Removal companies Vs do it yourself

KatieXZoe

Hi, 

I have just had my completion date through for my first house purchase on 30th June! Currently it's just me and my partner, no children and one cat living in a 2 bed rental terraced house. 

Our families are away the weekend we are set to move and therefore are unable to help us with moving our furniture. 

We are both under ,30, which means that when we looked to hire a Luton van, the quotes were around 300 per day, I assume due to us being young drivers. Some companies refused to let us hire altogether. My question is, although having a removal company likely will not be very money saving.. those who have done it.. is it genuinely worth the extra they charge compared to doing it yourself? 

Part of us just wants to bite the bullet and get someone else to move for us, the other part says just suck it up and pay the higher price to rent the van and do it ourselves.. 

MultiFuelBurner

A removal company might only charge you £500-£800 for a 2 bed end of terrace move.

Worth getting some quotes it is a nicer way to move. 

housebuyer143

Yes, best thing ever is having professionals move all the big heavy stuff. I would always hire someone. I quite like packing though so I wouldn't pay for this service.

TheJP

One costs money the other costs your sanity.

MattMattMattUK

Several years ago I helped a friend move, there was me and him, two other friends for an hour and a half to help with the heavy bits and wider family to help with the smaller bits. All of us doing the grunt work were fit, healthy and in our thirties, at the end of it me and my friend were totally broken, the next day I could not even move my arms above my head and over the course of the day my FitBit said I had done nearly 18k steps, nearly all of that would have been carrying something. For the sake of saving a relatively small amount I would say pay a proper removal company, in my opinion it is not worth any potential saving. 

KatieXZoe

MattMattMattUK said:

Several years ago I helped a friend move, there was me and him, two other friends for an hour and a half to help with the heavy bits and wider family to help with the smaller bits. All of us doing the grunt work were fit, healthy and in our thirties, at the end of it me and my friend were totally broken, the next day I could not even move my arms above my head and over the course of the day my FitBit said I had done nearly 18k steps, nearly all of that would have been carrying something. For the sake of saving a relatively small amount I would say pay a proper removal company, in my opinion it is not worth any potential saving. 

Didn't even think about the after effects of moving like this! There will be lots of unpacking to do.. I think we may look into this as a more serious option now

maisie_cat

If you are organised you can do it yourself, but it does depend on the potential saving.
We were quoted £4k and were required to clear our street for the pantechnicon to park. The latter was the bigger problem, a van could park on the drive.
We did it ourselves, just the two of us, we hired a storage unit en-route for a month and did some pre exchange trips.
If you cannot hire a van yourself you could hire a van and driver
If you are in rented now you will probably have overlap time and not need to do it all in one day.

lika_86

Have someone else do it, if there's only two of you it'll be a nightmare. Also, professionals have insurance and all the blankets etc needed for things like TVs. They also pack the van more efficiently so less faff.

youth_leader

I'd recommend getting a removal company for the day after completion if you can rent for that extra day. 

Do clean your rental really, really thoroughly.  I was in rented and thought it would be too hard deep cleaning and moving out at the same time, so I had a three day overlap.  I did my best, but still got a large close up photo of 'ANIMAL DEBRIS/FUR' seen on top of the radiator.  I hadn't remembered to hoover the top of the radiators! I had nearly killed myself shampooing the carpets, they are heavy machines!  I did get my full deposit back, luckily.

You can then move your precious items over the night before, including setting up accommodation for your cat when you take her over in the morning.  I put my cat in the bathroom, in a giant dog cage with her litter tray/bed/food etc, and put tape over the door to stop entry.  I left her with the radio on to drown out some of the noise. Do keep your cat in for at least a month so she/he can get their bearings on your new home. 

TripleH

We moved twice on our own in 2021. It is hard work and you risk damaging things because you forget the little things like a cloth on the floor to stop side of fridge getting scratched.

It's also that the van is packed quite quickly with the bulk of your stuff but the small fiddly items seem to take for ages to pack and eat up more room than you think.

How confident are you in a big van driving especially in the area you are in / going to.

 I scraped off the rear trim on a hire van trying to avoid a motorist. Fortunately I did have excess cover. Are you moving far and do you need as big a van?

We did leave it to the professionals when we moved from South to North.

If you're fit, not moving far and very organised maybe one for you, if not leave to the professionals.

ReadingTim

I won't make any assumptions about the gender of the OP and their partner, but if families are unavailable to help, and with friends not being mentioned, the first question would be whether the OP and partner are physically capable of moving all their stuff themselves?  One person cannot manhandle a washing machine or fridge freezer alone.... 

If not, then the decision has been made for them....