Moving ourselves: Are we crazy?

[Anonymous]

I think you're crazy, but you might think I'm crazy to spend money on movers and packers. If you have the time, strength, and patience, go for it. Or just hire movers for a few hours to move the big pieces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We'll be moving the first week of July, and I'm thinking we should save our money and move ourselves. We are only moving about two miles from our current home, and will have about a week of overlap between closing on our new place and having to be out of the old place. We don't have a ton of furniture, but there will be lots and lots of boxes. The big furniture (what DH couldn't carry by himself and I would't be strong enough to help with) only consists of a couch, one big dresser, a sideboard, and a queen-sized mattress. The rest is all smaller (4 end tables, a broken-down full-size bed, a small bookshelf, dining table and chairs, two small lightweight dressers, two TVs). I'm thinking that if DH asked a friend or two for a couple hours of help with the big stuff, we could manage the rest. We are no strangers to hard work, having just spend several years renovating our home by ourselves. This home purchase and move are going to really strap us for cash, and the $1500-2000 we've been quoted for the move seems like a ton of money!

Thoughts?

I am concerned that you are strapped for cash after the home purchase and don't have 2k on hand.

What happens if you home has a leak or the AC goes out etc...

[Anonymous]

I would consider hiring movers and renting your own u-haul. This can be much cheaper than hiring professional movers. I've done this successfully, and cheaply, in my 20s. But I didn't have anything nice then.

[Anonymous]

I did it when I moved from MD to VA. I didn't have a lot of stuff, but I had heavy stuff. My brother and fiance at the time helped with the heavy lifting and moving. Haven't moved myself again, even this last move when we were moving 1 mile away.

[Anonymous]

The last time we moved, we also moved about 2 miles. We kind of did a middle move. We had not sold our first house when we moved into the second house, so we had the luxury of scheduling at our convenience. So we scheduled the move and then for 2 weeks before hand we slowly moved a bunch of things from old house to new house by the car load. We started by moving closets of clothes that were out-of-season (it was nice to clear out winter clothing and get it moved and put away in the new house so it wasn't in the way at either house). We moved storage items from the attic and various personal belongings and breakables that we didn't want the movers to touch including the computers which I moved a few nights before moving day so that we had computers set up in the new house (we used laptops in the old house for the last few days). We also moved awkward items that would not be easy to pack (we had some 3 dimensional art that would be hard to pack and one or two awkward lamps and a few family heirlooms). We put those in a room where the movers would not be putting much and that would be out of the way.

When it came time, the movers came in and mainly moved furniture, boxes of books, and housewares. We used a smaller truck and saved a few hundred bucks between size of truck and hours that the movers would need to work but still didn't have to do the really heavy lifting. It was a good compromise for us.

[Anonymous]

OP, we are in a similar situation but moving further than 2 miles. I say don't even consider doing it yourself. Do you remember how hot, muggy and horrible it is here in July? You are much better off renting a UHaul and going through them for labor, too. They are bonded and insured and very reasonably priced. We were quoted roughly $90/hour for three men, and even at 4 hours plus the extra fees, the $600 to move will be far less expensive than hiring a company.

[Anonymous]

We just moved and the 2k on the movers was the best 2k I ever spent. That said, we could swing it. If you can't and you have the time and friends, go for it. You will hate it, but you'll have the 2k.

[Anonymous]

I am literally sitting here on the Internet watching movers pack up my stuff, thinking, thank god I hired them. If you're in or shortly out of college and have very little stuff, sure, move yourselves. If you have a household full of stuff, god no, it would be awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, we are in a similar situation but moving further than 2 miles. I say don't even consider doing it yourself. Do you remember how hot, muggy and horrible it is here in July? You are much better off renting a UHaul and going through them for labor, too. They are bonded and insured and very reasonably priced. We were quoted roughly $90/hour for three men, and even at 4 hours plus the extra fees, the $600 to move will be far less expensive than hiring a company.

Be wary. YOu are going to end up paying more than you think. 1) Packing and moving stuff takes longer than you think. 2) Movers being paid by the hour move more slowly than you can imagine.

[Anonymous]

OP, have you helped any friends move in the last couple of years? If so, you probably have a pool of free labor (or at least for the minimal cost of pizza and beer). We and 8 friends/family moved everything out of a 1 bedroom apartment into our house 3-4 miles away in about 4 hours (one trip with a U-Haul). It really wasn't bad with so many people helping. The key is to have everything boxed up beforehand and to rent a big enough truck to take everything in one trip. It's also good to have someone with a good sense of spatial relations in charge of deciding how to fit the furniture into the truck.

[Anonymous]

I'm am incredibly cheap and was totally cash strapped when we bought our house a decade ago. My friends still jag me about it but I'm glad we did it.
It's a ton of work and, frankly, would have been a lot easier if my wife was somewhere far far away that day.

[Anonymous]

We have used movers help from the Uhaul website twice for moves. It has worked out great both times. You rent the truck and help but these guys will move big stuff, loads of boxes, etc. It cost us $200-300. Depends how many guys you want and for how long.

http://www.uhaul.com/MovingHelp/

[Anonymous]

I think past a certain age (perhaps late 20s) it's time to forget about asking friends for help and offering them small sums or money or "beer and pizza" to assist...buck up and pay for the service, unless you're in dire straits.

[Anonymous]

we hired moved for the first time the last time we moved. We went from a 2 bdrm 2nd floor condo. Movers (my truck buddy) cost us $600, and yes this is in the DC area. Best money I EVER spent.

The way I see it is that if you are adult enough to buy a hosue then you are adult enough to not be forcing friends to move your crap. I know that for me I am at the age where I am over doing that sort of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, we are in a similar situation but moving further than 2 miles. I say don't even consider doing it yourself. Do you remember how hot, muggy and horrible it is here in July? You are much better off renting a UHaul and going through them for labor, too. They are bonded and insured and very reasonably priced. We were quoted roughly $90/hour for three men, and even at 4 hours plus the extra fees, the $600 to move will be far less expensive than hiring a company.

Be wary. YOu are going to end up paying more than you think. 1) Packing and moving stuff takes longer than you think. 2) Movers being paid by the hour move more slowly than you can imagine.

not true at all. the movers we hired were great. They quotes us 4-6 hours to get the job done and came in right at 4 hours. These guys worked the entire time.