When a move is a month away, it can be easy to believe that you can do it yourself. Many people, after all, do successfully rent their own moving vans, pack up everything that they have in boxes, load it up and drive out by themselves. Why couldn’t you do it?
The kind of terrible stress and risk that they put themselves through over these DIY moves, though, is usually not counted.
If you’re debating whether you should try the DIY moving route or find a professional moving service, it’s important to look at it objectively. Moving companies get to be in business helping regular families with moving responsibilities; they don’t provide a luxury service. If you’re not clear which way to head, here’s a quick rundown of what a moving company can do to make things better.
Think About the Planning Part
When you try to reckon how much time moving on your own will take you, you probably only calculate the actual packing and moving. The planning part, though, can be a huge time sink. It can be on your mind for days: how much packing material will you need, how much cushioning for each box, what packing methods you should use, how you protect the sofas and other easily damaged items. It can hamper your productivity at work for a long time before the move. With a mover, you leave each one of these questions to them.
It can be so Hard to Plan Moving those Awkward Items
Do you have a small statue or two, a couple of mirrors, a large music instrument, antique furniture, vases, a grandfather clock, an aquarium or a pool table? Knowing how to move these items carefully and safely can be a huge responsibility. With experienced hands on the job, though, you don’t need to be endlessly creative with your packing ideas, or worry about saving your back and your fingers.
The Big Picture
People consider DIY mainly for the savings possible. When you count the risks, inconveniences and actual costs, though, professional movers often work out to be cheaper. You need to count the risk of driving a large delivery van that you have no experience with, for example (there is actually a cottage industry of legal services catering to U-Haul accidents). When you move yourself, you will also end up spending a lot more time than planned, setting up home. You’ll miss work in the process. It’s important to see the big picture.