Six Services You Can Hire to Make Moving Day Less Horrible
Every year, tens of millions of people move to a new home ( 25.6 million in 2023 , which is actually a record low). People move for all sorts of reasons: a new job, a growing family, a desire to be closer to family, but one thing is universal: it can be a frustrating experience. Putting together a house you’ve lived in for years is a major project in itself, and when you’re done with it, you’ll have the joy of moving all those things into your new space that’s quickly filling up with boxes and clutter.
Of course, hiring professional movers instead of bribing incompetent friends is a good first step to a less stressful move. But if you’re still dreading the hassle and uncertainty of moving, you can spend a little extra money and hire a range of services specifically designed to make moving a lot easier.
Hire people to collect things for you
Many moving companies offer professional packing as part of their services, so you can usually just add it when you hire movers. If you’re planning on moving on your own but just want someone to pack for you, you can usually pay for separate packing services from moving or junk removal companies, and you can also find these services on platforms like TaskRabbit .
Cost: about $60 per hour .
Have someone take care of all your new utilities.
One of the most frustrating things that can happen when moving is arriving at a new place and realizing that you forgot to turn on the utilities, or made a mistake in planning your Internet connection, or completely forgot to mail a change of address. office.
If you’re planning a move, it’s worth taking the time to check if a utility concierge service is available. These services (some examples: Move Concierge , Porch Utilities or Utility Hound ) work with utility companies to handle the transfer of your accounts and ensure services are turned on when you move, usually at no cost to you. Sometimes they also offer services such as handling change of address, mail forwarding, or rekeying.
Cost: $0.
Hire cleaners before moving in
When you arrive, your new home may be untouched – or you may end up with a cesspool of dirt that will make you think it’s a family of wild animals rather than people. If you need to deep clean the house and possibly perform an exorcism before you can even start moving your belongings, this delay can be stressful and disrupt your schedule. Hiring a cleaning company that offers one-time move-in cleaning services will ensure that you move into your living space and can focus on where to put the couch instead of donning protective gear and sandblasting the walls with someone else’s junk.
Cost: about 225 dollars .
Hire People to Hang Your TV and Artwork
Another service that will keep you sane during your move is professional TV and art hanging. Making sure your TV is mounted correctly (in the right viewing position and won’t fall off the wall) requires a bit of skill and planning, as does keeping all your framed photos level and correctly positioned on your walls, so add this service to from your movers or finding a company that specializes in these installation services is worth it. You can usually also find people to do this on TaskRabbit , Thumbtack or similar platforms.
Cost: TV installation: about 100-200 dollars ; Hanging Pictures: About $40-$170.
We invite furniture assemblers
Another service you can often add from your moving company or find on platforms like TaskRabbit is furniture disassembly and reassembly. If you’d rather not spend hours unscrewing stubborn screws and redesigning every piece of furniture in your home, then keeping track of all the pieces, and then putting it all back together after a tiring trip to your new home, why not. hire someone to take care of all this for you?
Cost: about 150-200 dollars .
Get extra storage space
There’s a good chance that your new home won’t have the same layout as your current one, which means you might not have enough space for all your stuff at once. Furniture may not fit into the new space, and cabinets may look much smaller once you start filling them. Instead of going crazy living in a box house or leaving a garage so full of stuff you have to park on the street, use a service like SpareFoot to find temporary storage solutions. The service lets you compare prices of nearby storage units, filtering by unit size and features like climate control, 24/7 access and security, so you can find the perfect place to stash away your life for a while.
Cost: on average about $35-100 per month.