Moving on Your Own: Pros and Cons
When planning a move, you could be thinking about hiring professional movers or doing it on your own. A move can be a stressful ordeal, which could stretch for days. Without the right approach, you could lose time and money and end up unhappy with the results.
To make the right decision when planning your next relocation, you can consider the pros and cons of hiring movers vs moving on your own. While working with the movers may seem to be costly and complicated, many people end up hiring experts anyway. At the same time, others feel more comfortable arranging the entire process without assistance.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of moving on your own.
Benefits of Moving on Your Own
Moving without assistance has several important advantages.
1. You Can Save Money
A move can be costly, especially if you have many belongings, furniture, and equipment. When you estimate the costs of a move, paying anything extra for moving your items could seem overwhelming.
Moving without assistance could save you money. However, you still need to factor in expenses for renting a truck. Make sure to ask several moving companies for an estimate to figure out whether moving on your own is truly a cost-cutting measure.
When you move without the help of a moving company, you have to consider such expenses as:
- Paying for a babysitter if you have kids
- Rewarding friends and family for helping you with the move
- Taking time off work
- Buying packaging materials
- Paying for damages if any
In the end, you may be better off hiring movers than trying to save money doing everything on your own.
2. You Make Your Own Schedule
When you move on your own, you can pick the exact date and time for a move. With a moving company, you need to make arrangements in advance. In some cases, you may find the movers you’ve chosen are busy on your preferred date.
If you have a change of plans, you can simply change the moving date. If you hire professional movers, you may need to pay a cancellation fee.
However, when you move on your own and change the move date, you need to adjust truck rental arrangements and make new plans with friends, whom you asked for help.
So, according to experts from Toronto movers, Torex Moving, even though you have more control of the date and time, you still need to work with other people when rescheduling a move.
3. You Handle Your Belongings Yourself
For some people, having a stranger touch their things can be stressful. When it comes to moving on your own, you don’t have to worry about this matter. However, if you ask your friends or family for help, you need to settle for them touching your stuff.
4. You Don’t Need to Search for Perfect Movers
Looking for the right movers can take some time. To make sure your move goes smoothly, you need to check the references, make sure the company is licensed and insured, verify the address, check professional accreditation, visit the office, and much more.
All of this takes time. If you skip the above process, you could be dealing with numerous problems during the move. When you move on your own, you don’t have to worry about the moving company, thus saving precious time.
Disadvantages of Moving on Your Own
While moving on your own can give you more freedom, the process comes with many disadvantages:
- You have to search for assistants since moving heavy items without help is impossible.
- You have to buy all the packing materials and pack belongings on your own.
- You are likely to spend much more time moving without professional help than you would with it.
- If some of the items get damaged during the move, you won’t get compensated.
- You have to take full control of the move, which could be stressful.
- You need to lift heavy items.
Final Thoughts
While moving on your own seems to be an excellent way to save money, it’s often counterproductive. In the end, you are likely to waste both time and resources while risking your health. Unless your move is extremely small, consider hiring professional movers.
