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Old mills turned into flats. Either a proper goods lift, or none at all.
Uster is the largest town in the Zurich Oberland, on the shore of the Greifensee east of the city. It grew on textile manufacturing, and a good deal of that industrial building stock is now housing, which is the interesting part for a removal.
Converted industrial buildings are unlike ordinary housing in both directions at once. Where a mill has been properly converted, there is frequently a goods lift built for machinery, wide doorways and a loading area, and the delivery is easier than almost anywhere.
Where the conversion was lighter, you get high ceilings, large rooms, generous windows and a narrow original stair with no lift at all, because the building never had one and nobody added it. That is a considerably harder job than a modern block.
The difference does not show in the address. Say what kind of building you are moving into, and if it is a conversion, say whether there is a lift and what size. It changes the crew and the day.
Uster also appears as Greifensee and Zurich Oberland. Whichever version you searched for, this is the same city and the same page. Give the mover the address exactly as it appears on your Swiss lease.
The good conversions are a pleasure to work in. A building that once moved machinery has a lift that will take furniture, doors wide enough for it, and somewhere a lorry can stand because deliveries were part of the original design.
The lighter conversions are the opposite. The rooms are large and the ceilings high, which is exactly why people want them, but the access is whatever the mill had, which is often a single narrow stair with tight turns and no lift.
Ask two questions before anybody quotes: is there a lift, and what are its internal dimensions. If the answer is no lift and the flat is on the third floor with a grand piano, that is a conversation to have early rather than late.
Uster stands on the Greifensee, a smaller lake east of Zurich, with the Oberland hills rising behind it. The town itself is on comparatively level ground and the run in from Zurich is ordinary.
Addresses on the rising ground behind, towards the Oberland villages, behave like any Swiss hillside: narrower lanes, tighter turns and sometimes a shuttle for the last stretch. Wetzikon and the smaller Oberland communes are served on the same runs.
Winter here is lowland winter. It is not an alpine district and the roads are not weather dependent in the way a mountain valley is.
Somewhere else in the region? Each of these has its own detail.
Zurich · Rapperswil-Jona · Winterthur · Kloten · Zug · Frauenfeld · all Swiss towns
These three are the ones that actually get asked about on a Uster move. Of everything on offer, movers get asked about these three.
Furniture up a mill stair with no lift.
What the date and the building do to the number.
Sharing a lorry on the Zurich run.
Uster is its own commune with its own administration, and registration on arrival happens here rather than in the city, even though a large share of residents work in Zurich and the town functions as part of its commuter belt.
That gives the same pattern as Kriens beside Lucerne or Carouge beside Geneva: everything about daily life points at the city, and none of the paperwork does.
The Swiss lease dates that make removal vehicles scarce a few days a year apply here as they do in the city, so it is worth asking a mover which dates to avoid before fixing one.
A good deal of the housing is converted industrial stock from the textile industry the town grew on. A well converted mill often has a goods lift built for machinery, wide doorways and a loading area. A lighter conversion has high ceilings, large rooms and the original narrow stair with no lift at all.
Whether there is a lift, and what its internal dimensions are. In a conversion those two answers change the crew and the length of the day more than anything else. If the answer is no lift and the flat is on the third floor, that is a conversation to have early.
No. It is its own commune with its own administration, and registration on arrival happens here rather than in the city, even though a large share of residents commute into Zurich and the town functions as part of its belt.
Yes. Swiss tenancies commonly run to fixed termination dates, and the resulting rush makes removal vehicles scarce on a few days a year across the whole canton, not just in the city. Ask a mover which dates to avoid before fixing one.
They behave like any Swiss hillside, with narrower lanes, tighter turns and sometimes a shuttle for the last stretch. Wetzikon and the smaller Oberland communes are served on the same runs, and the town itself is on comparatively level ground.
No more than anywhere in lowland Switzerland. The Zurich Oberland is hill country rather than alpine, and the roads are not weather dependent in the way a mountain valley is. A winter delivery here needs no special allowance.
East of Zurich on ordinary road, with no pass and no gradient of consequence. It is a straightforward run once a vehicle is in the canton, and shared loads to the Zurich area fill more readily than almost anywhere in the country.
Collection address, the Uster delivery address, a room by room list and the window you can work with. One vetted moving company from our network checks the route and the access, then comes back to you.
Send your move detailsOperated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company number 07425576, ICO registration ZB022743, registered at Norman House, Saint Saviours Estate, Abbey Street, London SE1 3DH. Running since 2010. We work with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network.
Written by Darren Benjamin, founder of International Removals Companies, who has run the business since 2010. Last checked 5 August 2026.