Why You Should Stop Hiring Full-Service Movers
Buying or selling a house is a stressful marathon of endless complications, but when you finally finish borrowing cars with cash and signing like a thousand sheets of paper, you can finally relax and enjoy your new home, right? Haha, no, of course you can’t, because the worst is yet to come: you have to move .
The logistics of moving are quite bad. Cost is something else : A move costs an average of $1,250 for what is considered a “local” move, while a long-distance move (1,000 miles) can cost you around $5,000. And if you think hiring a “full-service” mover will lighten your burden even a little, a million horror stories will convince you otherwise. in boxes, movers who never show up, broken or lost items—even movers who hold your belongings hostage .
That’s why it’s worth considering a full-service alternative to traditional movers the next time you have to uproot yourself. You can not only save money, but also relieve yourself of stress. Here are some alternatives to a full-service moving company.
Just do it yourself
Seems obvious: if you don’t want to hire movers, why not do it yourself? The traditional gathering of friends and family over beers and pizza to move you to your new home might work for a very local move when you’re relatively young, but trust me when I say your friends will be far less willing to help. the older you get and the further you have to go.
Otherwise, you need to kick your DIY moving game up a notch. Rent a truck yourself – you may have even done this with previous moves that relied on the free labor of your exploited friends. But this time, you can also hire labor.
Transport companies allow you to hire people to pack and unpack your truck. You pack your own things, then rent a truck and crew to pack everything into it. You then drive your belongings to your new home where another local team helps you unload everything. Your costs will be much lower, and you will retain complete control over the experience – and your belongings – all the time without exploiting your friends and family.
Use portable storage containers
Another option for moving without movers is to use portable storage containers . You’ve seen their ads: the truck unloads a big metal container, you fill it with things, and the truck comes back and takes all your shit to the warehouse. What a lot of people don’t realize is that most of these storage companies also act as alternative movers because they will happily deliver your storage container anywhere .
Costs may be a little less than moving companies – about $3 a mile, or about $3,000 for a 1,000-mile move – but the big advantage here is time: you don’t have to coordinate your move like it’s a precision military operation. The storage container arrives and stays in your old house for as long as you need. You can pack it slowly. When you’re done, you’ll make a call and the container will leave, but if you’re not ready to unpack it all, you can leave it in storage for a while (and the storage fee will probably be less than what the shipping company charges for a similar service) . Then, when you’re ready, the container will be delivered to your new address, where, again, you can take the time to unload it. (You can also hire mobile workers at either end of the process to unpack the container for you at your leisure.)
cargo trailers
Storage containers are a great idea for a move, but they tend to be on the small side. If you have a large house or a bunch of huge furniture, you may need something more substantial. In this case, you may want to consider a cargo trailer . You see such trailers on the roads, which are driven by trucks.
Like a storage container, a cargo trailer is delivered to you and stays there. Unlike a storage container, you usually have a busy trailer loading schedule before the company comes back to pick it up. And you pay by volume, not by weight – which means that if you fill only half of the trailer, you will only pay for that part. Back side? The trailer company will take this trailer somewhere else and sell the rest.
Another disadvantage is that trucking companies are not transport companies and do not provide any services or equipment. For example, you will need to purchase your own furniture covers and make sure your furniture is secured and protected. The shipping company will literally only be responsible for getting your items from point A to point B. Good news? Moving a cargo trailer costs around $2,000 on average , so you’ll save a lot of money, though you’ll need to calculate the numbers to factor in the costs of buying things like furniture blankets and hiring labor (if you don’t do it all yourself).