Load Planner: how big is your move?

How to use the Load Planner

1. Set your rooms. Use the plus and minus buttons for bedrooms, living or family rooms, dining rooms, home offices, the garage and the patio or yard.
2. Tick the big or special items. Pianos and organs, pool tables, hot tubs, upright freezers, gym equipment, fine art and a vehicle all change how a move is planned.
3. Choose who packs. Pick whether the O'Brien's crew packs, you pack, or a mix of both. This changes the carton range you see.
4. Read the result. The trailer fill, the size label, the carton range and the list of special items appear as you type.
5. Send the list. One button copies your summary into the estimate request so the estimator arrives already knowing your rooms.

Most people picture a move as a number of rooms. A crew sees it as a volume of furniture and cartons that has to fit a truck. The Load Planner bridges the two. You tell it what is in the home you are leaving, and it draws a trailer that fills as you add rooms, so a three-bedroom house looks different from a studio before you ever pick up the phone.

What the result tells you

The size label and the filled trailer show how large your move is compared with a typical household. The carton range tells you roughly how many boxes to expect if packing is part of the job. The special-items list is the most useful line for planning, because a piano or a hot tub calls for a different crew approach than a bedroom of clothes.

What the Load Planner cannot tell you

It cannot see inside your closets, your attic or your garage shelves. Two homes with the same number of rooms can differ by a full truckload. It shows no prices on purpose. A price comes from an itemized written estimate, which an O'Brien's estimator prepares after walking through your home. For how that number is built, read binding and non-binding estimates.

Why the planner asks who packs

A fully packed move has a different shape from one where you bring cartons to the truck. Full packing adds cartons and crew time on the packing day, and a partial or box-only job sits between the two. The pages on full packing and partial packing and box packing explain how each level works, so you can pick the one that fits your schedule.

Make the estimate visit count

The planner list is a good start for the in-home visit, which is free and carries no obligation. Walk through each room before the estimator arrives and decide what stays, what goes to storage and what gets donated. Every item you remove before the visit is an item that never shows up in the estimate. You also receive 10 free heavy-duty boxes with the estimate, yours to keep. If you want a longer list, the home inventory builder goes item by item.

Where the planner fits in the process

Think of it as step one of three. The planner gives you a rough size. The in-home visit gives you a firm, itemized figure. The written estimate and the inventory become the paper trail for move day. Call the Sparks office at 775-359-6683, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, if you want to talk through your list before you send it.