Does anyone enjoy the moving process? Packing, unpacking, moving furniture, and buying new supplies can intimidate anyone. This is why people loathe the moving process. You’re also taking time off work and as a result, may be missing out on the money you need for moving costs. Despite this, many people decide to skip the professional movers and handle the moving process by themselves. For some, this is beneficial if you have friends and family who are happy to help you move. Deciding between hiring local movers to a Do It Yourself Move plan, are DIY worth it?
Do it yourself moving certainly isn’t for the faint at heart, though DIY Moving may save you some money and a potential option. However, the daunting pressure of packing belongings appropriately not forgetting all the breakables, finding a rental truck with the necessary equipment, whilst seeking friends help can be pretty challenging. We have got a truckload of experience with expert advice to help pack correctly, load them up safely, transport goods in a secure way, and ultimately unload them in a safe and sound condition. Let us help you make the right choice and in making your home relocation dead easy. Before you decide about moving yourself or hiring professional movers there are things you should consider; nothing is straightforward. Read the pros and cons of self-moving, and decide if that is the best option for your upcoming move.
PROS OF A DIY MOVE
Having full control over the move
With moving without the help of professional movers, you are in complete control over every little thing associated with the move. You decide which type of equipment to use, what kind of truck or van you will rent, as well as how you will pack things into the vehicle. You even get to decide the logistics and take whatever route you want between your current location and destination. When DIY you are completely in control of your move and you decide when you make your move. You can move a little at a time, or schedule a long day of moving. Some people feel better if they gradually move items from their old house to their new home. Others like to just get it done. As you already know, when you hire local movers they typically control most or everything with the move. With professional movers, you’ll need to schedule the bulk of the move on a single day. On the other hand, a DIY move can be spread out over days or even weeks.
Saving money
This is, perhaps, one of the major reasons people decide to move themselves. Hiring professional movers can be expensive. With the right planning, help from friends, and cooperation from employers (as you will need to take time off), you can complete a DIY move for less than hiring professional movers. For those with the time, manpower, a lot of patience, and know-how, DIY moves may be great options. There’s no denying that they’re less expensive than full-service local movers from a dollars and cents standpoint. The truck rental business is full of competition, which means there are lots of options and prices are relatively low. Keep in mind though, you’ll need to account for gas, truck insurance, and extra equipment like moving pads, straps, and dollies which usually aren’t included.
Moving on your own is always cheaper than hiring full-service professional movers. That’s indisputable. The savings may not always be substantial, though, and there are a lot of other factors to consider like time, stress, and the required effort. How much you can save does depend on several factors, but generally speaking, you can save a bit of money. If you’re on a tight budget and you don’t like the idea of spending a lot of money to move, then moving without local movers is worth considering. To be sure you are saving as much as you plan, consider the costs that may be included in a professional move that you will have to pay for or do yourself as a DIY mover. As we have already said, truck rental is a big expense. Packing supplies, equipment, and time off of work are also costs to be considered. Likely, with all these combined, you will spend less cash than hiring local movers. But, is it enough to make the DIY move worthwhile? Only you can answer that.
It can be fun
Yes, you read that correctly, moving can actually be fun. OK, it may be a stretch, but what better way to celebrate your new home than by having good friends and family help you move in. If you don’t move with professional movers and your move will only take a few hours, plan on asking everyone to stick around for a short party afterward. But if it lasts longer, you need to make sure everyone sticks until the end, and that’s not always easy.
CONS OF DIY MOVE
Planning everything by yourself
The amount of planning that is involved with a local move is a lot. You have to figure out everything from what type of vehicle you should rent to use during the move to buying enough moving boxes to packing everything, and the list goes on. It’s too easy to forget stuff during the planning phase. If you aren’t well versed in everything that goes into a move, you might find yourself ending up short on time. It’s pretty easy to underestimate the amount of time and effort that goes into packing up an entire house, loading them safely and securely into your moving truck, hauling them to your new home, unloading everything safely, and then unpacking so you can get back to your normal routine. What you thought might only take one day can easily expand into two days or maybe more, when moving without professional movers. This might cause you to need to take additional time off work or miss out on other important events.
