Pack Day in Inlet Beach, FL: A Full Kitchen
By Joshua B McGrew, co-owner, Beach House Moving
A documented pack job in Inlet Beach, off Lake Powell: how we packed a full kitchen, wrapped a settee as one piece, and prepped an antique table.
Field Notes from the Truck — a job log we write the same week the job happens. This one: Inlet Beach, Florida. Crew: Zack and Josh.
On a Monday in July we packed an apartment in Inlet Beach, just off Lake Powell. A full kitchen, a living room, and a few pieces that needed more than a box.
This one was booked as packing only. That's worth saying out loud, because a lot of people assume packing is something you can only get bundled into a move. You don't have to book a move to get us to pack.
The kitchen took the longest, and it always does
Every cabinet gets emptied — uppers, lowers, pantry. Plates go into paper. Glasses get wrapped one at a time. Nothing goes into a box loose and nothing gets stacked on an edge, because a plate that shifts two inches in transit is a plate that arrives in pieces.
Zack and Josh worked this one from opposite ends of the counter. One took the uppers, the other took the lowers and the pantry. That split matters more than it sounds like it does: it means nothing gets handled twice, and nothing gets left sitting behind a cabinet door after the truck pulls out. On a kitchen with as much glassware and stoneware as this one had, working it in one direction from one end is how you lose an afternoon.
The homeowner did two things right. She set out a tray of snacks, which we appreciated more than we let on. And she left the coffee maker out until the last box. We recommend both.
If you take one thing from this: the kitchen is the room to hand off. It's the slowest, it's the most fragile, and it's the one where rushing shows up later.
The living room got wrapped as one piece instead of three
There was a settee in the living room with seven throw pillows on it. Cushions and pillows that ride loose end up in one of two places — flat on the truck floor under something heavier, or in a box that then has to be found again at the other end while somebody stands there holding a bare frame.
So the settee got stood on end and every one of those pillows got sealed inside the wrap with it. It travels as one unit and it unwraps in one motion.
The blue pads in the room are labeled in marker by room and by item. "LR Speaker," and so on. That labeling isn't for us — we know what's in our own pads. It's so the load comes off in the right rooms instead of stacking up inside the front door while somebody plays a guessing game with a Sharpie.
One small antique table, and the two minutes that decide it
The round drum table is the piece we'd point to if somebody asked what care actually looks like. It's veneer over edges, which is the worst combination there is.
The pad goes down flat on the floor first, before the piece is ever lifted. Then the table gets wrapped and taped into a cylinder with nothing exposed. Two minutes, on a piece most people would not think twice about.
Here's why it's worth those two minutes. Furniture almost never gets damaged in the truck. It gets damaged in a doorway, in a hallway, on a stair turn, or against the corner of something else that wasn't wrapped either. By the time a piece is in the truck it has already survived the dangerous part. So it goes out the door already covered.
What we would tell you to do before pack day
Empty the fridge and run down anything perishable in the days before. It's the one thing we can't pack for you.
Pull your own first-night box — medications, chargers, a change of clothes, whatever you'd be annoyed to dig for. Keep it with you, not on the truck.
Point out anything fragile or sentimental before we start, not while we're standing in front of it. Tell us it was your grandmother's and it gets handled like it.
Leave the coffee maker out.
We're licensed and insured in Florida under Mover Registration #IM4125, and we're owner-operated — the people in these photos are the people who own the company. Inlet Beach is the east end of our home turf, along with the rest of Walton County, Okaloosa County, and Bay County. The day after this job we were on 30A doing the opposite kind of work: an install day, carrying furniture into a house instead of out of one.
Related services:
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you pack the kitchen, or should I do that myself before you arrive?
We pack it, and it is the room we would most encourage you to hand off. A kitchen is the slowest room in any house and the one with the highest concentration of fragile items — plates, stemware, stoneware, small appliances. Every cabinet has to be emptied, every fragile piece has to be wrapped individually in paper, and nothing can go into a box loose. When a kitchen gets rushed, that is where damage shows up.
Do you wrap furniture, or only box up the small items?
Both. Upholstered pieces get shrink-wrapped, with loose cushions and pillows sealed inside the piece so it travels as one unit. Wood and antique pieces get pad-wrapped and taped before they leave the room they are standing in. We wrap before the lift rather than at the truck, because damage happens in doorways and hallways, not in the trailer.
Why wrap something before carrying it out instead of at the truck?
Because the walk out is the dangerous part. Door casings, stair turns, hallway corners, and the exposed corner of an unwrapped piece nearby are what actually cause damage on a move. A piece that is covered before it is lifted is protected for the whole trip, not just the drive.
Do you supply the boxes, paper, and wrapping materials?
Yes, as long as you tell us in advance. Boxes, packing paper, and wrap are all things we bring — we just need to know before the day, because what a full kitchen takes is not what a single bedroom takes and we would rather load the truck right than run out halfway through a cabinet. If you have already bought your own, that is fine too and we will work with what is there.
Can you pack just one room instead of the whole house?
Yes. A single room is a normal booking for us. Most often it is the kitchen, sometimes a garage or a home office, sometimes just the fragile things somebody does not want to be responsible for. We would rather fill the gap in what you actually need than tell you we only take whole houses — we are a local company and that means being useful at whatever size the job is. Tell us which rooms when you book and we will scope it to that.
Do you serve Inlet Beach?
Yes. Inlet Beach sits at the east end of 30A in Walton County, which is our home service area along with Santa Rosa Beach, Miramar Beach, Panama City Beach, and the rest of Walton, Okaloosa, and Bay Counties. We are a locally owned, owner-operated company based on the Emerald Coast.