Mr Nelson Movers
Titled in our name, staffed by W-2 movers on our own books, hauling each carton down the three-flat and onto the truck right on schedule — a single flat rate, set in writing
Get Your Free Flat Rate
Drop us the outline of the job and you’ll get back one written figure that’s ours to stand behind — we’ve already folded the truck’s city moving permit and the River North building COI into it well before that number ever reaches your inbox.
Or call (888) 278-9005
What makes Chicagoans hand us the keys: a crew that has done the three-flat back-stair haul and the downtown freight-elevator window a thousand times, and a price that does not move after the truck is loaded.
Three straightforward steps cover everything — the note you fire off first, the truck pulling up, and the final carton set down inside
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Sketch out the move for us
Pop your details into the short form, or ring the office and reach an actual Chicago crew member of ours rather than a phone tree. To get rolling we only need a few basics: your current address, your destination, the week you’ve got in mind, and a rough sense of how full the place is. At this stage you owe nothing, you sign nothing, and we never hand your number off to some third-party lead-buying call center.
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A written price lands in your inbox and stays put right up to move day
Usually before that same business day wraps, you’ll have one solid figure on paper — not a make-believe number floated over the phone, and not a running tab that balloons the moment the truck is loaded. Whatever we email you is exactly what’s owed at the curb on moving day, with nothing wedged in between the estimate and the final box off the ramp. Should a downtown high-rise, a River North condo board, or a building manager require a Certificate of Insurance before the dock gate or freight elevator will open, Yolanda gets it filed with management inside their cutoff and pulls the city parking permit too, so the truck keeps a legal span of curb right at the entrance.
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Move day: once the truck is parked, you’re done carrying anything
Down off the truck with the crew come the moving pads, floor runners, stair rollers, and whatever dollies a cramped three-flat stairwell on a skinny Avondale side street demands — and behind every one of those hands is a W-2 Chicagoan we pay ourselves, never a sub, never day-labor. The full run is ours start to finish: walking a piano down three flights of walk-up, working it out to the curb, hauling it across town or out the Kennedy, then putting each room back exactly as it was. If your closing slips and the new place isn’t ready, we slide the whole load into clean, dry storage to span the gap between sale and move-in, and your week never stalls.
Let us know what’s moving
Run us through the particulars and the crew carries it from there. Whether it’s a three-flat in Logan Square, a graystone in Lincoln Park, a bungalow in Portage Park, a downtown high-rise with a narrow freight-elevator window, or a snowbird haul south to Florida, Mr Nelson Movers rolls up in trucks we own, with a W-2 crew on our books and the road miles behind us to take on whatever Chicago and the suburbs (Chicagoland) throws our direction.
Local Moving in Chicago & the Suburbs
Need a home moved anywhere from Pilsen to Schaumburg? Our trucks and uniformed crews do it on a flat rate you approve up front, so the bill never balloons while the clock runs.
Learn more →
Long-Distance & Cross-Country Moving from Chicago
When the move leaves Illinois — a snowbird run to the Gulf, a job out to Phoenix or Dallas — our own drivers take the wheel, the price is built on real road miles, and the figure is locked in writing.
Learn more →
House, Two-Flat & Greystone Moving
Avondale two-flats, Lincoln Park greystones, Portage Park bungalows: there is no Chicago staircase our crew has not carried a couch down, and we read each house before we touch a thing.
Learn more →The rest of what our crew takes on
Apartment, Condo & Downtown High-Rise Moving
Wicker Park walk-up or a River North tower with a COI requirement and a freight-elevator slot to book — either way, the building paperwork and the heavy lifting get handled together.
Learn more →Full Packing Service
Let our packers take the whole place — kitchen, china cabinet, basement, attic — and it all comes off the truck labeled and cushioned, so nothing arrives in pieces.
Learn more →Short-Term & Between-Sale Storage
If a closing slips or you just need to ride out a Chicago winter, the load waits with us, dry and under lock, for however long the gap between places runs.
