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To hire movers or not? How about Craigslist Movers?
What say you guys?
We're on the fence about hiring movers. We're closing in the middle of a week and our lease is actually up 3 days after we close...which ends up being a Friday, leaving us no weekend time to move. H's work is awful about giving him time off and their answer to the moving issue was pretty much "hire movers" I'm not totally against hiring movers, but all the quotes we've gotten are for like $1200-2000 in our area. I don't want to pay that much to move after slapping down thousands and thousands in downpayment, closing costs, packing materials, things like trash cans, blinds, shovels...new baby gates...just basic things we'll need right away in the new house. I should say, I don't know if it is wise to spend that much. Two weeks after we move, I have to pay $3000 for a class I have to take for corrective action on my specialist license, so I feel like we're shelling out money like crazy. I went on Craigslist and found a newer company that is based two towns over from me that is offering $350 moves if they are in the same town, which ours will be. Does that sound too good to be true? Sketch? I don't know. Would you do it?
Re: To hire movers or not? How about Craigslist Movers?
I don't know where you live, so it's possible that the going rate in your area is $1200-2000 and that the going rate two towns over is $350. However, my general rule of thumb is when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
A couple suggestions to help:
One money saving idea - not sure if it works for you.
Each evening during the week - move small items and furniture that is manageable. Ask friends to help. Borrow or rent a pickup truck -- since it is in the same town.
We paid movers to move only large pieces of furniture across town (well about 10 blocks) and it took much longer than I expected and cost $700 - 5 years ago.
I would recommend getting either a u-haul or budget truck. It should only be $200-300, and they have verified movers you can schedule through them for 1-2 hours for loading/unloading heavy items.
I hired a moving company for a 1,000 mile move and it wasn't much more than your quote. IMHO, depending on your COL, that is highway robbery for a local move.
Also, remember moving costs are only tax deductible if you meet certain distance requirements which I don't think you will.
I got a lot of free boxes from CL, also I got quite a bit from stores like Walmart and Lowes that they were set to recycle. Pack your own things starting now and it will make things a lot easier for the move.
ETA: I would be leary of CL movers. You want someone who is insured and whatnot to make sure you're covered if something were to happen. The per hour rates for two man teams through u-haul are very reasonable.
Also, my advice is based on experience. We've moved 5 times in the last 5 years and moved ourselves every time except for the very last where we hired a company to load/drive/unload, however we still packed ourselves.
After 31 cycles and two losses, we've been blessed with a healthy baby girl!
Congrats to both of my amazing TTC Buddies, tdmd09 and sb2006!!
Life of Amberley
I did a middle of the week move nearly 5 years ago.
None of my friends/ family were available to help. My husband (boyfriend at the time.) was in school all day.
I did all the packing myself and had the movers load and unload the truck. I moved I think it was 15 miles. It was the best $$ I ever spent! I didn't have to worry about any one's bad backs, etc.
I was available to direct where things were to be put, and my mom was able to help with that and be there for deliveries of a few new things.
I had the movers remove my bed from the old apartment and put it by the dumpster because we were having a new bigger bed delivered that day.
I would totally do that all over again. I also recommend getting the insurance they offer. It had snowed the day before we moved and my toaster oven got damaged. The insurance paid for a new one.
After 31 cycles and two losses, we've been blessed with a healthy baby girl!
Congrats to both of my amazing TTC Buddies, tdmd09 and sb2006!!
Life of Amberley
We hired movers for our recent move and are so glad we did. Ours charged by the hour and came out to around $650 when all was said and done. To us, the extra money was worth it for the hassle of the move. We moved into a two story house and not having to lug heavy furniture up and down stairs was wonderful. They literally had us stand inside the front doorway and just point where we wanted everything. Also, in our apartment we were moving out of, the only way our couch fit in was over the balcony and through the sliders. So much easier to have movers deal with that than us.
I have moved (much smaller moves) with a U Haul before and it is so much cheaper. If you can get a good number of family and friends willing to help, it might be worth it to save the money. We just don't have any friends in town and our parents came down to help but are getting older and wouldn't be able to help move heavy items, so for us, the movers were invaluable.
RE: insurance. Our moving company came with insurance up to 33 cents per dollar. So if they broke/damaged a $1 item, the complimentary insurance would pay you 33 cents back on that item and so on. You could purchase additional insurance all the way up to full coverage. We just went with the complimentary.
We hired movers to move our 4 bedroom house and it was definitely worth the $1500 (plus tip and feeding the guys lunch). They showed up at 8am and were done loading/unloading both trucks by 3:30pm. It would have taken us 2 full days to do what they did in 7.5 hours.
We are in the DC metro area, which is quite a HCOL area, so your $2000 quote does seem a bit high to me. I would call around for more quotes, use yelp or Angie's List to look at customer reviews, and go from there. Quite honestly, at this point in my life I am just so over doing the friend move thing. Too much furniture/too many walls and floors got damaged in those situations.
I honestly don't remember. I don't have my mover's paperwork any more. I did do temp work at a moving company before moving and saw the results of having the insurance versus not.
We moved from an apartment to a townhouse in 2 days. Sure, we probably have less stuff, but it was still fairly stressful and time consuming.
PPs hit it right on - pack everything NOW. DH packed up our plates and glasses (wrapped in newspaper) and left out one plate, fork, knife, glass, and bowl. Pretty much everything was packed and ready to be loaded into cars. It took quite a few trips, but we managed.
Also, a friend with a truck helped us move all our big stuff (couches, bookshelves, dressers, mirror, kitchen table, etc.).
If you want to save money, focus on the main goal: getting your stuff from A to B. You have time to organize, unpack, and all that stuff at your new place, but you only have three days to move everything you own, plus clean your current place. Don't waste your time on nonsense.
That is high for movers! Not sure I'd trust Craigslist though...
We did hire movers, because personally between me and DH, we couldn't move all of the heavy furniture and boxes of books/dishes, etc. We did move some small items and important/fragile items on our own. Had movers do the rest. It was worth it for us, but the cost was something we had factored in to buying a home/what we could afford.