Every residential move starts with an important decision: movers or DIY?
Chances are that you’ll also face the same dilemma very early in your house move: should you hire professional movers or move by yourself?
The significance of that single choice cannot be stressed enough. In fact, all your actions after that make-it-or-break-it decision will be determined by the path you’ve decided to follow.
The great thing about having various options to move house is that you can pick the one that best suits your needs, expectations, and of course – budget.
Naturally, you will want to make the right decision… but sometimes it can be really hard to know for sure what that decision is.
The best course of action is to analyze carefully your house moving situation and then, hopefully, you’ll have the answer right in front of you.
Here are 10 questions to help you decide whether you should hire professional movers or do it yourself.
1. How FAR are you going?
This is the very first question to help you decide whether you should hire movers or move yourself. In fact, the distance between the two homes happens to be the major factor that will determine how you approach the upcoming move.
Short distance. Whether you’re moving just across the street, moving across town, or moving to a new town or city that’s up to 100 miles within the same state, your move is considered to be a short-distance move. And as such, you may as well choose to rent a moving truck (or borrow a pick-up truck from a friend) and ask your good friends to help you pack your stuff and then carry those heavy furniture pieces out of your home.
Long distance. Should you hire movers when moving long distance? Definitely. Driving a big rental truck hundreds or thousands (!) of miles across the country is a very bad idea no matter how you look at it. So, if the destination home is located far away, often in another state, then do the sensible thing and hire the services of a cross-country moving company.
Now that you know how the move distance can affect your decision on whether you should hire movers or do it yourself, let’s take a look at another important factor that will tip the scales one way or the other.
You should also take into consideration the sheer number of things you wish to move between Point A and Point B.
Small load. Moving only the contents of a single room or a single furniture piece is something you should be able to do on your own… provided that you’re doing it only a short distance away. In the majority of cases, moving small loads over great distances is a task that’s better suited for small-load movers.
Entire home. If you wish to move all household items from a large home (of course, after inventorying them and getting rid of the ones you won’t need anymore), then you should do what makes sense – hire a full-service moving company that will take care of everything for you.
Even when you’ve factored in the moving distance and the number of items to move, sometimes the Moving by Yourself vs. Hiring Movers dilemma can be far from solved. Another thing to consider is whether or not you’re moving any specialty items as well.
Judgment errors could prove too costly in the end.
But what are specialty items, you may ask?
ANTIQUE FURNITURE pieces that you’d hate to see damaged in any way during the move;
PIANOS are too expensive and too valuable to be handled non-professionally. Some piano models have over 7,000 finely-tuned moving parts;
HOT TUBS are MASSIVE and weigh around 800 pounds, on average;
POOL TABLES require professional disassembly to survive a move. Most pool tables have 3 top slates and each slate weighs from 150 lbs. to 250 lbs.;
GRANDFATHER CLOCKS have super-delicate mechanisms and those standing clocks also happen to be very valuable for their owners.
Moving any specialty items by yourself can be rather dangerous, both for the items in question and for your own safety. Do yourself a favor and hire specialty movers to handle the risky job for you.
Still, it can be rather tricky to make up your mind whether to move by yourself or use professional movers for your upcoming move. Luckily, sometimes the answer is too obvious: just calculate how much time you’ve got left until the move-out date.
Yes, TIME will be crucial in your final decision:
Little time. If you have one week or less to inventory all your household items, get rid of the ones you won’t ever use again, gather all required packing materials, pack up all your things, and disassemble and protect your furniture, then the chances are that you won’t make it in time. And if that’s the case, then you should hire packers and movers who are known for their efficient work.
Ample time. As a rule of thumb, having 3 weeks or more should be enough time to prepare for and execute a Do-It-Yourself move. Note that, to be ready before Moving day, you may still need helpers (aka good friends) to give you a hand with most of the tasks. And of course, you’re also going to need a detailed MOVING CHECKLIST to make the most of the remaining time.
Without a doubt, the best way to move by yourself is to have loyal friends who will help you pack up your stuff in boxes and move the large and heavy items in your home.
No friends. Don’t forget that a house move was never supposed to be a one-person affair and you’re going to need more than your own pair of hands to complete all the tasks prior to the move-out day. Even if you have enough time to pack your things little by little, Moving day is not the right time to be on your own. If you know that you won’t be able to rely on your friends for assistance, then hiring professional packers and movers is the sensible thing to do.
Yes friends. It’s important to know that your pals will be there for you so that you can try to pull off a self-move. Nevertheless, even when you have the moving labor secured, you’ll need to take into account all of the above factors to be able to guarantee the success of your DIY move.
OK, this is a big one. Experience is not something you can get overnight – rather, it’s something that you gain with years of practice while working in a particular field.
Moving house for the very first time? Oh, boy…
In other words, is this the first time you’re moving out?
Yes. Pulling off a self-move will require good planning and a good dosage of expertise to tackle most moving tasks. As a first-time mover, do you know how to partially disassemble the big furniture pieces you’re taking with you? If you have no idea what a moving checklist is either, then you’d better trust experienced movers to handle most or all aspects of your house move.
