A successful house move always comes down to making the right choices.
Oftentimes, some of your choices will prove to be bad, some of them will be good, and, inevitably, most of your house moving decisions will be somewhere in between, with a good deal of advantages and disadvantages depending on how you view the whole relocation thing.
One critical decision that will change entirely the way you prepare for your move is whether to hire a moving company or move by yourself.
For better or worse, sometimes you’ll know right away which way to go, thus eliminating the relocation drama from the start. However, at times you’ll find that the Hiring Movers vs. Moving Yourself dilemma is more difficult to resolve than you thought.
Of course, the right decision is to do what’s best for you – ultimately, it’s your house move, your rules. The only problem is that you may be unsure which house moving option will be the best one for you under the presented circumstances.
How to decide whether you should hire movers or do it yourself?
Read on to find out.
Movers vs. DIY: Move distance
The move distance between the two homes is one of the major factors that will help you resolve the dilemma of whether you should hire professional movers or move by yourself.
HIRE MOVERS when you’re moving across the country to a place that’s far away from where you are right now. State-to-state moving is the realm of interstate moving companies that have the logistical know-how and means to transport your household items safely to a new state.
Besides, driving a large rental truck hundreds or even thousands of miles can be rather dangerous for a non-professional.
MOVE BY YOURSELF if you happen to be moving only a short distance away – for example, within the same city or county, or within the boundaries of the same state. And because of the shorter distance, you’ll feel more at ease renting a moving truck or borrowing a friends’ pick-up truck to transport your stuff to the new nearby location.
In general, short-distances tend to tempt people into organizing Do-It-Yourself moves that have good endings for the people involved in the relocation story.
Movers vs. DIY: Number of household items
The move distance alone may not be able to answer the hiring-movers-or-do-it-yourself question. And that’s exactly why you should also look at other house moving parameters – for example, how many household items you plan to move to the new place.
Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of things you’re moving?
HIRE MOVERS if you’re moving all or almost all the items found in a large home. Think about it – the task of packing up your things can take you many days to complete while professional packers can do it all in a few hours.
The sheer number of things to pack and move can make a huge difference in how you approach the upcoming move. Hire a full-service moving company that will do it all when moving a lot of stuff with you.
MOVE BY YOURSELF if you’re only moving small loads – like the content of a single room or the things from a tiny studio apartment. In case you’re also moving locally, then organizing a self-move should be the way to go.
Nevertheless, when moving small loads over a long distance, then hiring a cross-country moving company is still the better option for you.
How to Get Rid of Stuff Before Moving
Movers vs. DIY: Specialty items
There’s a fairly quick way to check whether you should hire movers or do it yourself: are you moving any specialty items at all?
HIRE MOVERS if you’re moving specialty items that require the expert care of professional packers and movers:
- Antique furniture pieces;
- Pianos;
- Pool tables;
- Hot tubs;
- Grandfather clocks, and so on.
Let specialty movers do what they do best, eliminating the risk of damage to any of your expensive and valuable possessions.
MOVE BY YOURSELF if you don’t own any specialty items like the ones mentioned above. Keep in mind that it’s too risky, both for you and the items in question, to be moving those fragile, large, and heavy items to the new home.
Seriously, do you even know where to begin when you wish to take your piano with you to the new home? In such cases, it’s best to trust moving experts with years of experience in the field.
Moving Checklist: Interactive and Printable
Movers vs. DIY: Time until Moving day
The circumstances surrounding your house move can force you to pick one moving option over the other, which will basically make your choice much easier to make.
Just ask yourself this: how much time do you have until the move-out day?
Is your move-out date too soon to organize a DIY move?
HIRE MOVERS if you’ve got too little time to get completely ready to move out on your own. Self-moves require a lot of preparation time simply because you’re not experienced enough to be tackling your tasks as fast as professionals do.
In addition to all the organizational chores such as changing your address and transferring the utilities, you’ll have the task of all tasks to worry about – packing. Packing for a move is and will remain the most time-consuming project in all moving checklists.
MOVE BY YOURSELF if you have enough time to prepare adequately for moving out – at least 1 month (roughly 4 weeks) to organize a DIY move that will actually be successful.
Even with seemingly ample time until Moving day, you’re still going to need a good Moving Checklist to plan your time to the smallest detail.
