The moving process comes with a huge amount of choices. Which house to buy, which realty company to hire, and which furniture to take with you are all hard decisions to consider. If you add in the choice of hiring movers or moving yourself, it’s no wonder you can quickly get overwhelmed and have no idea where to turn before you even start packing. Thankfully, we’re here to help you figure out which way you should go.
Deciding to move yourself or hire movers will largely depend on how close your new home is, your budget, how you feel about moving everything on your own, and the move’s complexity. For example, moving while staying inside Melbourne will be much easier than an interstate move. Are you physically able to carry a mattress or couch up or down a flight of stairs? Also, most of your friends most likely aren’t moving professionals.
These points leave many of us with no choice but to hire a qualified removalist company. However, there are many people who have successfully moved themselves and saved money while doing so. Before you make a final decision, we’re going to outline different areas you should consider when moving yourself or hiring professionals.
Cost Potential
If you’re trying to cut down on your costs and want to move yourself with help from family and friends, it’s important to think about how you’ll thank them for pitching in. You should agree on a price point or compensation before you start the heavy lifting. Not doing this before the move could result in an IOU and sour friendships.
When you hire a professional removalist company, everything you’re going to pay for gets outlined in a binding agreement. If you call on friends to move everything, it makes it hard to keep track of the costs and budget correctly.
Hiring Professional Removalists
Hiring a removalist company gives you the advantage of having better control over your total moving costs. To save money, you can set your budget around the services you can accommodate or need. You can shop around for different removalists at a price point you can afford, and they come with all of the moving equipment you need to move. This is one less expense to worry about.
Either way, you’ll pay the agreed-on price with your removalist company. Furthermore, you’re not paying solely for manpower. Many removalists have packing services and materials as part of their service packages. They will also help you choose the moving truck with the right volume in m3 to fit all your belongings and save on the moving cost.
Moving Yourself
When you bring in family or friends to move, you assume that you’ll get a cheap or free move. If can help you save money upfront, but there are a few potential costs that you have to factor in:
Locating and hiring a moving truck for a day or two
Sourcing and buying packing materials like bubble wrap, packing paper and cardboard boxes
Out-of-pocket expenses for replacing or recovering any damaged or lost items
Paying for meals for your helpers during the move
Sometimes, depending on your relationships, you might have to compensate for taking time off work. This is why you have to lay ground rules before you start moving.
Dealing with No-Shows
Could you imagine moving yourself, being organised and ready to go, and the help that you were promised has vanished? Dealing with a no-show when it comes time to move is frustrating whether you’re dealing with friends or you hire removalists. However, the way you deal with no-shows will depend on whether you enlisted help informally or booked it with a professional company.
The downside to using family or friends to help you move is if they don’t show up, there’s not much you can do in terms of a legal sense besides getting annoyed. This is why it’s critical that you confirm that they’re still going to come help you move closer to the actual moving date. If they say no, you have time to find more people.
On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re thinking about hiring a professional removalist company and they don’t show up on moving day, you have a legally binding contract in place to help you. If you originally booked services with Easy Peasy Removals, all you have to do is have a chat with a dedicated move specialist and we’ll handle it.
This being said, hiring paid removalists means that they’re less likely to back out of a job or not show up last-minute. It’s in the company’s best interest to show up and follow their contract to uphold their reputation in the community.
Injuries and Insurance
Moving a house can be a very stressful task, and accidents can happen. If they do, you can very easily end up with injuries or injured friends. There are a few things to keep in mind if you’re going to move yourself with mates helping or hiring removalists.
Injuries to Removalists
If a removalist gets accidentally injured during a move, you won’t have a lot to worry about. Accidents like these are common job hazards. So, all reputable removalist companies have insurance. The company covers and compensates any staff for injuries without costing you anything.
If you’re trying to protect your items during the moving process, you want to keep in mind that the removalist company’s accident and injury insurance doesn’t extend to clients. This is why it’s important to ask about insurance covers when you first contact the company.
Injuries to Friends or Family
First, any injuries aren’t ideal in any instance. This is especially true if it’s a friend or family member who has been kind enough to assist you. If your friend gets hurt during a move, depending on how good of a friend they are, you could have to pay a large compensation fee. If it gets to the lawsuit level, this will end your friendship. Also, if you do have to compensate your injured friend or family member by law, you’ll pay more out of pocket than you would if you hired a professional removalist.
Packing Assistance
Most Aussies claim that packing and unpacking are right near the top of the list of their most loathed tasks when it comes to moving. This is why you should start packing early. A lot of professional removalist companies offer packing services and packing materials. You can either move yourself and pack yourself with your friends helping or find a removalist who offers packing services.
Hiring Professional Packers
When you hire professional packers, you have the control. You can specify where you want things packed and how you want the company to pack them without having to do it yourself. Packing supplies like moving blankets, cardboard boxes, bubble wrap and other materials come from the company you hire, so you won’t have to source them.
If you have precious or delicate items to pack, experienced removalists have the training required to ensure they handle all of these items with care. For instance, you shouldn’t trust anyone to secure and move a larger item like a piano without proper training. Moving a piano is a very delicate process, and Easy Peasy Removals train all of our staff to move it correctly in St Kilda.
