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Who is Short Moves?

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:44:05 GMT

Short Moves was started by George Burns, a St. Pete native, in 1990. Back then there was only the yellow pages and word of mouth for people to find us. Our work had to speak volumes, and we make sure it still does to this day.

Short Moves is family owned and operated by the Burns family in St. Petersburg, Florida, now spanning three generations.

George Burns, a St. Pete native, and Northeast High graduate, is the man who started the mission of Short Moves. George worked as a mover in the 1980's and was promoted to managing one of the biggest local movers in the Tampa Bay area, until he decided to get his own truck and do things his way instead.

George and Sherry Burns started Short Moves in their garage in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1990. Back then we placed in ad in the yellow pages along the whole gulf coast and central Florida. For example, local moves can stretch from Tampa to Naples, and St. Pete to Spring Hill, Sarasota to Lakeland. You can find us driving around in 8+ local counties on a daily basis, so we had to be in a few phone books to get our phone number out there.

George's wife Sherry Burns started Consignment House in 2011 to offer selling old items for our moving customers, to get money back from moving with us.

George and Sherry's son Steve Burns helped Short Moves get their first computer in 2001, and then started working full-time for the family business in 2010.

Within 5 years (1995) we grew to 5 trucks and 10 employees and started creating a customer base of repeat and referral customers. It didn't take long for people to see what we at Short Moves were doing. To this day we love hearing that customers found us by a referral from their friends, neighbors, and realtors, or that they are calling us to move them again. It means a lot to us, and tells us we are doing our jobs right.

Now in 2026 we purchased our 25th truck, and celebrated 36 years in business, and 15 years of having our consignment store in business: Consignment House Inc.

What sets Short Moves apart from other movers is the follow through with guarantees, showing up equipped for the job, and taking pride in our work; it’s the people that make up our company. Short Moves will always show up with a skilled crew and all the necessary tools.

We know moving is stressful, if we can help take the stress out of it then we are doing our jobs right.

We never over-book our schedule, and we never use temporary labor or subcontractors to do our work. As you shop for movers, do yourself a favor and ask them how each company will handle a damage claim. State Florida regulations control how movers are to handle a damage that can happen during handling your items. Florida Moving regulations found in the Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer services let companies pay out as low as 60 cents per pound. If a company only pays 60 cents per pound that is because they have a lot of damage, which means they have an inexperienced crew.

Alot of people call to find a mover with short notice, which entices those types of companies to keep capitalizing with a high volume of work but a low paid, inexperienced crew.

With Short Moves we will guarantee that if we damage an item, we pay for a professional repair to the customers satisfaction. If we cannot do that then we pay up to what the item is worth at the current market value. Short Moves has a low percentage of damage because of our level of care and experience. When an accident happens, Short Moves will back up their work and take care of it for or customer.

Whether you use Short Moves or not, I hope that will help you decipher the good companies from the bad when it comes to a service like moving.

There's many things to consider when hiring a mover, we are glad to help by explaining what we do and what we come with for any move situation. It takes about 10-30 minutes to receive an estimate.

Short Moves gives back to the community with free boxes, available on a weekly basis, while they last.

Check us out in person at 3201 28th Street North, in St. Petersburg, or look for our trucks around Polk County, Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus Counties on a regular basis! Consider us for any move within Florida

Short Moves Inc

727-527-1986

813-978-1986

941-749-1986

863-616-1789

352-686-1789

(Remember those yellow page books I was talking about? - that's why we have all these phone numbers. Families have hung on to these phone numbers for years and you can still call each one to get ahold of us)

The Most Stressful Part of Moving: The Prep

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:11:55 GMT

One of the most stressful parts of moving is packing and preparing. What to pack first and last, and how to live out of boxes.

Picking up all your stuff and packing it into boxes is tough. There are some things that you can live without, maybe completely. Rather than moving it all and cluttering your new place with unnecessary things, this is the best time to get rid of anything you don't use anymore. Make separate bags or boxes just for questionable items or a donation pile.

It is a good idea to have markers ready to label your boxes, and it may help you stay organized to create a list on a notepad of what you pack as you go.