Movers vs. DIY: Reliable friends
Even after a detailed analysis, sometimes it can be really difficult to know whether it makes more sense to hire movers or move by yourself.
In such uncertain situations, it can suffice to ask yourself whether you have good friends to rely on during the move.
HIRE MOVERS if you know that you won’t be able to rely on any of your friends to give you a hand when you need it the most. After all, moving house has never been a one-man affair, especially when you’re about to pack a house’ worth of items or move heavy items such as furniture and large boxes.
No reliable friends to the rescue almost always means going with trustworthy movers who won’t refuse to help you any way they can.
ORGANIZE A SELF-MOVE if you know your pals won’t leave you to cope with a complicated house move entirely on your own. It’s what best friends do – they help each other in times of need.
Just make sure you reach out to your buddies as early as possible, and try not to judge those of them who happen to be too busy at the time of the move.
How to Get Friends to Help You Move
Movers vs. DIY: House moving experience
Should you hire movers or move yourself? The answer to this tough question can be more obvious than you think.
Ultimately, it all boils down to this: have you move house before?
The real question is how much move-related experience do you really have.
HIRE MOVERS if you’re moving house for the very first time – for example, moving out of your parents’ house or moving after college.
Bear in mind that the lack of relocation experience will most likely cause you to make numerous moving packing and moving mistakes. Well, everybody makes mistakes, right? That’s true, but some of those errors may easily prove to be too costly in the end.
PULL OFF A SELF-MOVE if you’ve been there and done that before. Oftentimes, it’s the right amount of house moving experience that will boost your confidence just enough to make you a believer in your own abilities to do a successful DIY move.
It can be so much easier to move without hiring professional movers when you actually know what you’re doing.
10 Tips for Moving Out for the First Time
Movers vs. DIY: Safety
Still undecided? The issue of hiring a moving company vs. renting a moving truck is something that you must tackle very early in your move-out preparation.
Don’t waste precious time wondering what to do, just make up your mind keeping the safety factor in mind.
Remember that safety throughout the move should be your number one priority.
HIRE PROFESSIONAL MOVERS if you’ve never driven a large moving truck before. In reality, navigating a big moving vehicle across the country can be a risky endeavor and you may not be even aware of all the dangers of doing so.
What’s more, Moving day itself can prove to be dangerous for inexperienced non-professionals moving house for the first time. Personal injuries are never out of the question (they can happen in an instant), and property damage or ruined household items could turn a residential move into a total disaster.
DO A SELF-MOVE if you know what it takes to guarantee everyone’s safety on Moving day. Generally speaking, it requires previous house moving experience to know how to keep young children and pets out of harm’s way and how to dress properly for the Big day.
Don’t attempt to move by yourself unless you can gather your gang of loyal friends to help you out with packing boxes and moving furniture.
Safety Tips When Moving Furniture
Movers vs. DIY: Moving stress
That’s right, sometimes it can be really difficult to decide whether you should hire a moving company or move it yourself. There are too many relocation factors that can affect your decision one way or another, but one of the most critical questions to ask yourself is how well you can handle stress.
Different people handle moving stress differently.
Moving from one home to another is known to be one of the most stressful events in a person’s life. This basically means that you’ll be choosing between bearing all that moving stress on your own or transferring it to moving professionals who know how to handle it.
HIRE PROFESSIONAL MOVERS if you know that you just won’t be able to handle the stress of moving. It’s no secret that prolonged exposure to high-level stress can be detrimental to your health, so it makes perfect sense to transfer the responsibility to a full-service moving company that will do it all or almost all for you.
ORGANIZE A DIY MOVE if you enjoy tough challenges and you know that you should be fine even when the stress of moving reaches critical values. You’re confident that your friends’ timely assistance will be enough to cope with whatever your move throws at you.
With money so tight these days, it’s a tough call to decide whether or not to move yourself. As someone who has done it himself several times, I still find myself wrestling with the decision each and every time. I think my bad back will now have me cave and hire a professional next time, but if you’re young, go for it!
Yes,it completely depends upon scale and complexity of your move. And if you want to make your move stress free it is advisable that you go with a professional movers.
By reading the shared tips in this article I think movers are the best option for moving as compared to DIY because they have skilled people to move our possession more carefully. Thanks for sharing this informative post.
