Every home move begins with one important question: move by yourself or hire movers? Most of the time, it all feels like a tough relocation dilemma and, whether you like it not, you’re going to have to be the one to find the solution that best works for you.
Since both home moving scenarios have their distinct advantages and disadvantages, there isn’t a magic formula that can show you the right answer. However, unless you’re moving just across town, you may be surprised to find out that moving on your own is very rarely worth the hassle.
Find below the top 5 reasons why moving by yourself is not worth the trouble.
1. Too much stress is bad for you
Moving from one home to another is a process that involves a lot of stress almost every step of the way. Even when you hire professional movers to handle the toughest aspects of your move, there may be some stress for you too. You’ll likely be worried if the mover is properly licensed and adequately insured. Also, you may get rather anxious whether or not the pros will show up on time on the day of the move.
However, those worries are nothing compared to the overwhelming amount of stress you will be put under while handling your move all by yourself.
- You can’t carry heavy furniture pieces and overfilled moving boxes all on your own. So, will any of your friends be willing to help you out on the day of the move? That’s definitely something to worry about.
- What if you injure yourself while lifting heavy furniture or move large boxes around? How can you keep move-related accidents from happening?
- Will you be able to protect your valuable possessions from getting damaged during the moving process?
- The mere thought of having to rent and drive a large moving truck across multiple states sounds frightening. And it is.
Stress can be very harmful. Medical experts underline the common effects of stress on the body – headache, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, fatigue, stomach upset, sleep problems, and the mind – anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation or focus, feeling overwhelmed, irritability or anger, sadness or depression.
And you already know the best stress management technique in your case, don’t you?
2. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye
There’s no denying that moving house can be a rather dangerous effort. In fact, there are too many things that can go terribly wrong during a move but nothing is worse than sustaining a personal injury due to an accident. And when big and heavy objects are involved, bad accidents are never out of the question.
If you’ve never had to move house before, the chances are that you won’t really know what it takes to guarantee safety on Moving day. You could hurt your back while lifting improperly your heavy dresser or you could slip and fall due to a single wrong step when taking your sofa out of the home.
When one’s going through the reasons not to move by yourself, possible accidents and potential injuries tend to get overshadowed by the fixed idea of saving a few dollars, if any, by skipping professional movers. Don’t make this rookie mistake.
Yes, you could save some money by organizing a self-move, but at what cost? Factor in the cost of medical bills and extensive time off work, as well as the expense for likely property damage. And how would you label the price of suffering after sustaining an injury?
Using the right type of moving equipment and following the proper lifting techniques can help you avoid trouble when moving by yourself, but the risk for yourself and your loved ones is still there. When you hire experienced movers, you invest in protecting your valuables and keeping yourself out of harm’s way.
See also: How to prevent accidents and injuries when moving
3. Moving by yourself takes FOREVER
In practice, it’s the formidable job of packing for a move that will be the most time-consuming of all tasks in your personal moving checklist. And it’s never only the sheer action of placing your items inside cardboard boxes that will take the most time – it’s mostly the preparation tasks before that that will eat up a large chunk of your time leading up to the move-day. It’s the hours that add up when sorting out your items, then getting rid of the ones you no longer need, then looking for suitable packing materials, and finally – boxing your possessions safely so that they can survive the move.
Therefore, one of the reasons why you shouldn’t move by yourself is the lack of sufficient time to get yourself organized for a self-move. So, when you have roughly a week or less until you need to move out, it’s that expert relocation efficiency that you should rely on to get the job done.
In theory, professional movers are very efficient and are able, in most cases, to finish move-related tasks up to 3 times faster than non-professionals. Professional packers and movers work fast thanks to extensive training and years of experience, but more importantly, they work with safety in mind.
Read also: How to pack for a move quickly
4. Do-It-Yourself moves are expensive too
Most people assume that renting a truck and moving by yourself is always cheaper than hiring a professional moving company to do it all for you, or almost all. And while such an assumption may be true for truly local moves where the distances are not that great, attempting a long-distance move on your own can easily turn into a nightmare from a financial point of view.
You need to understand that each and every mile during a cross-country move increases the cost of moving by yourself to the point where the self-move attempt becomes more expensive than hiring a crew of experienced movers to do it for you much more quickly and safely than you could ever do it without professional assistance.
The home moving process is an expensive affair in general, but self-move expenses can easily soar simply because of the numerous hidden costs of moving on your own:
- purchasing packing materials;
- renting moving equipment;
- fuel and truck rental fees;
- truck rental insurance;
- penalty fees for returning the rental truck late or returning it with less fuel than required;
- parking fees;
- road tolls;
- food and lodgings along the way;
- property damage;
- injuries (medical bills);
- emergency costs.
Paying a good moving company to pack up and transport your personal items hundreds or thousands of miles away is about securing your own safety (and that of your family members), guaranteeing your peace of mind that your valuables are in good hands and transferring the notorious move-related stress to somebody else so you can actually enjoy your home move in your own way.
Must-read: How much does a self-move REALLY cost?
4+1. You just don’t feel like it
And honestly, sometimes you just don’t feel like doing all the hard work that’s involved in a house move. Just the thought of what lies ahead terrifies you and overwhelms you at the same time, and you just can’t be bothered with it.
You don’t have the time, you don’t have the energy, and you definitely don’t have the mindset to survive a self-move without a serious nervous breakdown along the way. And that’s when paying to get full-service movers pays off BIG TIME.
