Moving in Winter at the Jersey Shore: What to Plan For

Nobody plans a January move for fun. It usually comes with a closing date, a lease end or a job start. But winter is the cheapest and easiest time of year to book movers in Ocean County, and if you handle a few specific things it goes fine.

Water is the problem, not temperature

Thirty five degrees and wet is far worse for a move than twenty degrees and dry. Here at the shore we get plenty of the first one.

A cardboard box set down on a slushy driveway for thirty seconds wicks water through the bottom. By the third trip the box is soft, and somewhere around the fifth it lets go. Add road salt, which is both corrosive and impossible to keep out of the house, and a winter move with boxes turns into a mess fast.

Plastic totes with lids shut are the straightforward answer. Set them in slush, stack them in a wet truck bed, wipe them off at the door. Nothing inside gets touched. That is most of why winter is one of our busier stretches.

Protect the floors in both houses

The floors take more damage than anything you are carrying. Salt, sand and grit get tracked in on every trip, and that grit under boots is what scratches hardwood and laminate.

• Lay down rosin paper, old rugs or flattened cardboard along the main path in both houses
• Put a real mat and a towel at both doors
• Keep a broom at the entry and sweep the path a couple of times during the day
• Have someone assigned to the door, not the truck, if you can spare the person

Daylight runs out at four thirty

In December the sun is effectively gone by 4:45. If your truck is loaded at 2pm you are unloading in the dark, in the cold, in an unfamiliar house where you do not yet know which switch does what.

Start early. Earlier than feels reasonable. Have work lights or at least a couple of good flashlights in the car rather than the truck, and make sure the power is on at the new place before move day, not the morning of.

The holiday weeks are their own thing

Mid December through New Year is a real scheduling squeeze. Movers take time off, closings bunch up before the end of the year for tax reasons, and everyone has family obligations in the middle of it.

If your move lands in that window, lock everything down three or four weeks ahead. That includes us. Our delivery calendar around the holidays fills earlier than people expect, and a week either side of Christmas is the tightest stretch of the winter.

One upside worth knowing. The first three weeks of January are usually wide open, and if you have any flexibility you can often get exactly the date you want.

What to do if it snows

Decide the threshold in advance with whoever is doing the lifting. A coating or an inch is a nuisance. Four inches with wind off the water is a different call, and trying to be a hero about it is how people get hurt on steps.

If it is going to be close:

• Shovel and salt both driveways and walkways the night before, then again at first light
• Keep a bag of salt or sand by each door for the day
• Clear a spot where the truck can actually park, which at the shore often means dealing with a plow pile at the curb
• Agree ahead of time on who makes the call and by what time

This is one place the 2 week rental genuinely helps. If the forecast turns on you, you can push the physical move by a day or two without scrambling to extend anything, because the totes are already sitting in your house either way.

Things that do not like the cold

A few items should ride in your car with the heat on rather than in an unheated truck overnight.

• Houseplants. An hour in a cold truck will finish most of them
• Liquids that can freeze and split. Paint, cleaning supplies, some drinks
• Electronics, if they will be sitting overnight. Let them come to room temperature before powering on, since condensation is the actual risk
• Candles and anything else that warps, which is more of a summer problem but worth a thought near a truck heater
• Medications, which usually have a storage range on the label

Set up heat and water first

Confirm the heat is on and working at the new place a few days ahead, not the night before. If the house has been empty through a cold snap, also have someone check that nothing froze, because the day you move in is a bad day to discover a split pipe.

Booking around the weather

We deliver totes across Ocean County and Monmouth County all winter. The 2 week window means you are packing indoors on your own schedule and only exposed to the weather on the one day that matters. Most winter movers land on the 2 Bedroom at $175 or the 3 Bedroom at $235, and extra weeks run $65 and $75 on those if the weather pushes your date.