People compare these two as though they were different services. They are not. They are the same service with a line drawn through your house in a different place.
The useful question is not "which one is better." It is "which rooms do I want to be responsible for, and which do I want handed over." Answer that and the scope writes itself.
What each scope actually means
Full-service packing means the crew packs every room. Kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, living areas, the garage, the closet nobody has opened since the last move. You end up with nothing left to do except decide what goes in your own vehicle.
Partial packing means the crew packs the rooms or the item classes you name, and you handle the rest. The line can go anywhere: one room, all the fragile, everything except clothing and books.
Full-service packing usually happens over the days before the move rather than on the morning of it — a house packed to the walls is a load day, not a pack day. Partial packing is often the day before, or the same morning, depending on how much of it there is. Both end at the same place: a house where every carton is closed, labelled and ready to carry.
What is identical either way
This is the part worth reading, because it is where the assumptions live.
- The same crew. The people who pack are the people who move. There is no separate packing company.
- The same materials. Dish-packs with cell dividers, unprinted paper, bubble wrap, wardrobe cartons, mirror boxes, tape.
- The same handling standard. A crew-packed glass in a partial pack is packed exactly the way it would be in a full pack.
- The same day at the other end. Placement, reassembly and debris removal do not change with pack scope.
So the scope decision is not a quality decision. Nothing gets a lesser standard because you chose partial.
The one thing that genuinely differs
Who packed the carton.
Every carton on the truck has a history. A crew-packed carton was filled by someone trained, with the right box for the contents, and it was recorded that way. A self-packed carton was filled by you, and neither the crew nor anyone reviewing a claim later can see inside it.
That distinction usually shows up in the coverage terms for your move: what is covered, and to what extent, can differ between an item the crew packed and an item that arrived sealed. This is not a trap and it is not unusual — it is standard across the industry, because nobody can certify packing they did not do.
Ask for that wording in writing before you choose your scope, and read the paragraph about self-packed cartons specifically. It is short, it is the one people skip, and it is the one that matters if a plate does not survive.
When full-service is the right call
Full-service earns its place when at least one of these is true:
- The date is close and your days are not free. Packing a home is not an evening's work. If the move is in a week and you have a job, the pack will eat the week.
- The fragile inventory is significant. A china service, a crystal set, framed artwork, a display cabinet — these are the items where the gap between careful and expert is widest.
- The move is long-distance. Cargo on a long route is handled more, loaded deeper and travels longer. Packing quality compounds over distance.
- Lifting or standing is a problem. Recent surgery, a mobility limitation, late pregnancy. Packing is physical work for several days.
- It is a downsize with decisions in it. Senior moves often go better when the household is deciding what stays rather than also wrapping it.
When partial is the better call
Partial is the right answer more often than people assume, because most homes are mostly ordinary.
- The bulk of your contents are easy. Clothing, linens, books, toys, pantry staples. There is no expertise in a box of jeans.
- One or two rooms carry all the risk. A kitchen, a study full of equipment, a basement of inherited furniture. Hand over the hard room, keep the easy ones.
- You want to sort as you pack. Plenty of people use packing as the moment to decide what does not come. A crew cannot make those calls for you, and watching them try is slower than doing it yourself.
- Your timeline has room in it. Two spare weekends will clear most of a house.
The four partial scopes that actually work
Vague partial scopes cause arguments on the day. Name it precisely. These four are clean:
- Kitchen only. Everything behind every kitchen door — dishes, glassware, small appliances, pantry, drawers. The single highest-value partial scope in most homes.
- Fragile only. Kitchen plus artwork, mirrors, lamps, ceramics and small electronics, wherever they are in the house.
- One named room. The home office, the basement, the display room. Used when a house is otherwise straightforward but has one room nobody wants to touch.
- Specialty only. The antiques, the collection, the pieces that need crating — packed and prepared by the crew while you handle every ordinary carton.
Anything vaguer than these — "you do the hard stuff" — will be interpreted differently by you and by the crew lead, and the difference will surface at 9 a.m. on pack day.
Write the scope down before anyone starts
Whatever line you draw, get it on paper before the day:
- Which rooms the crew packs, named room by room.
- Which item classes travel with you regardless of room.
- Who supplies materials for the rooms you are packing, and when they arrive.
- When the pack happens relative to the load.
- How self-packed cartons are treated under the coverage terms.
- What happens if you do not finish your half. This one is worth asking out loud, because it happens, and the answer is much better when it was agreed in advance.
Our packing services page covers what the crew brings for each scope; the specifics for your home belong in your written scope, not in a general page.
The short version
Same crew, same materials, same standard — the only real variable is which cartons carry your handwriting. Hand over the rooms where a mistake is expensive and keep the ones where it is not. Then get the line written down, including how self-packed cartons are covered, before anybody tapes a box.
Tell us which rooms you would rather not touch and we will scope the pack around exactly those, in writing, before the date is held.