Check your access before the date is set, and remember the approach changes with the season, ice in winter and mud in spring. Call early, because the good windows go fast here. Keep food boxes sealed and indoors so they do not draw wildlife overnight. Pull out anything you are not taking. And tell us about the hard pieces ahead of time so we can protect them right.
We are a family that runs a moving company in Jackson Hole, and we show up like it. When you call, you reach us. When we arrive, it is our crew. If you are planning a move in the valley, call We Lift Things and we will give you a straight answer about your date, your access, and your special items.
We took it. That is how we will deliver it.