Recourse and Reliability
It’s common for you to be leery of strangers handling your belongings. You’ve worked very hard to get the items you have, and the last thing you want is to see them damaged or lost during a move. Knowing this, who would you feel more comfortable handling all of your items? A professional removalist or your friends and family?
Locating a Reliable and Professional Removalist Company
Do yourself a favour and reduce the probability of experiencing a disaster on moving day by doing a little quality control. Along with asking your family or friends to recommend a removalist team in Melbourne, go online and do your research. Pull up local companies, read reviews and browse their service list. We have tips on helping you spot fake removalist reviews, too!
Picking Friends to Help Move with a Rented Truck
When you tell your friends and family that you’re going to move yourself, what response do you get? Do they back away and get conveniently busy, or do they rush to help? When someone offers to help you move, they typically only offer when they know that you’re going to say, “No, I’ve already got it sorted.”
If you don’t offer a lot besides some refreshments and pizza, you can find it challenging to get family or friends who are as reliable and helpful as you really need. Moving your house is hard work, and the truth of the matter is, most people don’t like doing it without proper compensation.
Pros and Cons of Moving Yourself vs Hiring Removalists
There are several pros and cons involved in trying to move yourself versus hiring a professional removalist company in Melbourne, St Kilda, Sandringham or Ormond. We’ll list them out for you below.
Moving Yourself — Pros
You Have Complete Control Over the Moving Process
One of the greatest benefits of moving yourself is that you get complete control over the moving process from start to finish. You get to pick out the truck and all of the moving supplies. You also get to handle each box yourself to ensure nothing ends up broken or damaged.
Committing to move yourself allows you to have the flexibility to decide when you want to start moving, how long it’ll take and when to end it. If you move in rainy or generally bad weather, you can decide how to best protect your items. You get control on loading and unloading the truck, so you can take your items off and put them in the correct room to stay organised.
You Can Pack at Your Pace
When you start preparing to move on your own, you don’t have to worry about packing everything 100% perfectly. Any removalists you work with will want each of your boxes sealed up and ready to load as soon as they get there. By moving by yourself, you can also potentially skip boxing odd-shaped items like plants or lamps.
You also won’t have to fixate on how to box up your other items, like blankets and pillows. You get the freedom to pack as much or as little as you want.
Moving Yourself — Cons
You Do the Heavy Lifting
One of the worst things about trying to move yourself is that you’re responsible for moving all of your items on your own. Unless you have very strong friends on hand to help out, that is. Lifting every box and those bulky pieces of furniture isn’t going to be a fun or easy task, especially if you have stairs to navigate.
If you’re an inexperienced mover, you could scratch or mark up the walls while you lift beds or couches down the stairs at your home. A one-bedroom place can be easy enough to move by yourself, but a five or six-bedroom place can be backbreaking.
Increased Chances of Unexpected Problems Arising
If an unexpected problem arises when you’re trying to pack, like your couch getting stuck in a doorway, you could be out of luck. Without having a professional removalist company with the correct tools, you could waste hours trying to get everything out of the house and onto the truck instead of having someone do it for you.
Hiring Removalists — Pros
They’re Highly Efficient
Assuming that you found a reputable and cost-effective removalist company in Glen Eira, it’s safe to say that your removalists will be reliable. Unlike your friends or family who can flake out, the removalist company has a contract in place to help with all agreed-upon moving aspects.
The company should arrive at your location on time with the correct moving equipment and supplies, and this removes you having to gather up furniture pads, straps and dollies at the last second. In the long run, this can save you valuable moving hours.
Move Will Be Less Stressful, Overall
Generally speaking, hiring professional removalists in Hampton will save you from many of the typical stressors that come with moving. In addition to having time-saving benefits, hiring help will also ensure that you don’t have to try and manoeuvre a bulky moving truck through your neighbourhood or down the highway. Trailers are also challenging. If the idea of having to load and then drive a big truck scares you, we recommend hiring removalists to do it for you.
Hiring Removalists — Cons
There Is Less Flexibility Overall
When you enlist the help of professional removalists, you have less control over the moving process. From the manner in which the company loads your items to the date and time of your pickup, there isn’t a lot that you can do to change how and when you move.
The worst-case scenario is that you could wait weeks for a moving truck to arrive, especially if the company has several stops to make along the way. For anyone who has to be in total control, hiring a company may not be the best choice.
It’s More Impersonal
You most likely won’t know the movers. Handing over your belongings to a complete stranger can be nerve-wracking. This is why it’s so important to do your homework before you pick out a removalist company in Sandringham and the surrounds.
Check the ratings and read the reviews before you pick out a company. You want to avoid scams, so going with an insured and licensed company is key. Also, you want your company to do a thorough inspection before giving you a quote.
Contact Easy Peasy Removals for Help with Your Next Move
If you’re trying to decide between moving yourself and hiring a professional removalist company in Melbourne, we encourage you to contact us. With our four depots in Melbourne CBD, St Kilda, Ormond and Sandringham we are always close to you, We’re happy to walk you through your options, tailor the move to your needs and make sure everything goes smoothly from start to finish.
