Removals quoted £3,157.60 for 3 bed detached house in North East

Tigsteroonie

We have a disabled son, doing my own packing was a saving that I wasn't prepared to make - it was so hassle-free to let somebody else pack up the household just 24hrs before moving  

blue_max_3

There's a reason it's considered one of the most stressful things you can do. Anything that helps has got to be money well spent!

RelievedSheff

This is the reason that we packed our own items and belongings and then hired a (fully insured) man and van service. They turned up with three men and two vans and had our ready packed boxes and furniture loaded onto the van in an hour. They then took the spare van to their next job and met us with our stuff at the new house and had it all unpacked and in the relevant rooms in another hour. This was moving from a 2 bed semi to a 3 bed detached.

Total cost £300.

The move went very easily and very stress free and it helped that we labelled each box with the contents and the room it needed to be in.

We had a massive clear out and dejunk before we moved as we figured there was no point moving clutter and junk that we did not need to take with us.

dimbo61

If you can declutter and recycle anything you don't want in the new property that's a good start.
My lovely wife started packing and sorting what was moving and what was junk for the bins weeks in advance.
You can order flat pack moving boxes from eBay.
Not too big and plenty of tape to make secure. Black marker to label each box Fragile and what room !
We used local firm and 3 vans turned up on the day with 4 staff.
Cost about £850 to move 2 miles.

maisie_cat

We were quoted nearly £5k, you are paying for the labour, the big truck and the convenience of it all moving on one day. Once we'd ascertained that all removals are the expensive option we hired a storage unit, hired a van and dumped all the stuff that we could live without for a month or two. On moving day we just had a van load, and emptied the unit a few weeks later, we saved at least £3k that way. It was just the 2 of us and would have been better if we'd been able to get help, but we managed in the end and the bickering was soon forgotten.

TBagpuss

Shop around and look at how the figure breaks down.

for instance, last time I moved, (6 years ago) the amount I paid included packing and them doing stuff like reconnecting the washing machine and dishwasher, and re-assembling beds and things which were dismantled for the move. 
The costs included costs for all the boxes (I have thousands of books) on the basis that I had (I think) 30 days to return the boxes and get a refund, after which I was assumed to have bought them. I can't now recall the price but I did get 3 quotes and the one from a big national company was more than double the smaller local firm I eventually used (who were also fully isured, members of the appropriate trade body etc) 
I was going from a 2 bed to a 3 bed,  about 15 miles apart. 
Getting them to do the packing was the best decision I made - they showed up the say before the move, packed almost everything, then came back in the morning to do the bed etc, and unpacked everything except the boxes full of books and kitchen stuff. 

dexterwolf

Wow for that price I would get a man in a van big Luton and about 3 trips for 500/600 quid. Then the other 2500 would put to one side as insurance in case any items were damaged. 

Slithery

dexterwolf said:

Wow for that price I would get a man in a van big Luton and about 3 trips for 500/600 quid. Then the other 2500 would put to one side as insurance in case any items were damaged. 

If the OP is buying/selling in a chain then it's not possible to do more than one trip.

phoebe1989seb

We've never used the packing service, preferring to pack our treasured items ourselves, and have paid £2500, £3600 and £4300. The most expensive involved moving from a six bed to a five (including a massive hot tub!) and the cheapest from a five bed to another five, although we had decluttered massively by then.

Each time we had quotes from several removal firms, both national and local. Although there was a slight variation in price, none were less than £2200 and when we did the £4300 move, the most expensive quote was in excess of £5k.

We also did a couple of large, long distance moves without using removers - one completely DIY and one using a man (actually two men) with van and into storage. Tbh, it didn't save a massive amount, took days (we used to have loads of stuff.....and when it's long distance you can obviously only do one trip per day ) and imho wasn't worth the small amount we saved.

Next time (if there is one), I'd go back to using the professionals.

hpotter

I’m currently looking at removals costs and have had 4 different companies in so far. The quotes are anything from £4.5k to £6.5k and that’s with us doing the packing! We live in a 3 bed end of terrace in West Essex moving to Suffolk. I wish our quote was £3k! We’d also budgeted £2k so wildly underestimated it! The only thing I have insisted upon is that they are members of BAR.