Keep heat and electricity running at both addresses straight through moving day, and have service at the new place switched on at least 24 hours before the truck arrives. Winter moves in Chicago go sideways faster than any other kind, and the usual cause is a utility date set for billing convenience rather than for the move itself.
Our crews have worked 25 Chicago winters out of a single West Side location, and the heating question comes up on nearly every December and January job we quote.
Why Winter Utility Timing Works Differently Here
A gap in service during July costs you a warm refrigerator. The same gap in January costs you a frozen supply line and a crew working an unlit stairwell at four in the afternoon.
Cold narrows what a moving day can absorb. Floors sweat when warm air meets a cold slab, tile turns slick under wet boots, and a furnace that has been off for two days will not bring a three-flat back to temperature before the last load lands.
That is why we ask about heat before almost anything else on a winter booking, and it shapes how we crew and schedule every local moving job in Chicago between December and March.
Scheduling is the second half of it. Utility appointment windows thin out through the holiday weeks, and a transfer that clears in a few days in September can sit noticeably longer in late December.
Call both providers as soon as your date is set rather than the week of. Ask for the activation date in writing, and ask whether anyone needs to be present at the property for the switch, since that answer changes depending on the building and where the meter sits.
Who to Contact and When to Call Them
Electricity in Chicago runs through ComEd and natural gas through Peoples Gas, and the two don’t coordinate. You are making two separate requests for each address, which is four transactions on a standard move, and people routinely forget one of the four. Internet service, separately billed water, and building-supplied heat each add another line to that count.
Begin those calls three to four weeks out when the date allows it. Overlap the two addresses deliberately, with service at the new place live a day early and service at the old place running until the day after the move. One extra day of gas on an empty apartment costs very little next to what happens when the heat goes off, and it gives you room if the schedule slips.
Readers watching the total cost of a cold-season move will find more on that in our winter moving budget tips. If you are leaving a building where heat is included in rent, confirm with management that the unit stays heated until the lease actually ends, because that is not always automatic once a tenant is recorded as moved out.
Moving this winter? Ask us for a free written estimate, and we will plan the day around your utility dates, not the other way around.
Keeping Heat On at Both Ends of the Move
Set both thermostats before anyone starts carrying. At the home you are leaving, hold the temperature where it normally sits rather than dropping it to save a few dollars, because the front door will be propped open for hours and the furnace needs the head start.
At the new place, bring the temperature up the night before so the floors and walls are not pulling warmth out of every room while the crew works.
Propped doors are the part people underestimate. On a long carry, our team runs the entry open for most of the loading window, and each cycle drops the interior temperature further.
We work in layers and keep moving, so the cold reaches your belongings and your building well before it reaches the crew. A space heater in whichever room fragile items are being staged in helps, provided it sits clear of wrapping materials and nowhere near a walkway.
Protecting Pipes and the Home You Leave Behind
An empty unit with the heat off is where winter does real damage, and the bill tends to land on whoever still holds the lease or the deed. Water standing in a supply line behind an exterior wall can freeze within hours once the interior temperature drops far enough, and a burst line in a vacant apartment goes unnoticed until a downstairs neighbor calls someone.
Leave the heat on at the old place until the handover is complete, and if the property will sit empty afterward, settle in advance who is responsible for keeping it warm. Open cabinet doors beneath sinks on exterior walls so warm air reaches the plumbing behind them.
Drain hoses and anything else holding water, including a washing machine you are taking with you, since residual water in a drum or a line will freeze on the truck. Appliances come off the wall and spend part of the day outdoors, which makes an undrained refrigerator or washer the single item most likely to arrive damaged in February.
Our walkthrough of January relocation planning covers the rest of that week-before sequence.
What Our Crews Need to Know Before the Truck Arrives
Tell us the heat situation at both addresses when you book, not on the morning of the move. If the new place has no gas service yet, we change the load order and get moisture-sensitive items inside and covered first.
If the old building runs on a radiator system that management controls, we want to know whether the stairwell and lobby are heated, because that determines how long anything can sit staged before it goes on the truck.
What we ask about on a winter booking:
- Whether heat and power are confirmed active at the new address, and from which date
- Whether the furnace or boiler at the old place stays on through the full day
- Whether any entryway, lobby, or loading dock is unheated
- Which items are moisture-sensitive, including solid wood furniture, artwork, instruments, and electronics
- Whether a washer, refrigerator, or dishwasher is coming, and whether its lines have been drained
None of this adds cost to the job. It changes sequencing, crew size on occasion, and what we bring on the truck. A crew that knows the new place has been cold since Tuesday will stage differently than one walking into a house held at 68 degrees, and that difference shows up in the condition your furniture arrives in.
Frequently Asked Questions
These are the questions our office fields most often once the temperature drops and a household starts working out the order of operations for a winter move. The answers below reflect how we actually schedule and run cold-season jobs across Chicago.
No. Keep both electricity and gas running at the old address until at least the day after the move. A crew needs working lights in hallways and stairwells during short winter afternoons, and an unheated empty unit risks frozen plumbing that becomes your responsibility.
Three to four weeks ahead when your date allows it. Appointment availability tightens around the holidays, and both the electric and gas provider handle their transfers separately, so you are coordinating several requests rather than one.
Tell us before moving day. We load and unload in a different order so that wood furniture, electronics, artwork, and instruments go in first and stay wrapped. Those items are the ones that suffer when they sit in a cold room, and the sequencing matters more than the temperature itself.
Yes. Water left in a drum, hose, or inlet line will freeze while the appliance sits on the truck or waits outside during loading. Drained appliances travel through Chicago winters without trouble, and undrained ones are among the most common winter damage claims in this trade.
Contact Us
Our team has moved Chicago households and businesses through winter since 2001, with our own crews and our own trucks on both ends of every job. Tell us your date and the heat situation at both addresses, and we will build the schedule around them rather than around a summer template.
A written estimate costs nothing and takes a short conversation or a video walkthrough. Residential, commercial, long-distance, or a single piano, the same crew handles the load and the unload, which is the part that matters most when the weather is working against the clock.
Phone: (773) 761-8330
Email: wolleymovers@gmail.com
Address: 1040 N Cicero Ave, Chicago, IL 60651
Hours:
- Monday to Friday 8 am to 6 pm
- Saturday 8 am to 5 pm
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