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How much to tip movers?

I am trying to plan/budget for our upcoming move - - - and trying to figure out how much to tip.

We are hiring two movers to move our furniture only (we are taking care of the boxes, clothes and non-furniture items ourselves) from our 1st floor private entry 1 bedroom condo into our 3rd floor apartment.  Our apartment is immediately around the corner from the stairs and the stairs are single flights (not split), wide, and right off the building entrace (no hallways to navigate through).

 I don't imagine it will take too long and most things will be fairly light (empty) - but there is a large sofa and a heavy mahogany buffet as well as the other normal things (end tables, TV, bed, dressers) . . .

So how much is an appropriate tip? .

Thanks!

Re: How much to tip movers?

  • I don't think tipping movers is necessary.  We've never used movers at our home, but my workplace has and we've never tipped.  
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  • I think we tipped our movers $25 each (there were 3 of them). But, we had them move everything including all the packed boxes and it took almost 8 hours.

    They didn't have to carry a ton of stuff on stairs as the condo we moved out of had an elevator. All the heaviest furniture went on the first floor of our house and we didn't have them bring any boxes upstairs. We just had the movers stack all the boxes in the dining room (we didn't have dining room furniture yet), then we sorted and moved boxes around the house from there.

    This question gets asked on the Buying a Home board fairly often, and tipping seems to be the norm. $20 per person seems to be a common answer.

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    Mr. Sammy Dog
  • I hired a moving company to take a large armoire my dad built for me when I was a kid out of my 2nd floor bedroom in my parents' home and into a storage unit.  The freight elevator was broken at the storage unit so they had to move it down an additional flight of stairs I hadn't planned on.  For that single piece of furniture(granted it is insanely heavy, bulky, and akward) I tipped 20 a piece for the 2 guys.  If it had been just wheeling it to the elevator and down to the storage unit, it would have been half that but I felt the stairs deserved some extra.
  • We moved in June. We hired movers (2) to move us from a 10th floor condo (with freight elevator) to a townhome. They did some boxes (only larger ones) and all of the big pieces of furniture (bed, couch, ottoman, 2 dressers, flat screen). My husband assisted them. We tipped $30 each. They seemed surprised and appreciative of the tip. It never ocurred to me not to tip. They worked hard, were very careful, meticulous and efficient.
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  • We hired movers when we moved into our house at the end of June. It took them about 4 hours, and they busted their butts the whole time.  We tipped them $20 each (two guys), and bought them both drinks (just a few bucks.)  They seemed surprised by both offers, but like PP- I never considered NOT tipping. 
  • At our last move, we did either $20 or $25 each (2 guys). They were fantastic and we felt it was appropriate (it was also pouring rain when we moved). We moved from a 2br townhouse to a sf home.

    I can't imagine not tipping movers, considering I'm sure they're paid crap and bust their butts for hours making sure your heavy stuff gets moved and in the same condition it was when you packed it up. 

    We also made sure they had bottled water and coke throughout the day. In addition to pouring rain, it was insanely hot when we moved and while they brought their own, they were out practically by the time we got to the new place. 

  • imageStrawberryBlondie:

    At our last move, we did either $20 or $25 each (2 guys). They were fantastic and we felt it was appropriate (it was also pouring rain when we moved). We moved from a 2br townhouse to a sf home.

    I can't imagine not tipping movers, considering I'm sure they're paid crap and bust their butts for hours making sure your heavy stuff gets moved and in the same condition it was when you packed it up. 

    We also made sure they had bottled water and coke throughout the day. In addition to pouring rain, it was insanely hot when we moved and while they brought their own, they were out practically by the time we got to the new place. 

     

    Thanks everyone!

    I am glad to hear that $20+ is the norm - I was thinking between the $20 - $40 range, but wasn't sure if that would be too low!

    I do plan on having drinks (water, soda) and some snacks (chips, fruit, veggies) for them - and us - at the new place.  It won't be terribly hot outside, but the stairways don't have any air circulation so they get really stuffy and hot - plus we are their second job for the day - so who knows how hard they were worked on the first one. They deserve a little something extra!

  • I'm really surprised by all the people that tip movers!  Never would have occurred to me.  The ones we hired at my work charged $75/hr for each of them (we had 2 movers), which is probably why we didn't think to tip.  
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  • imageLauree1183:
    I'm really surprised by all the people that tip movers!  Never would have occurred to me.  The ones we hired at my work charged $75/hr for each of them (we had 2 movers), which is probably why we didn't think to tip.  

    $75 an hour is not unusually high, that's about the going rate. I think we paid $175/hour for 3 guys, so that would be roughly $60 per hour per mover.

    Since our move took an entire day, we also ordered pizza for them for lunch. Well, we were ordering pizza for ourselves and just ordered some extra so they could eat too. It seemed mean to order pizza and eat it in front of them without offering to share, so we shared. They seemed very surprised about that, they had been planning to take a break and get their own lunch. My mom also sent some homemade brownies that were a hit with the movers :-) Small things like brownies and ice cold water were really appreciated.

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    Mr. Sammy Dog
  • We tipped $20 to 2 furniture delivery guys a couple years ago who moved in our sectional couch. We didn't realize that since we have a curved staircase, it would be really difficult to get the couch in our house. The guys ended up pushing it over our balcony and we brought it in that way. We thought they deserved a nice tip for the extra work.
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