This is the typical money vs. willpower battle during the relocation process.
Of course if money is not an issue then hiring movers to perform a full service (packing and moving) move is the best decision.
Those who have no money at all to move, moving yourself is the best decision. This will typically require asking friends for help and borrowing their pickup truck.
Most of us who move are in the market of moving on a budget. In a few words, the best way to move on a budget is to pack and move everything you can yourself and hire the movers to come move the heavy furniture and appliances. Local moving companies charge by the hour and may have a 3 hour minimum which may cost anywhere from 200 – 400 dollars.
Hire movers! I recently moved myself and it was such a hassle. I seriously thought about just throwing all our stuff away and starting fresh at the new place, but then realized it wouldnt work (darn it)! Next time I move I am hiring movers.
Moving is a difficult and back-breaking task that needs a lot coordination and physical labor. Professional movers do this job every day and do this task without expecting a tip.
Scale/complexity certainly makes a difference. If it’s a college student moving into a shared dorm, than hiring movers doesn’t make as much sense as getting a few friends to help out. However when you’re talking about a family of 5 with a full household and high quality items, it’s better to hire a moving company.
It is so totally evident that this article and most responses were written by movers. While I agree movers can complete the tasks more quickly – and “may” have more “professional” experience (unfortunately, that’s not a given) the “tips” in this article were very slanted. Do I generally choose to use a mover nowadays? Yes, including for the packing. However, if I did not have the financial ability to do so, this article gives very little information outside of “it;s probably better to hire a mover”.
Many are right, if you have the ability to hire movers, financially, then you should. Now, we have access to moving reviews so that consumers can decide which moving company is the best. Moving companies will help you avoid the stress and strain that comes with moving. They make is simple by providing services such as packing and unpacking as well as providing the necessary storage. If you believe that you can handle the size/complexity of your move, great! But remember that it can always be done in a fast,reliable and professional manner by most moving companies. 🙂
A great alternative is renting your moving truck and then hiring movers to load/unload it. This really works well for long distance movers.
The answer is simple: Have money- hire movers, don’t have money- do it yourself.
This has always been a difficult question. Should I spend the money on a moving company or become a “one person moving army?” I believe the article does a great job asking, and then answering, the proper questions that are involved with this difficult choice. If the funds are available, I would suggest hiring movers due to their experience and expertise in the manner. Reviews are simple to find and it is always good to check on the movers website to make sure it is a credible company. If the funds aren’t there however, just do your best on your own, as the saying goes, “when there is a will, there is a way!”
For across town when we were young with a relatively small but growing amount of stuff with each move, getting a UHaul and friends and a pizza for the helpers was a no brainer.
Then as “young seniors”, my husband took a job without paid relocation from Alabama to Arizona. We evaluated the costs, the logistics, and decided to hire a moving van. One big factor was that we were moving in July where it was hot and humid in Alabama and 115 in Arizona and we were moving into a second floor condo in Arizona. No way were we going to load and unload ourselves. The next decision was self-packing or using the moving van service packers. Saving money there was the motivation for packing ourselves. It also gave us the ability to sort and purge as we were packing ultimately saving money.
I would note that for long distance moving, you really need to take packing right seriously to save on damage. Fill those corners with paper or tightly waded linens. Unless you had watched professional movers like we did in packing, watch some how to pack videos on the moving van sites.
Last year, we also moved cross town from our 2nd floor condo to a house we purchased. We hired Two Men and a Truck for loading/unloading only. Since Two Men and a Truck charge by hour, it is cost saving if you have everything packed prior to their arrival so they aren’t waiting around for you to finish packing. Remember if you compare prices, the hourly rate of Two Men and a Truck includes the truck, the furniture wrapping stuff and the dollies you’d have to rent with a U-Haul. With our experience, they were very very fast and efficient.
One packing tip I learned from a professional packer on one of our corporate paid relocation moves was to use zip lock bags for those little things in drawers like office supplies or loose jewelry or bathroom items. One packer did that on our first corporate relocation move and another one just dumped a drawer of little things into a big box. You can imagine which one was easier to unpack. From then on with the corporation relocation moves, I didn’t take the risk of having lots of loose little things at the bottom of boxes so I pre-packed and labeled the bags of little items.