How to Save Money when You’re Moving
If you haven’t used professional movers before, when you get your first quote, you are likely to have sticker shock. Hiring professional movers is not cheap! Think about it: in today’s economy, you can make $20/hr sitting in a chair in air conditioning checking out customers in a retail space. Movers are lifting, they’re lifting heavy, and they do it for 8+ hours a day.
That said, they SHOULD be paid more. So keep this in mind: in the moving industry “you get what you pay for” is absolutely true. If companies pay their team little, they will only attract unsatisfactory staff. But good talent follows the money, so if you care about your things being damaged, factor this into your decision!
So You Hired a Mover, How do I Reduce Cost?
What a question. A good moving company is going to help you out here. Here are the things I would tell my momma bear if she was hiring movers to save on costs.
Pack everything yourself.
Packing is exhausting and time consuming. Almost every customer says, “We don’t have that much stuff.” And guess what? They DO HAVE THAT MUCH STUFF. It can take weeks to pack and unpack. So give yourself a solid month, and pack room by room. Dedicate ~30 minutes/day to packing one room at a time. It’ll be complete before you know it.
1.B. Subpoint: pack only non-critical items.
Leave yourself a week’s worth of clothes, bathroom necessities, and basic kitchen supplies (a few pans, plates, silverware, etc) for living while you are (a) waiting to move, or (b) have just completed a move. This takes pressure off of packing and unpacking.
2. Dissassemble furniture on your own.
We are happyt o dissassemble and re-assemble furniture, it’s part of our job! But if you have the means, this can be a huge time-saver for movers. And time is money, after all!
3. Centralize your things.
The biggest time suck is carrying things up and down and all around a house. If you can put boxes//furniture in central areas (e.g. garage, foyer, living room), it can save a TON of time. Although the boys and the company is paid hourly, so the longer the better for us (theoretically), we ALL celebrate when we walk into a house and things are already in the room closest to the truck.
4. Label stuff! According to your new home.
Another big time suck is when we get to your new house and have to ask the homeowner where every box or furniture goes. Label things for your new home (e.g. Red guest room, bathroom upstairs, living room). This makes the unload and unpack significantly smoother. From my old cheerleading days, “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”
5. Time your move around rush hour
As lame as it is, if we are sitting in traffic from one house to the next, that price can add up. It may seem unfair, but our guys are at work, and they need to be paid for being at work, and the company has to continue charging hourly fees in order to be able to pay them. Rush hour can easily add on an extra hour, so be sure to schedule around that.
6. Downsize!
This is your greatest excuse to downsize and reset your furniture for your new home. If you are being moving-cost-conscious, downsize the large, bulky, awkwardly shaped things first. If it can’t stack, or is super bulky, it takes up a ton of space. The biggest killer to a move is having to make multiple trips. So if the question is: keep that old outdoor umbrella that we inherited from grandma and never use and add an extra trip for the movers, or get rid of the umbrella and save a bunch of money, I’d ditch the umbrella.
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Dr Stroop