For a Hand With Packing

staring down a move between two three-bedroom apartments in Williamsburg, and daunted by the thought of dealing with her children’s rooms, Anna Barabas started looking for a moving company that also offered packing services. Barabas, who owns a maternitywear line, found Cool Hand on Instagram in 2020 and chose it both for its profile (a Blackowned mom-and-pop outfit) and litany of additional services. Rather than offering only full packs and regular moves, the company is willing to pack exactly what a customer wants (from $10 per reusable bin) and uses detailed questionnaires and virtual walk-throughs to size up jobs (and to inventory easy-to-forget items like air-conditioning units). “I asked if they’d pack the kids’ rooms and move the rest, and they said ‘yes,’” she says. “I left them entirely as is—no prep. Then they came in the day before our move, and in four hours everything was organized and labeled. It was amazing.” Besides packing services,

Cool Hand facilitates bin rentals through a partnership with BoxUp and can supply customers with wardrobe boxes and dish and glass dividers to make the whole process smoother. (Its movers will return to your new place to pick up the bins whenever you manage to get everything unpacked.) Barabas has hired Cool Hand twice since (for moving her belongings in and out of storage during a home renovation) and says she “recommends them to anyone I know who is moving.”