Moving Spotlight: From Storage to Starting Over. July 9th, 2026 | Haul of Fame Movers LLC

Sometimes a move isn’t about upgrading. It’s about surviving a rent increase, spending months searching for something affordable, and finally — finally — finding a place to call home again.

The Backstory

Our clients today had been living in Easthampton when their rent increased beyond what was sustainable. That’s a story playing out across Western Massachusetts right now — rents climbing faster than wages, families scrambling to find something within their budget, and the gap between what’s available and what’s affordable getting wider every month.

They packed everything they owned into a storage unit in Northampton and started looking. Weeks turned into months. Every listing was too expensive, too far, or already taken. The stress of being between homes while your belongings sit in a storage unit — unseen, untouched, waiting — is a weight that’s hard to explain unless you’ve carried it.

Then Devonshire Place in Holyoke came through.

About Devonshire Place

Devonshire Place Apartments sits at 50 Holy Family Road in Holyoke — a 180-unit, five-story community that’s widely considered one of the finest apartment complexes in Western Massachusetts. Built in 1988 on beautifully landscaped grounds, the property offers a country club atmosphere with amenities that most apartment communities in the Pioneer Valley can’t match.

Every unit comes with an in-unit washer and dryer, central air conditioning and heat included in the rent, private balconies with panoramic views, and spacious walk-in closets. The complex features a 24-hour fitness center, an outdoor pool, a community room, covered parking garage, and 24-hour maintenance and security patrol. The management office runs regular resident events including a Friday morning coffee and pastry gathering in the lobby.

The location is remarkable for commuters. Devonshire Place is less than a mile from I-91 and minutes from the Mass Pike, making it one of the most highway-accessible apartments in the region. Holyoke Mall, Holyoke Crossing Shopping Center, and Holyoke Landing are all within walking distance. Baystate Medical Center is minutes away, which is why the building draws a healthy mix of medical residents, young professionals, retirees, and families.

For our clients, it represented something much simpler than amenities and highway access. It represented stability. A place to unpack the storage unit and start living again.

The Move

We pulled everything out of storage in Northampton and headed south to Holyoke. The job was a two-mover crew with a full truck — and this load was heavy. Most of the weight came from book totes. If you’ve ever lifted a box packed with books, you know that a medium tote full of hardcovers weighs more than most dressers. Our clients were readers, and their collection was substantial.

We loaded the book totes onto four-wheel dollies — stacking them in groups of four and five — which let us roll entire columns of totes from the truck to the elevator in a single trip. This is one of the small decisions that separates a professional move from a slow one. Carrying book boxes by hand is brutal and time-consuming. Rolling them on a four-wheel dolly is efficient and saves your back for the furniture.

The Lobby Note

Devonshire Place is a five-story building with 180 units and a shared elevator. When you’re moving into a building this size, you’re sharing space with dozens of residents who are going about their day — heading to the gym, checking their mail, coming home from work. A moving crew occupying the elevator and staging furniture in the lobby affects everyone in the building.

Before we started unloading, we left a handwritten note in the lobby at the entrance. The note introduced who we were, apologized for any inconvenience, and estimated how long we expected to be using the elevator and lobby area. It’s a small gesture that takes two minutes and makes a significant difference. Residents who see the note understand what’s happening and know it’s temporary. Residents who don’t see a note and encounter furniture blocking the hallway get frustrated — and that frustration reflects on the building management, on the new tenant, and on the movers.

We do this at every apartment building and every senior living community. It’s part of how we operate. The building belongs to the residents. We’re guests in their space, and we act accordingly.

The Elevator Strategy

We were able to hold one of the elevators for the duration of the unload. With the book totes staged on dollies in the lobby, we loaded the elevator to capacity on each trip — maximizing what went up per ride and minimizing the total number of trips. The staged totes in the lobby were organized by room so each elevator load went directly to the right place in the apartment without shuffling or reorganizing on the other end.

Staging in the lobby before going upstairs is always more efficient than carrying items one at a time from the truck to the apartment. It creates a buffer that lets the truck unload quickly while the elevator operates at its own pace. The truck empties faster, the elevator runs fewer total trips, and the hallway stays clear between loads.

What This Move Represents

This wasn’t a luxury move. There was no downsizing consultation or AI space planning. There were no BCBAs coordinating transitions or visual schedules on the walls. This was a family that lost their housing to a rent increase, spent months in limbo with their life in storage, and finally found a place they could afford.

Our job was simple: get their belongings out of storage and into their new home as quickly, carefully, and affordably as possible. Make the apartment feel like home. Leave it better than we found it.

That’s the job. Every time.