Ottawa Moving Tips, Checklists and Answers
Everything we have written for people moving in and around Ottawa, sorted by the stage you are at. These are the same notes our crews and office staff give customers over the phone, written down so you can read them before you book anything.
Most of the trouble on a move day starts weeks earlier — an elevator that was never booked, a lease that ends at noon instead of 5pm, a parking permit nobody applied for. The guides below are organised around the decisions that actually cause problems, in the order you have to make them.
Start here: planning and booking
If your move is still more than a month away, this is the only section you need. Ottawa books up unevenly — the last weekend of the month and the first of the next are the two hardest slots in the city to fill, and September 1 in the student neighbourhoods is harder still.
If you only read one thing on this page, make it the 8-week countdown. Almost every avoidable problem we see on a move day traces back to a step in it that got skipped.
Packing
Packing is where most people underestimate the work by roughly half. It is also the part you can hand off entirely if you would rather not spend three weekends wrapping dishes.
Apartments, condos and high-rises
Buildings are the single biggest variable in an Ottawa move. Elevator bookings, loading-dock windows, certificates the property manager wants on file, and the height of the underground garage all decide how the day runs — and they all have to be sorted before the truck arrives.
Heavy, awkward and one-off items
Some things are not a whole move — they are one sofa that will not go around a corner, or a treadmill in a basement. Both of these are jobs we do on their own.
Leaving Ottawa
A long-distance move runs on a completely different clock from a local one. Delivery windows, what travels in the truck versus your car, and what you are allowed to leave packed all change once the drive is measured in hours instead of minutes.
Downsizing and senior moves
Downsizing is a sorting problem before it is a moving problem, and it usually involves more people than the person actually moving. These two are written for families doing it together.
Office, business and federal moves
Ottawa has more federal relocations than any other city in the country, and they run on their own paperwork. Business moves have their own constraint: the office has to work again on Monday.
New to the city, or moving across it
If you are choosing a neighbourhood rather than just a date, start here. These cover what the areas are actually like to move into — street widths, parking, building age, and how far the truck has to park from your door.
Still have a question?
Our full question-and-answer page covers how crews are dispatched, what happens if a move runs long, how stairs and access are handled, and what we can and cannot take. If your question is not there, ask us directly and we will answer it in writing.
