Brooklyn Movers Restore Reusable Bin Rentals Six Months After Red Hook Fire

Inside the Cool Hand Movers warehouse after January 21 fire.

Cool Hand Movers has resumed reusable moving bin rentals in Brooklyn six months after a January warehouse fire, and is expanding to commercial move rentals.

BROOKLYN, NY, UNITED STATES, August 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Cool Hand Movers, a Brooklyn moving company operating since 2010, has resumed reusable moving bin rentals six months after the January 21 four-alarm fire on the Red Hook waterfront destroyed its supply warehouse. The company relaunched moving bin rentals in Brooklyn on August 4 and is expanding the service to commercial customers, including office and storefront relocations across New York City.

The fire destroyed most of the company's reusable moving bins, along with dish dividers, glass dividers, and a reusable wardrobe box inventory the company had replaced weeks earlier at a cost of more than $10,000. The eco-friendly moving supplies had come to Cool Hand Movers through its 2022 acquisition of BoxUp, another Brooklyn small business, and represented a substantial share of that investment.

Moving, packing, and storage operations continued without interruption. Bin rentals did not, and the service remained offline for six months.

"We had just reinvested in that inventory, so losing it was particularly hard to accept. Rebuilding took six months because there was no shortcut. We had to find the money and set up a cleaning location and protocol from scratch. It all had to come together in the rare gaps in peak moving season.”
— Ashley Graber, co-owner, Cool Hand Movers

Disaster recovery loans were not made available to businesses affected by this Red Hook fire like they had been for businesses affected by a different Red Hook warehouse fire that took place on September 17, 2025. Support from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the Red Hook Business Alliance, and Cross River Bank helped chip away at replacement costs, with the balance funded out of operating revenue while bin rentals were offline.

The pressure on small businesses citywide has left many of them turning to crowdfunding to survive a setback. New York City recorded roughly 3,540 business openings against 8,400 closures in a single quarter of 2025, the weakest net formation in five years, and retail vacancy has climbed above pre-pandemic levels.

"A lot of small businesses in this city have had to turn to GoFundMe to get through similar disasters and rising costs of doing business. We made the decision to try gutting it out this time. We know that many New Yorkers are cash-strapped and that their donations could make a life-saving impact applied elsewhere. But six months without that revenue, plus the cost of restocking, isn't something we can recover from in a season."
— Matt Graber, co-owner, Cool Hand Movers

Reusable moving bins for commercial and office relocations

The relaunched service now covers office and storefront relocations, a segment where cardboard carries a regulatory cost as well as a financial one. Under New York City's Commercial Waste Zones program, businesses are required to recycle corrugated cardboard, and boxes must be flattened and bundled or baled for setout. A single office move can generate enough cardboard to make that a meaningful operational burden. Reusable moving bins arrive stacked, get packed, get moved, and get picked up.

Moving bin rental packages and pricing

Residential and commercial moving bin rentals range from 15 to 100 bins, starting at $109, with one-, two-, and three-week rental terms. All packages include local, ground-floor delivery, plus dollies, zip ties, labels, and markers. Rentals can be reserved at coolhandmovers.com/rent-reusable-moving-bins/.

Ashley Graber
Cool Hand Movers
+1 212-634-1685
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