Learn more →Piano & Gun-Safe Moving
An upright, a baby grand, even a gun safe rides down three flights of a Logan Square walk-up on rollers and padded boards and lands in the new room without a scuff.
Learn more →Loading & Unloading Help
Got a rental truck or a pod and just need the muscle? Book the crew by the hour and we run the boxes and furniture up or down the back stairs, load or unload, while your back stays out of it.
Learn more →Senior Moving & Downsizing
When it is time to clear a parent bungalow, we slow the whole thing down — room by room we sort, box what stays, carry off the donations, and handle every keepsake gently.
Learn more →In Their Own Words: Chicagoland Homeowners on Their Move With Mr Nelson Movers
“Amazing job and nice guys- thank you all so very much ❤️”
Marcus Nelson — 18 years hauling and storing for households across Chicago
“I got tired of watching Chicago families hire a cheap outfit that lowballed the quote over the phone and then padded the bill once the truck was loaded in the alley”
Grew up on the Northwest Side and spent his twenties humping furniture up three-flat back stairs all over Logan Square and Avondale. On the bulk of jobs you will still find Marcus riding the truck right alongside the crew — that hands-on habit is the reason a quote never gets padded, and the reason the movers standing at your door are people he took on and trained from the start.
The reasons 5,167+ Chicago and the suburbs (Chicagoland) families have called Mr Nelson Movers first
- One flat rate in writing — the figure on paper is the figure you pay; we don’t lowball you on the phone and we don’t hand you a bill that quietly doubles after the truck is loaded
- $1M of cargo coverage — and the Certificate of Insurance goes in for your downtown high-rise, River North condo, or building management comfortably ahead of any deadline they set
- Our own W-2 crews and trucks — the movers are born-and-raised Chicagoans drawing our paycheck and riding our insurance; nothing gets passed to a sub or filled out with day-labor
- We pull the permit and the COI — a week ahead the city parking permit goes in so the truck holds a legal curb, and the downtown building COI is on file before move day; those are the two corners the cut-rate crews quietly cut
- Reach the owner direct — pick up the phone and Marcus answers it himself, and he still runs the bigger Lincoln Park and downtown high-rise jobs, so your move is never steered by a far-off call center
- 18 years around Chicagoland — for our crew it’s just another day’s work: the steep three-flat stairwells of Logan Square and Avondale, the Lincoln Park graystones, and the Wicker Park walk-ups you have to shovel out of a brutal lake-effect winter
Serving Chicago and the suburbs (Chicagoland)
Where our trucks head most often on the long haul out of Chicago
You get a flat rate in writing, our own US DOT number painted on a truck we own outright, and tracking that stays with your load door to door the entire stretch — out the Kennedy, down the Dan Ryan, or onto I-80.
Straight answers laid out plainly — nothing to pay for reading them and nothing you’re bound to afterward
Are the trucks and crews actually yours?
They are. Nothing here gets subcontracted — trucks, crew, and operating authority all sit under one roof. Mr Nelson Movers is a family-run household-goods mover working out of Chicago, IL, licensed and insured across the state. On the books, our Illinois intrastate authority is ILCC Mover Lic. No. 215588, and the interstate runs go out under live USDOT authority with MC authority. For you that boils down to one thing: every truck in our yard is titled to us, the Chicago locals loading them draw a W-2 paycheck from us, and not one piece of your moving day gets quietly shipped off to a sub or to day-labor.
How much does a typical move around Chicago run?
We skip the meter that ticks up while the clock runs and quote a local move as a single flat rate covering the whole job — and it stays the same whether a sofa has to be hauled up a narrow Logan Square three-flat stairwell or the truck has to thread a tight Avondale one-way. Chicago is a pricier market, so our figures sit a notch above the national average: when an hourly rate fits the job, plan on roughly $135 an hour for a two-mover team; a two-bedroom apartment or condo tends to fall between $500 and $1,300, and a three- or four-bedroom house runs higher than that. After Marcus has walked the rooms in person or gone through a video tour, the complete flat rate goes down in writing — parking permit, COI, and any storage that bridges a sale and a closing all included.