DIY moves are time-consuming and stressful
Packing and moving is a stressful exercise that stretches across days and even months if you decide not to hire furniture movers. Maybe some of you are thinking that it can’t be that hard, that you don’t have that much stuff, and that you don’t need affordable local movers. But just think about the fact that you would have to pack, load, unload and unpack all of your belongings by yourself. If you think all of your friends will be there to help you, you are probably kidding yourself. You can’t expect all of your friends to be free at the same time as you. Besides, even if they are, they are not professional movers, they don’t know the right and the best way to pack and move all of your belongings. You could risk damaging something while packing or moving. When hiring our furniture movers, even if something accidentally gets broken, basic coverage insurance is included. Laguna Moving Services are the best affordable movers and they make stress go away!
Transportation
The other problem with packing and moving by yourself is transportation. Do you have a truck or you are planning to borrow it from a friend? Or neither of those two, so you need to rent a truck or van? Is renting a truck convenient and do you really save that much money? From people’s experience, we would say NO-it’s not. Many people think that the DIY move is much cheaper than hiring professional affordable movers, but in the end, it’s only a little bit cheaper. When you rent a truck and pay for the packing material, you won’t save that much as you first expected you would.
Self-packing also costs and it’s not that safe
You risk breaking your items when you perform a DIY move. Professional movers know what they are doing, and if they do break anything, then their insurance will cover it. However, many professional local movers know how to local move items of all sizes, and they can easily remove large items from properties.
We must say that self-packing avoids inflated packing material prices and the hourly rate if we are talking about DIY. You must be aware that you and your friends are not professional movers, so maybe you don’t know the right technique for the packing process.
So, if you don’t pack your items and furniture like real professional movers, there will probably be some damages but not insurance. Choosing to self-pack can save you some money, but will require extra time, effort, and a lot of hard preparation. You will be in charge of buying packing and moving supplies (like boxes, packing paper, tape, etc.), renting a moving truck, and enlisting help with heavy lifting. If you think better, by buying all this stuff, you won’t even save that much money as you have expected. Again, if you hire affordable movers, you will spend a little more money but you will have peace of mind!
Dealing with heavy and large items
There’s quite a bit of effort that goes into packing up, loading, and unloading everything during a move. This is going to be physically taxing for everyone involved. If you or your helpers aren’t in the best of shape like professional movers, you’ll be running the risk of injury. It doesn’t matter how many items you have to move; there’s a good chance many of them will be heavy. You will be the one to handle all of the heavy lifting, and even if you have help, you will still be doing a lot of lifting. You’ll have to move a few examples of the heavy items to include dining tables, couches, mattresses, and sofa chairs, to name just a few. If you don’t have the right moving equipment, then moving these items can be even more hassle. The initial prospect of saving a little bit of money on local movers may end up costing you a medical bill if you accidentally throw it out your back. Be sure everyone that’s going to be lifting and hauling things is capable of doing it.
Unexpected Problems
Nothing in life is perfect — there are plenty of problems when moving. When you move without furniture movers, you’re the one stuck trying to find solutions. For example, what if your furniture doesn’t fit around corners or upstairs wells? Is parking the truck going to be a problem? Furniture teardown and setup without instructions catch many people off-guard. Professional movers are used to these problems; they could fix these issues in seconds, and it may take hours for you to find a solution.
There are a lot of pros and cons of a DIY relocation. Here we mentioned some of those pros and cons so that at the end of the day you can make an informed decision, whether you should move without local movers or not. If you have decided to hire professional movers to help you with the move and now you are wondering how to find them, do not think of this as another con reason for moving with help. Finding good, cheap local movers is easy. Just go online and browse a bit. The important thing to take notes of do they have a license, how long are they in the business, reading the reviews. All of these things are very important to find suitable affordable movers.
Moving with the help or without is at the end of the day only your choice. Whatever you decide there will be pros and cons, you will see that once you start to move. For sure, though, moving as a DIY project is way more interesting if you know how to make it interesting. However, if you are not in the mood, and if you are in a hurry, finding professional movers is a way to go! The final verdict depends on you. You’ll want to carefully weigh the pros and cons before deciding which option to go with. However, if you want to ensure your move goes as smoothly as possible or don’t have a lot of time on your hands, you should consider hiring professional movers. Keep in mind that if you decide not to move as a DIY project, there is always a reliable Laguna Moving Services ready to help you out. Get your free moving quote today and see why are we the best local movers out there!