Moving is a unique industry in that almost everyone can do it. In fact, almost everyone has moved themselves at some point or another. Unfortunately, the way we moved ourselves when we were in college might not be the best way now that we own things we actually care about.
That doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune moving, though, and over time, we’ll give you lots of advice to save you money on your move. There are also a lot of ways people think they might be saving money, when in fact, they could cost more money in the long-run. Here are five of those bad cost-saving tips.
Fewer Movers Equals a Cheaper Move
The logic behind using fewer movers to save money isn’t completely out of the blue. If you have to pay by the hour, wouldn’t it be cheaper to have a lower hourly rate? Sure, it’s easy to have too many movers for the job, and that can waste money too, but too few movers will make the job much longer and less organized. Many moves, especially bigger moves, are run like an assembly line. One person might pack, another one or two might wrap furniture, another might run back and forth to and from the truck and the final mover could be on the truck loading.
Granted, most moves don’t require five movers, in fact, many only require two, but things run much less smoothly if a mover is missing. Also, you don’t have to be an expert in moving to know that tired people are generally slower.
Mattresses Don’t Need to be Protected
You spend 1/3 of your life on a mattress. You want it to be clean. Shell out the few extra bucks to protect your mattress (usually with a sleeve). You won’t regret it.
I Don’t Need to Empty the Drawers
You might hear conflicting information here. Yes, technically your dressers could be moved with clothing inside, but not only does the weight make them harder to move, it makes them prone to damage. To keep your dressers from breaking during the move, empty most of the drawers. You can leave a few light items inside, especially in the lower drawers, but pack items like jeans and tees in boxes.
I’ll Just Move those Boxes Myself
Moving a few boxes might save you a few dollars, but already packed boxes are the quickest and easiest to move. You won’t be saving yourself much. If you want to save money by moving some things yourself, move your plants, electronics, pictures and mirrors, and lamps.
Liquor Store Boxes are Just Fine
To this day, I see moving advice blogs suggesting people get boxes from the liquor or grocery store. While that sounds like logical cost-saving advice, it’s generally not worth it. Each person in a household, on average, will need about 20 boxes of varying sizes. Even if it’s just you, it’s easy to imagine spending hours hunting down 20 boxes that are still in good shape. Multiply that time by four or more if you have a family.
Store clerks don’t care much about preserving the integrity of boxes. That’s not their job. Their job is to empty the boxes as quickly as possible. After, or even before that, the boxes can get wet, or otherwise damaged. If you do pick up some liquor store or grocery store boxes, thoroughly inspect them for any signs of damage, including any ripples, which might indicate water damage. Also, you need a good selection of box sizes. Make sure that no matter what you’re packing, the contents of the boxes should weigh no more than 50 pounds each. Books need to go into small boxes.
This is not to say you have to buy boxes from us, or any moving company. Big box home improvement stores sell moving boxes relatively inexpensively. The advantage to buying through us is that we can help advise you as to how many and what boxes you need, and we deliver all the materials to you for free.
