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Use A Moving Company or Move Yourself?
Unless you’re a minimalist with a furnished dorm room, moving is usually a serious undertaking. If you’re considering whether to tackle the job yourself or hire a mover, carefully consider the questions below before making a decision.
What’s your budget?
Here’s the great leveler. Can you afford to hire someone to do it for you? If you’ve got the wherewithal and friends to help, it may be harder to justify the cost of hiring a mover for a cross-town move, but what if you’re going cross country? Calculate the cost of truck rental, fuel, pads, dollies and packing material. Unless you’re flying (another expense), you’ll still have to pay for food and lodging even if you’re not driving a truck. Also consider the worth of your belongings. Could you afford to replace them if your truck is broken into or if, as the amateur mover, you don’t pack the load properly? Now get a few quotes from movers. This initial research may answer the question for you, but if you’re still not sure, read on.
Where to?
A move across town can certainly be daunting with enough stuff, but you have the option of multiple trips and multiple friends or family to help. Heading out of state or cross-country gets more complicated. With the extra miles comes the necessity of doing everything right in one fell swoop and having people on the other side to unload. Extra time on the road also requires more care with packing each box and securing the load itself so your belongings will be protected.
How much time?
If you have enough time, you can do a long-distance move with a rental truck, making the arrangements, securing packing materials, organizing people to help you and driving the truck where you need to take it. But if you’re in a hurry and need to hand the job over to professionals who can pack, load, transport and unload with you or a proxy as simply a supervisor, you’ll be free to fly to your destination immediately.
How much stuff?
If you have a lot of furniture and other belongings, packing, wrapping, loading, securing and unloading become an even bigger issue. Can you handle the rental truck big enough to fit everything you own or do you know someone who could? This is where the ability of your helpers really comes into play; are your friends and family able to physically lift and carry your things? If not, being able to pay someone else for the backache will feel well worth it.
A move is rarely easy and the expense and effort, especially for a long-distance move, require careful planning. Can you conceivably do it yourself, saving money? Or is it more than worth it to have someone else do the heavy lifting? To minimize the frustration of false expectations and miscalculated expense, consider and compare each option thoroughly before you pack a single box.
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Readers Poll
Where do you get ideas on how to decorate your apartment?
- The Internet (53%, 8 Votes)
- Magazines (27%, 4 Votes)
- My friends or family (13%, 2 Votes)
- Television (7%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 15
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