Moving Can Be Stressful – CMFTO Can Help
We were recently contacted by Crain’s Chicago Business to offer our perspective and expertise on what it takes to make moving less stressful and how we can help. Here we share the first section of the article pertaining to CMFTO. To read the full article, please click here.
On moving day last year, Eleanor Hetz woke up, got into her car and drove to her new home in Kenilworth. By the time she got there, the movers, who had packed and transferred her belongings in the days before, had unpacked, set up the utilities and hung her artwork. They even found her passport, which she had misplaced.
“I was so happy,” says Hetz, who paid $90 an hour to CMF Transitional Organization, one of a growing number of businesses that promise to make moving seamless. While packing and unpacking companies have been available for decades, new services include utility hookups, grocery shopping, and interior design and application (figuring out exactly where your art should go and hanging it).
“The services that moving companies offer now are diversifying pretty significantly,” says Michael Keaton, spokesman for the American Moving & Storage Association in Alexandria, Va. “They’re helping people from start to finish.”
Hetz, 73, a retired anesthesiologist, hired CMF to wade through 50 years’ worth of stuff and determine what she should keep, toss and donate. Her moving tab at the end of the months-long process? About $15,000.
CMF, founded in 1999, is based in Los Angeles and in Chicago, and has nine associates. Last year, it completed 240 moves, the majority in Illinois. CMF contracts with other companies to do the actual moving, founder Claudia McLaughlin says. She is an interior designer, and her clients tend to be mostly professionals.
McLaughlin’s team packs a home in a day and moves the belongings into the new house the following day, donating or selling unwanted furniture and accessories to private dealers. At a house in Kenilworth recently, she sold $40,000 worth of items, with all the proceeds going to the client. It’s a huge plus for those who don’t want people walking through their home during a sale, she says.
For a client with five boys who bought a five-bedroom home in Lincoln Park, McLaughlin oversaw a 90-day renovation before the family moved in. Using the client’s existing furniture, she then made the home, she then made the home move-in ready.
We know how difficult moving can be, and we work diligently to make things easier for each of our clients undergoing transition. We are grateful to Crain’s for highlighting this important issue and sharing our services and expertise as a possible solution.
All my best,
Claudia