If you start packing about a month or two before your move this will cut your stress level down. Start with 1 or 2 boxes per day and then you can progress further as you go. This makes it easier to focus on what you need vs what you can get rid of. The worst thing you can do is to overwhelm yourself with pulling out little stuff everywhere.

The first things you should start packing are the least essential to your daily life, things you will not need right away.

Here are some things to start packing first:

Decor / art / pictures - Start with packing your decor or art, fragile things take the most time to pack, so get that out of the way first.
Collections, seasonal items, small decor on shelfs
Paper files, books, and photo albums are also good to start with. Go through your closets and pantry, consolidate your small stuff, and toss what you don't need.

You should wait to pack up your tools, kitchen items, medications, toiletries, first aid supplies, and things that may come in handy over the course of your move. Once you get 1-2 weeks until your move you should start to pack up your dishes and kitchen items. It's a good idea to leave a few of these boxes open or half packed in case you need to pull out something to cook with. Keep out the bare minimum that you feel you can get by with and pack the rest. Remember to label the boxes and check your list because chances are you will be looking for that one spatula that you just need to cook with.

In the days before your move you may want to switch to paper plates, and take-out dining. There is so much you have to do, that doing dishes is not very enjoyable when you are in the middle of a move.

Once you have moved everything over to your new place you will have to re-organize everything you own. The more prepared you were when you labeled your boxes or made your list, the easier it will be to find everything that you need.

Unpack those essential boxes first, and keep in mind that since everything is in a new place it is easier to misplace things and freak out that something is missing. If you rush to unpack everything, it will be easier to misplace things and forget where we put something. You are not losing your mind, this is all very normal. After a few weeks you should be almost completely unpacked and living your best life in your new place. Go ahead and have that housewarming party!

If you do not want to lift a finger, ask your mover to pack your boxes. At Short Moves our movers can pack boxes professionally and efficiently. If a mover will pack your boxes, this can double the cost of your move. Keep that in mind if you are struggling with packing your own boxes, you are saving about half of what your move could cost!

Ask us about the free boxes!

-Your friends at Short Moves

727-527-1986

813-978-1986

941-749-1986

352-686-1789

863-616-1986

ShortMovesInc@gmail.com

The best places to find free boxes? Right here.

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 01:39:48 GMT

Packing material can become a big part of your moving expense. Finding quality free boxes is a way to save a lot of money preparing for your move.

It may seem convenient to order boxes online or grab some at your local hardware store, but a lot of the boxes you can buy that are brand new can be weak and easily tear at the seams. Finding quality free boxes is key. Short Moves has given away free boxes from our consignment store location for over 10 years, in 2023 we gave away over 33,000 boxes for free. Short Moves partners with a medical supply distributor to pick up their boxes that were used for shipping their brand new products. The boxes are extra strong, come in small, medium, and large sizes, and they have only held brand new things. They are available every week and only here while supplies last at our consignment store location in St. Petersburg. We give these boxes away to help people that are moving whether they use us or not. The boxes are not available for commercial or competitor use. This is our way of giving back and helping people save cost during moving, which is an expensive process. Short Moves services a large area for local moving and we bring the free boxes to our customers that have us hired for packing too. Our customers love our free boxes! Buying new boxes can cost you hundreds of dollars, ours are stronger than ones you can buy from supply stores. Don't buy brand new boxes just to throw them away. Reuse, reduce, and recycle by using used boxes. Our boxes are available while supplies last at our other family company Consignment House, located at 3201 28th Street N, St. Petersburg, FL 33713

If our store is not local for you to pick up boxes from, then we suggest to check your local facebook marketplace or craigslist type marketplace and search for used moving boxes or packing material. Some people will post cheap or free ads in your local areas to get rid of their boxes.

Short Moves makes selling your stuff easy!

info@shortmovesinc.com (Steve Short Moves Inc) — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 01:56:29 GMT

Moving & Consignment, a match made in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The same family that started our moving company, started our store. We listened to our customers that would be getting rid of items, downsizing, and not wanting to deal with storage or fees associated with resale consignment type shops. We started our store with the goal in mind for our customers to make some of their moving cost back from us selling their unwanted items. The store picked up in popularity to where we had to move to a bigger location to accommodate the business.