Preparing a Portland basement for movers

Why the basement wrecks estimates

The garage guide makes the case that garages are the most-forgotten room in an inventory. In older Portland housing, the basement is close behind, and it is harder. A garage opens straight onto the driveway. A basement opens onto a staircase.

What is down there is usually a mix: a guest bed or an old sofa, a workbench, shelving units full of storage totes, the holiday decorations, sports gear, the second refrigerator or a chest freezer, paint cans, boxes from the last move that never came up. Each of those has to travel up a stair that was built for a person carrying a laundry basket, not two people carrying a queen box spring.

When the basement is missing from the inventory, the crew finds it on the day and the estimate is off by however long that takes. The inventory guide explains how to count it. This guide is about making what you counted easier to move.

The stairs and the headroom

Basement stairs in older houses tend to be steep, narrow, and turned, with a landing or a door at the top that cuts the usable width further. Headroom is the other limit. Many have a beam or a duct crossing low over the stairs, and it is exactly where a tall piece tips as it is carried up.

Measure three things: the clear width of the stairs at the narrowest point, the vertical clearance at the lowest point along the route, and the width of the door at the top with the door open. Photograph the stairs from the bottom looking up and from the top looking down. Send those to the mover with the inventory, along with the dimensions of the largest pieces down there. The access audit covers how to measure furniture against the tightest route.

Some basements have a second way out: an exterior stair to a hatch or a side door at grade. If yours does, say so, because it can be a better route for the big pieces than the interior stairs. Check that it is clear, that the door or hatch opens fully, and that the path from it to where the truck will stand is passable. A hatch that has been sealed under a planter for ten years is not a route until it is opened and tested.

Anything that came down the stairs in pieces will need to go up in pieces. A bed frame, a shelving unit, or a workbench that was assembled in place may have to be disassembled before it can leave, and the disassembly guide covers who does which parts.

Moisture and what it does to boxes

Portland basements are damp for a good part of the year. Even a dry one, by local standards, holds enough humidity through the wet months to soften cardboard sitting on the floor. A box that has been on concrete since the last move may look fine from the top and fall apart when it is lifted.

So the rule is: nothing goes onto the truck in a box that has lived in the basement. Open each one, check the contents for damp, mildew, or pests, and repack what is worth keeping into a fresh box upstairs. Plastic totes are more forgiving, but check their contents too, because a cracked lid lets in a season's worth of moisture.

Anything soft that has been down there, like mattresses, upholstered furniture, rugs, or clothing, needs an honest look. If it smells of mildew, it will smell of mildew in the new house too, and it is worth deciding now whether it moves at all. The declutter checklist is built for that decision, and Metro's Find a Recycler tool covers where the things that do not move can go.

Movers wrap and protect what they load, but they cannot dry it out. The moisture check is the owner's job, and it needs to happen days before the crew arrives, not the morning of.

Sort, bring up, and stage

The most useful thing you can do before the crew arrives is bring the small and medium items up yourself. Every tote, every box, every bag of sports gear you carry up the stairs in the days before the move is a trip the crew does not make, and crew trips on a narrow stair are the slow part of the day.

Stage what you bring up near the exit the crew will use, stacked, labeled, and out of the walking path. Label by destination room, not by where it came from, because "basement" is not useful at the new house. The labeling guide covers the system.

Leave the furniture and the heavy items to the crew. A chest freezer, a workbench, a sofa, a treadmill: those are what the crew is for, and they are also where an untrained carry on a basement stair causes injuries. Make sure the route to each piece is clear, the floor around it is dry, and the stairs are lit. An unfinished basement with a single bulb at the top of the stairs is a hazard for a crew carrying something they cannot see past.

Empty the freezer and the second refrigerator well ahead, and follow the appliance prep guide for defrosting and drying them. A freezer that is still cold and wet on move day leaves a trail up the stairs and through the house.

What should not ride the truck

Basements collect exactly the items movers cannot take: paint, solvents, gasoline for the mower, propane cylinders, pool and cleaning chemicals, old fertilizer, pesticides, and the assorted cans of things nobody remembers buying. The what movers won't move guide lists the categories. None of it goes on a moving truck.

Pull all of it out during the sort and set it aside in one place. What you want to keep travels in your own vehicle, sealed and upright. What you do not want goes to hazardous waste disposal, not the trash. Metro's household hazardous waste program takes it, and it is worth planning that trip a week or two out rather than the day before.

Water heaters, furnaces, sump pumps, and anything plumbed or wired in stays with the house unless the sale says otherwise. If something down there is genuinely yours and genuinely coming, like a dehumidifier or a portable air conditioner, drain it fully first.

A 7-item basement prep checklist

1. Measure the stair width, the lowest headroom on the route, and the door at the top, and photograph the stairs both ways.
2. Check whether an exterior stair, hatch, or grade-level door is a usable second route, and test it.
3. Open every box and tote, check for damp and pests, and repack keepers into fresh boxes upstairs.
4. Decide what soft or mildewed items are not moving, and arrange disposal or recycling.
5. Bring up the small and medium items yourself and stage them by destination room near the exit.
6. Pull out fuel, paint, propane, and chemicals for your own vehicle or hazardous waste disposal.
7. Clear the route to each heavy piece, light the stairs, defrost the freezer, and add the basement to the inventory by name.