How to Make Moving During a Pandemic Easier

Nothing has been easy over the last nine months, including—if not especially moving—as CEO of NYC-based, national spanning moving service Roadway Ross Sapir admits. He founded his company in 2008 with one truck and has since grown his services into a white glove, 30-million-dollar business, which he calls "the Zappos of moving." But as the pandemic continues to ravage life on both micro and macro levels, Sapir understands why some might feel cautious about switching their personal spaces and letting strangers in to do so. Here, the moving veteran explains to L'OFFICIEL why moving has actually never been safer and the extra tips and tools you can make the process easier for yourself.  

L'OFFICIEL: Death, divorce, and moving are said to be the three most stressful things in life one can go through. The first two are self-explanatory, but what do you think about moving that is so particularly stressful for people? 

ROSS SAPIR: As the owner of a moving company—and someone who uses his own company to pack, move, and unpack his things each time I move—I hate moving. It's just a headache of an experience. It's stressful to do it and then once you're done, the average American takes 182 days to finish unpacking. In addition to the physical move, there are the things you don't think about: finding schools for your kids, your job, re-registering your car, etc. Roadway knows that moving sucks, so we try to make it as great and as joyful as possible. 

L'O: Like all industries, COVID-19 no doubt dramatically affected the moving industry. How did your company first respond to the pandemic? 

RS: I went down to 50 percent of my movers, and from 40 trucks down to 17. Eventually we built ourselves back up to normal capacity, but it was hard—especially in the spring–and it was scary. That being said, we were ready for it because of preparation and anticipation. When [the pandemic] first became real, I immediately came up with a safety protocol that I sent to all employees and clients about what we're going to do. Here's a secret: I didn't invent it, I looked at what Delta was doing (because they do a great job), and then I added moving specific guidelines. I bought disinfecting machines, gloves, booties, etc. We were actually the first moving company in New York City to put all of our movers in masks and offer masks to our clients at a time when we were told masks were not important.

L'O: In the middle of the pandemic, many observed that residents were leaving cities like New York for the freedoms and more space. Is this still something you're seeing today? 

RS: Initially, yes, we did see the trend. People broke their leases and moved out of the cities and into the suburbs or they placed their items into storage to stay with their parents or they shifted into some form of temporary housing. But now people are deciding what to do—and many of them are moving back. There's an unimaginable number of people moving from across the country into urban spaces or, within cities like in New York, taking advantage of low rent options to upgrade their living spaces. New York is not as bad as people would have you believe. I don't think we lost people, in fact, I think we just traded them with different people, and more of them. We work with a bunch of brokers directly, and they've never been busier. Good luck to anyone that wants to buy real estate in Manhattan right now. It's you plus five! 

L'O: Other than moving services like Roadway, what other resources or measures do you recommend to people who are moving in the middle of the pandemic? 

RS: Minimizing time with anyone outside of your bubble is important, so that means movers, too, even if that means packing your items yourself. I also wouldn't use any reusable boxes or bins right now. Stick to fresh boxes. A good and very affordable service that you can get now is apartment disinfection: You can hire people to spray the new space for you so you don't have to worry about whoever lived there prior.