Moving From Boston to Seattle on the Longest Interstate
Interstate 90 begins at Logan Airport in East Boston and ends on the Seattle waterfront beside the baseball and football stadiums. No other pair of cities sits at the two ends of one highway this long. In Massachusetts it is the Massachusetts Turnpike, and from there it runs through 13 states, along the shore of Lake Erie, across the Great Lakes states, over the open country of Minnesota and South Dakota, and into the mountains.
Freight does not always follow the road on a map. LTL shipments move between terminals and can change trailers along the way, so your load may leave the interstate for part of the trip. The distance stays near 3,050 miles either way, and the shipment crosses three time zone lines before it arrives three hours behind the clock it left.
Three Mountain Crossings Before the Pacific
The western half of the trip carries most of the weather risk. I-90 reaches the Continental Divide at Homestake Pass near Butte, Montana, at more than 6,300 feet. It climbs again at Lookout Pass on the Idaho and Montana line, then crosses the Cascades at Snoqualmie Pass about an hour from Seattle. From late fall into spring, storms on any of the three can stop trucks for a few hours or a day.
Plan around that rather than against it: if your move-in date slips, short-term storage is available at the destination terminal.
How Long the Whole Move Takes
Once your shipment is picked up, transit runs 10 to 18 business days to your Seattle address. Pickup itself lands 2 to 10 business days after you book. Counted from the day you book, that is roughly 12 to 28 business days, or about three to six weeks. If your Boston lease ends on the last day of August, book in July, not August. Same-week pickup is often possible, though extra fees may apply.
Who Makes This Move
Research and software jobs connect these two cities more than anything else. Scientists leave Cambridge labs and Boston hospitals for the University of Washington, the Allen Institute in South Lake Union and the life-sciences companies around Lake Union. Software engineers take offers in downtown Seattle, where Amazon has its headquarters, or across the lake in Redmond, home to Microsoft.
The second group is family. New England parents and grandparents follow grown children to Washington State, and many of them are downsizing at the same time. Their shipments are small but carefully chosen: a dining table, a cedar chest, framed prints and the china cabinet that has been in the family for decades.
Boston to Seattle Moving Cost for a Small Load
These are the published ranges for this route. Professional packing is already inside each one:
| What You’re Moving |
Estimated Cost |
| A few furniture pieces + boxes (~500 lbs) |
$1,100 to $1,600 |
| Bedroom set (bed, dresser, nightstand, boxes) |
$1,450 to $2,150 |
| Studio apartment contents (~1,000 lbs) |
$1,750 to $2,600 |
| One-bedroom apartment (~1,500 lbs) |
$2,200 to $3,100 |
| Route |
Small Load (~500 lbs) |
Medium Load (~1,200 lbs) |
| Boston to Seattle |
$1,100 to $1,600 |
$2,000 to $3,050 |
| Boston to Portland, OR |
$1,100 to $1,600 |
$2,000 to $3,050 |
| Boston to San Francisco |
$1,100 to $1,600 |
$2,000 to $3,050 |
| Boston to Los Angeles |
$1,050 to $1,550 |
$1,900 to $2,950 |
Three things move your price inside a range: the packed weight, how bulky the pieces are and how you want to receive them. Will-Call, where you pick up at the destination terminal, costs the least. Curbside Delivery brings the load to the nearest accessible point, and Full Service carries it into your new home. For an exact figure, enter your items at shipsmart.com/estimate or call (866) 333-8018. Financing through Enhancify is available if you want to spread the cost out.
On a 3,050-mile move, heavy and cheap is the wrong combination. A particleboard bookcase or an old mattress can cost more to ship than to replace, while a solid wood dresser or a good sofa usually earns its place on the trailer.
Boston Pickup: Condo Rules, Basement Storage and Suburban Garages
The pickup crew comes inside and collects from the first floor of your home or business. Much of Greater Boston housing puts your things somewhere else, so describe the building when you book. In the two-family and three-family houses that have been converted to condos across Dorchester, Mattapan and Malden, the association may ask for advance notice of a move and set the hours a truck can stand outside. Read your condo documents early. If your things are above the first floor, call (866) 333-8018 to check access at your building before you book.
A lot of what people ship west lives in the basement: skis, bikes, camping gear and the winter boots that come out in January. Older Boston buildings often reach their storage cages by a steep, narrow stair, so bring those items up to the first floor before the crew arrives if you can. Elevator buildings near North Station or in the newer towers along the waterfront set their own move rules, so ask the management office what it requires before you choose a pickup date.
Outside the city the job usually gets simpler. Colonials in Dedham and Victorians in Melrose tend to have a driveway, and split-levels in Natick and Framingham often have a garage where boxes can be staged the night before. Winthrop is the exception: its streets are tight and parking is scarce, so tell us the nearest place a truck can stop.
Seattle Delivery: Floating Homes, Micro-Apartments and Eastside HOAs
Seattle has housing you will not find in Boston. Along Fairview Avenue East in Eastlake and on Portage Bay, people live in floating homes reached by a shared dock, where every piece is carried by hand down a narrow walkway. Call (866) 333-8018 to check access at a floating home before you book.
Capitol Hill and the University District are full of micro-apartments, some under 300 square feet, where a queen bed and a loveseat may be all the furniture that fits. In neighborhoods such as Bryant and Crown Hill, a growing number of people rent detached backyard cottages (the city calls them DADUs), which sit behind the main house down a side path or off an alley. Send the full address, unit letter and the route to the door with your booking.
East of Lake Washington, the master-planned neighborhoods of Issaquah Highlands and Snoqualmie Ridge sit just off I-90, and their homeowner associations often set delivery hours and limit where a truck can park. North and south of the city, wooded lots in Lake Forest Park and hillside homes in Des Moines and Burien can mean a long carry from the street. Seattle’s wet season runs from about October through April, so a covered porch, carport or garage where boxes can wait out of the rain makes delivery day easier.
