Moving is one of the most demanding tasks you can take on. With much anxiety and frustration in tow, how do you ensure a successful move? It all comes down to understanding what external help you’ll need. With much planning and organizing, you’ll be able to confidently decide what moving method is best for you. This decision will determine the rest of your moving experience.
Depending on how much you have to move and your timeframe, moving can be a highly labor-intensive activity that is not for the faint of heart. There’s the ordeal of packing, disassembling, and reassembling furniture, to lifting and moving heavy furniture while ensuring the proper safety precautions of doing so. The last thing you want is a herniated disc! Here we’ll discuss the pitfalls of hiring a discreditable moving company, how necessary it is to hire a full-service moving company, and the cons of hiring one.
The Importance of Hiring a Creditable Moving Company
We understand hiring a moving company can be expensive, and it can be tempting to cut corners in order to slim the budget where possible. However, it could be a huge red flag if they are the cheapest quote by far. Hiring a discreditable moving company can cause more issues than what you were trying to avoid in the first place. There are horror stories where valuables go ‘missing’, initially agreed-upon estimates blow way out or items have been damaged without being replaced or fixed.
Here we’ll list a few things to look out for to ensure you hire a creditable moving company:
Keep these tips in mind when you're shopping for a full-service moving company to avoid hiring a discreditable company. The extra time you take to vet a moving company will pay off tenfold in the long run. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Time & effort
A big reason for using a full-service moving company is how much time and effort it will save you from doing it yourself. While it may take you weeks to organize your move, it’ll take a professional moving company only a few days to pack up your items and subsequently unpack them. Imagine picking up your entire room and dropping it in a new location without lifting a finger! If you opt for a DIY move, the amount of effort you put into the move drastically increases in more ways than one. You'll be having to source the packing supplies, find a rental truck, and physically packing all your belongings, and that's just the tip of the iceberg!
Professional help
You’ve packed all your easy items into boxes, but how do you even begin to tackle that bed frame or floor-to-ceiling bookshelf? Enlisting a full-service moving company means you’ll have professional help on lifting these heavy and awkward items. They have the proper equipment like trolleys, lifting belts, and protective gloves to help with grip amongst other items. Some even bring protective floor covering to reduce the chances of slipping while carrying a large item. The correct training and knowledge to carry those heavy items can’t be overstated. If needed, they can even bring your items to a storage unit.
Insurance
We all hope nothing goes wrong with a move, but if something does, you’ll want peace of mind knowing your belongings are insured. Another appealing aspect of enlisting movers is the peace of mind you’ll receive knowing your items are insured. Credible moving companies have insurance to ensure your items are properly looked after should there be any issues or damages to your valuables. Without that insurance, if anything goes wrong, it'll be on your dime. If you're looking to DIY your move, be sure to include insurance costs in your budget. Moving companies in Ontario for example are required to have insurance under provincial law, but it's still always a good idea to ask if they are properly covered. Also, should you have expensive or priceless items, ask if you need additional insurance to cover those items. Friendly tip for readers: irreplaceable items should be kept with you at all times.
Protection
By hiring professionals to handle your valuables, you’re taking a lot of the risk out of moving it yourself. Enlisting the right or credible full-service moving company means you’re ensuring the protection of your belongings. Full-service moving companies have the experience of properly packing your belongings in order to avoid damages during transportation. As well as protecting your home while you’re in the process of packing. A full-service moving company will have a full range of home protection items like carpet protectors, moving blankets, and corner guards. Equipment that helps protect belongings like furniture pads, hoisting cranes, moving straps, etc. The use of these different packing supplies lends itself to a breezy move.
Options
What’s great about enlisting a full-service moving company are the options you gain from their services. You can choose to engage their full services to not only move your belongings but to help with packing. Alternatively, you can simply use them for the move and pack your items yourself. Or perhaps you only need them to deliver your belongings to a self-storage unit while you’re in between homes. You can cherry-pick what services you want from a full-service moving company to suit your budget and needs.
Cost
By not hiring a full-service moving company you will be potentially reducing your moving expenses. While there will be costs associated with doing it yourself. Think fuel costs, rental trucks, packing supplies, insurance, moving party costs or labor costs, etc. When you engage a full-service moving company you’re paying for their moving expertise and resources. Naturally, there is a premium to these services. Ultimately, you have to determine what your time is worth and how much you’re willing to pay to minimize stress and labor. This decision will differ per person depending on the type of move you’re about to undertake.
No control/privacy
If you’re somebody who is a 'control freak', you may be better off doing a DIY move. You’ll have more control and essentially be project managing the move. Which for some can provide a sense of calm in a chaotic process. If you don’t hire a full-service moving company, you won’t have to worry about strangers packing and moving your private items. Much of this concern can be mitigated by packing and potentially moving your private items yourself. Take stock of how much time you can dedicate to a move before opting to do it yourself.
Fixed schedule
By hiring a full-service moving company, you’ll lose a lot of the flexibility that comes with a DIY move. While most movers will try their best to accommodate your schedule. However, they also have a lot of other customers to take care of. This means you’ll have to find a schedule that works for both parties. Most moving companies will have minimal flex in dates and times the movers can come. To mitigate this issue, you’ll have to book 4-6 weeks in advance to ensure you can appropriately schedule a time that works for you. Keep in mind it can be difficult to start packing early as you’ll have to plan what items you’ll need till you move and what items you can start packing right away.
In our modest opinion, finding the right full-service moving company can make or break your move. The complexity and physical strength needed for a move are not something you should take on lightly. If you’re worried about the cost of hiring a full-service moving company, we highly recommend doing a cost comparison of both methods. You may be surprised at how the expenses start to stack up on a DIY move. You can now easily pick which services you definitely need and what services you can do on your own to reduce the budget.
