Moving myself?

Choosing between a Moving Company or moving myself ?

Hiring a moving company is a question that comes often for people on the move. And this question is often discussed between friends and acquaintances. When the decision needs to be made the answer should take in account numerous factors such as time, money, difficulty and complexity of the move and will be different to each situation.

As we know time is never right and money is also a big factor for a move and most of the times both factors will be weighted to make an informed decision. The distance you are going to move too is also a factor that needs to be taken in account as well as the size of your move.

If you are moving a one bedroom apartment in town, your move will be very easy to manage and cost and time will be reduced. However moving across country a four bedroom house will have a complete different outlook on cost, time and the logistic involved with it.

If you are willing to haul yourself your moving boxes, carry your furnitures, you will need to hire a truck. Rental companies use a guide and can provide you the right truck for moving from an apartment to a 4+ bedrooms house.

If you consider renting a truck to move from  point A to point B, you’ll need to take in consideration the cost of renting one-way or return, where one-way is more expensive than return by almost 50%. But you need also to account for mileage, if not included in your  truck rental, and petrol cost.

When you have costed the factors of moving yourself you can now look into the cost of hiring a moving company.

Some points to consider, you may find that some companies give you a quote over the phone and some will not. For moving companies having a look at the content of a house is necessary to asses time and volume of the move.

You may want to look online for quotes but these quotes will certainly not be guaranteed, as the information you give may be not accurate.

If you decide to hire a moving company make sure it is a reliable company.

To make the decision of hiring a moving company or moving yourself you may need to look into other factors like hiring a full service moving company that will pack, load and ship, unload and unpack your goods, or hiring just a load, ship and unload your household company, or to do it all yourself.

Some questions you may want to look into and find an answer, like how much time will it take to pack your things, load your things and drive it all to your new destination?

Do you have additional help? Friends, family, neighbours or colleagues that can lend a hand?

Do you have fragile or special items that will require special handling? Can you move these items yourself? If not, what will it cost to move them?

Will you need to rent additional equipment/supplies/hired-hands to move larger items such as appliances?

Are you confident that you can move your household goods safely? Are you aware of hidden costs that can creep into your move, such as additional insurance or packing supplies?

And one last piece of advice: no matter what you decide to do, save all your receipts and make sure you claim your move (if possible) on your tax return.

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