No. If you’ve moved house before (successfully), then the move-related experience you’ve gained should give you the right amount of confidence that you can do it again. Oftentimes, you’re safe to solve the Moving Yourself vs. Hiring Movers dilemma just by gauging the experience you have. Zero experience often means I WILL HIRE MOVERS, some experience usually means I’D BETTER HIRE MOVERS, and plenty of experience may mean I COULD HIRE MOVERS.
Moving without hiring the services of a professional moving company does not only mean packing your things and taking them out to the moving vehicle to be loaded safely for transport. A self-move also includes the actual transportation of your belongings to the new address, which basically means you’ll need to RENT a moving truck of the right size and DRIVE it all the way to the new house or apartment.
And that’s fine if you’re moving across town or to a nearby town or city. But driving a large moving vehicle across the country, hundreds or thousands of miles, is something completely different – a risky endeavor that you’re most likely completely unprepared for.
This time, the big question is whether you’ve driven a big moving truck before and therefore, are aware of all the risks associated with it. Driving a moving truck is different than driving a car – similar yet not quite the same thing.
So, if you feel nervous about navigating a large vehicle through lands unknown, then let experienced professionals handle that task. On the other hand, if you feel comfortable being in the driver’s seat of a large moving van and you’re not moving long distance, then a DIY move seems like your kind of thing.
The all-important decision of whether to hire movers or move by yourself will often come down to SAFETY.
Do you know what it takes to guarantee moving day safety?
Injuries. How will you make sure that nobody involved in the move gets injured in any way? Be mindful that young children and pets can be rather unpredictable in their behavior and actions, so you’ll need to keep them far away from the packing and moving action.
Property damage. What safety measures will you take to prevent property damage like scraped floors, chipped walls, or dented door frames?
Damaged items. Having a heavy cardboard box break under its own weight will most likely damage whatever is inside that container. Dropping a heavy piece of furniture while carrying it out of your home will also lead to some type of damage to your possessions.
When wondering if hiring movers or moving yourself is the better option for you, remember that the top-rated moving company you hire will also be properly insured whereas your non-professional helpers won’t be. As a result, if a friend of yours dropped your TV, all they could do is say, “Sorry!”.
Apparently, there are so many factors to take into consideration when deciding what to do: hire a moving company or rent a moving truck and do it all by yourself.
The stress of moving is more real than you think.
The truth is that it can be really easy to make up your mind – the only question you need to ask yourself is whether you’re willing to go through all the STRESS of organizing and carrying out a self-move.
That’s right – in addition to being expensive, the house move process is notorious for being too STRESSFUL as well.
Yes, bring it on! It’s fairly easy to see where the stress of moving is coming from – your hard-earned money is at risk, you have hundreds of tasks to complete within a short period of time, and you’re worried that somebody might get hurt or your items may get damaged. Still, if you’re the kind of person that can handle stress better than most people, then you may try to move by yourself with no professional assistance whatsoever.
Can’t be bothered. Often, the stress of moving proves to be too much to handle. High doses of stress can be really bad for your health, and if you know that you’re not dealing with anxiety too well, then you’d better hire a full-service moving company to take care of it all.
When moving on a tight budget, your first thought will probably be that moving by yourself will cost you (much) less than hiring professional movers. But as you might suspect, things are never that straightforward, are they?
Do-It-Yourself. The bottom line is that moving on your own can turn out to be the cheaper option as long as you’re moving locally, have the required moving labor (your pals), and are not moving any specialty items. To make things even more complicated, you’ll also need to factor in the numerous hidden DIY costs (insurance, cost of packing materials, cost of fuel, etc.) that can easily prove your initial calculations wrong. /How to Cut Moving Costs and Expenses/
Movers. Hiring the best movers in the country is not cheap by any means but it’s what you’ll get in exchange for your money that will matter in the end. Ultimately, hiring an affordable moving company is an opportunity you shouldn’t just dismiss lightly. Get a free quote to learn the cost of hiring professional movers for your upcoming move.
Go through the above-mentioned factors again and see whether it’ll make more sense to hire movers than to move by yourself. Each house move is unique and you’re the only one who knows which moving option will work better for you.
So, what did you decide to do in the end – hire movers or move by yourself?
I like that you said it would be better to hire a moving service if I don’t do well with stress because they would be able to take care of the whole moving process efficiently. My boyfriend and I are moving from an apartment to the single-family house we bought next month. Since we’re both already stressed with work, I’ll suggest we just hire a moving service for convenience. Thanks!
Thank you for mentioning how it would be best to hire a moving service company to help you if you’re moving out most, if not all, of your household items since you’ll have to do a lot of inventory. My family is moving out of our old house to our new one, so we’ll have a lot of stuff that we will need to move. I’ll have to inquire about trusted moving services we can avail near me.
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I like that you said it would be better to hire a moving service if I don’t do well with stress because they would be able to take care of the whole moving process efficiently. My boyfriend and I are moving from an apartment to the single-family house we bought next month. Since we’re both already stressed with work, I’ll suggest we just hire a moving service for convenience. Thanks!
Thank you for mentioning how it would be best to hire a moving service company to help you if you’re moving out most, if not all, of your household items since you’ll have to do a lot of inventory. My family is moving out of our old house to our new one, so we’ll have a lot of stuff that we will need to move. I’ll have to inquire about trusted moving services we can avail near me.