Moving doesn’t have to be as expensive as people may think. However, counterintuitively it is almost always more expensive to undertake to move yourself than it is to hire a moving company to move you. Why? Moving companies are experienced, this means that they are faster than you can be, they know the tricks to make things easier, and they know the best way to lift, carry and stack.
If you are only moving a few streets away, you may fall into the trap of thinking you can get your entire household into a few loads of a van or hire a trailer. People do the math and allow for maybe $50 or so. However, you haven’t taken into consideration the full cost of petrol, or the cost of feeding everyone (because you will probably want to get friends or family in to help), or the fact that this will probably take you all weekend.
You can spend days, even weeks, ahead of the big move backing up your entire household. You follow the blogs that tell you all the tips and tricks like the ones you find here, and you have everything beautifully labelled. But then when the big day comes you are working from dawn until dusk moving load after load.
You have people at one end loading the trailer, you have people at the other end unloading, and yet it still takes you all day. Everyone stops for lunch, which you feel obliged to buy. Everyone needs dinner, which you feel obliged to buy. You have barely begun to unpack but your friends decide you need an impromptu housewarming party – which you will need to buy beer for.
So, the next day comes around, you have two houses that you need to clean and a whole lot of unpacking. And a maxed-out credit card.
Although moving yourself doesn’t always go quite that way, it is a very rare scenario where you don’t have a lot of stress, and more breakages that you could have dreamed of. People start to get tired, and clumsy, and the job really does take significantly longer than anyone expected – even if they have moved before.
Better Moving
Whether you are moving a single room or an entire mansion, talk to the professionals. If you are moving a short distance you will likely need to pay to get a quote, however you should be able to get a free estimate over the phone which can give you a ballpark idea of how much you are looking at.
From there talk to friends, hop on Facebook groups, read reviews on Google and Yelp https://www.yelp.com/, and research the companies. You want to ensure that the company you are looking at hiring has a reputation for taking care of the goods they move. That everything arrives in the new location and in the same condition it left. Also check how long they took to move different people.
You are not necessarily looking for the cheapest as many moving companies that specialize in short distance / across town moves tend to charge as an hourly rate per person. However, you are looking for an affordable mover, so get an estimate of how long they think it will take them to move you. Explain how much furniture you have, if any of it is exceptionally large or heavy, and let them know what the access is like at both pick up and delivery ends of the move.
All of this can make a difference in how long it will take them to move you, and what size truck they will need. If you have something like a large solid marble dinning table then you will likely need to have at least four rather strong moving people involved in order to move it. However, if your furniture is all inflatable (like this) and fits into neat boxes then you may find that you only need two movers and a total of four hours for the entire move.
This is how it becomes affordable to hire external movers to move your room, apartment or house rather than leaving it to your friends and family. Not only will the job be done significantly faster, there will be fewer breakages and absolutely no judgement about what you own.