How far ahead do I need to book my date?
Certain windows book solid long before the others — the May 1 and October 1 lease-turn rushes, the closing days at the end of any month, and the full summer stretch — so aim to pin down your date around two weeks ahead, and pad that a bit more across May through September, when it can feel like every household in Chicagoland is loading a truck at once. The moment the deep cold arrives the calendar opens back up and a few days’ notice is frequently enough; we keep the rigs dug out and salted all winter long, so a January booking goes off on schedule however hard the lake-effect snow comes down. Catch us in a quieter week with a crew free and even a same-week request usually finds a slot.
Any kind of Chicago move your crew passes on?
Our map covers the whole of Chicago and the suburbs (Chicagoland) — Logan Square and Avondale, Lincoln Park and Wicker Park, Lakeview, Portage Park, the downtown high-rises, and the ring of suburbs around the city — plus the long hauls south on I-65 to Florida, east toward New York City, and over to Detroit and St. Louis. The bulky, heavy stuff doesn’t rattle us either: bringing an upright, a baby grand, or a gun safe down three flights of three-flat walk-up on padded boards and stair rollers is ordinary work for us. Boxes, though, are just the start — full-service packing, clean storage to cover the gap between a sale and a closing, and unhurried, gentle help for seniors paring down a lifetime of belongings all fall well within what we do.
Are you insured, and can you handle my building’s COI?
Always insured — and the Certificate of Insurance is exactly the hurdle the cut-rate outfits trip over. Cargo liability of $1M rides on every job, and for anything beyond that, full-value protection layers on at about 1–3% of the value you declare. Our crews carry general liability and workers’ comp, and they are bonded on top of that. Whenever a downtown tower, a River North condo board, or a high-rise management office wants a COI in hand before the dock or freight elevator will open, Yolanda has it filed with management well within whatever deadline they hand down.
Do I need to be on site the whole move?
Things do go more smoothly with you on site for the load-out and the drop-off both — a downtown high-rise or a condo front desk will often want someone to sign in at the dock — yet when the day gets away from you, handing the keys to a relative or a trusted neighbor works just fine. No matter who stands in for you, the crew tags every item as it goes up the ramp and ticks each one back off that same list as it comes through the door at the other end.
Does rescheduling or canceling the date cost anything?
Cancel with 48 hours’ notice or more and there’s nothing to pay — that’s the whole of the policy. Pushing the job to another day costs nothing either, so long as a crew is free on the new date. Keep in mind, though, that month-ends, the May 1 and October 1 lease-turn rushes, and summer dates disappear quickly across Chicagoland, so the earlier you flag a change, the likelier you are to hold on to the window your plans were built around.
How can I pay for the move?
Settle up however works for you — Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover are all accepted, and debit, a certified check, or plain cash are just as welcome. Holding your date on the calendar takes nothing up front. The balance comes due only at delivery, once you’ve looked over the load and signed off on it — not one minute sooner than that.
What happens if something gets damaged on the way?
Every job comes with baseline released-value coverage of $0.60/lb built in, at no extra charge. Spot something amiss? Flag it to the crew chief before the truck pulls off and it goes straight onto that day’s inventory then and there — and the bulk of claims close out comfortably inside the roughly nine-month window we keep open. Trusting us with a family heirloom, a piano, or anything you simply couldn’t bear to lose? Add full-value protection at around 1–3% of the value you declare, and that piece travels with considerably more padding behind it.
Move already on the calendar? Hand the rest of it to Mr Nelson Movers.
Send over the two ZIPs and the week you are aiming for; back the same day comes one plain flat rate that has already taken in the city parking permit and the downtown high-rise COI.