Do it myself or let someone handle it?

[Deleted]

It's official, time to move again is in two weeks and I HATE moving ... When I have to do all the heavy lifting that is.

First time I moved for my company I opted for the $500 incentive to do it yourself, refund of mileage, gas, meals, truck rental etc. That $500 was so not worth it.

Second time I did 50/50, move some of the stuff I could lift by myself and movers did the other heavy items: bedroom, living room furniture, etc.

This time around I am letting them do all the lifting or 90% of it at least. But the moving company just called and left a voicemail asking if I need them to also pack for us?

They were closed by the time I got the message so did not give them an answer yet but I am really tempted to say yes. My wife said: are you really that lazy?

You know what? Yes I am. We are both taking a week vacation so we can pack up the apartment, clean etc. There is a lot of other things I could do with my time instead of packing: like sleeping, watching tv or work and save some of my vacation days for another time.

Is paying people to pack/unpack for you (or your company paying) taking it a bit too far? Is that lazy?

[Sum Dum Gai]

Is paying people to pack/unpack for you (or your company paying) taking it a bit too far? Is that lazy?

The military movers will pack and ship, and the one time we let them do everything was the easiest move we've ever had to deal with. SOOO worth it!!!

Oh, is it lazy? Uh... I guess, but I am lazy and moving is a pain in the ass, so whatevs.

[Angel!]

I wouldn't trust other people to pack my stuff. I'm all anal & weird like that. I've never hired movers, partly for the same reason, but partly because I am just cheap. But, then I also have had H for the last several moves & who needs movers when he insists on moving stuff like washers & dryers by himself (he did let me help with the couch ). I think it would have killed him to pay someone to do something he could easily do.

[Angel!]

May 17, 2012 16:56:43 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Is paying people to pack/unpack for you (or your company paying) taking it a bit too far? Is that lazy?

The military movers will pack and ship, and the one time we let them do everything was the easiest move we've ever had to deal with. SOOO worth it!!!

Oh, is it lazy? Uh... I guess, but I am lazy and moving is a pain in the ass, so whatevs.

Yes, but if you do it yourself they pay you for the move ;D. I don't remember how it worked & I remember ex thinking they screwed up somehow, but they paid us close to $3K for packing & moving ourselves 750 miles to Killeen. My company only reimbursed me $1500 for the move back (which I also did myself)

[Sum Dum Gai]

Yes, but if you do it yourself they pay you for the move

True, and that's why we moved ourselves on all but the last one. You know what, it wasn't worth the money. We should have let them move us every time.

I wouldn't trust other people to pack my stuff. I'm all anal & weird like that.

I was a little worried about it too, but they did a way better packing job than I would have. We actually had a few boxes of breakables that we'd packed beforehand and once I saw how they were packing the rest of the stuff, I pulled the china out of the pre-packed boxes and let them do that too. They were really good, and friggin fast! They moved our entire household's worth of stuff from Colorado to California and not a single thing broke.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

I don't mind the packing, in fact, I kinda like it. But I've hired movers to do the heavy lifting the last three times, and it's definitely money well-spent!! Especialy if you have a multi-story home.

[constanz22]

May 17, 2012 17:08:02 GMT -5 Rocky Mtn Saver said:

I don't mind the packing, in fact, I kinda like it. But I've hired movers to do the heavy lifting the last three times, and it's definitely money well-spent!! Especialy if you have a multi-story home.

Yep, same here. I hired movers my last move, it really wasn't all that expensive, and worth every penny. I once moved 3 times in a little over a year. That SUCKED and I did it all myself, with some help from friends and family. That's all good in your late 20's, not so much in your late 30's. I will probably never move again, but would pay for it again in a heartbeat!

[Angel!]

May 17, 2012 17:04:53 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I wouldn't trust other people to pack my stuff. I'm all anal & weird like that.

I was a little worried about it too, but they did a way better packing job than I would have.

That is good. It was slightly a disaster (IMO) when we hired a company to pack up our office. We packed up our individual cubes & they packed everything else. Mostly in huge 4'x4'x3' boxes where they just threw everything in the boxes in a mish-mash. We couldn't find stuff for weeks after that & throwing everything in a box that big means that stuff gets shifted, squished, torn, bent, etc. Bleh.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

May 17, 2012 17:12:54 GMT -5 constanz22 said:

May 17, 2012 17:08:02 GMT -5 Rocky Mtn Saver said:

I don't mind the packing, in fact, I kinda like it. But I've hired movers to do the heavy lifting the last three times, and it's definitely money well-spent!! Especialy if you have a multi-story home.

Yep, same here. I hired movers my last move, it really wasn't all that expensive, and worth every penny. I once moved 3 times in a little over a year. That SUCKED and I did it all myself, with some help from friends and family. That's all good in your late 20's, not so much in your late 30's.

The first time you get to sit in a lawn chair and watch someone else schlep your bookshelves and mattresses up and down stairs, it's like HEAVEN!

[swamp]

I have never hired a mover and never even considered it. I guess it falls under the lis tof things I feel weird about doing because I'm perfectly capable of doing it.

When DH and I moved into our current house, me, my dad,a nd his 2 friends did it with my Blazer and 2 pickup trucks. DH couldn't get the time off work n

[Deleted]

Lazy according to whom? YOUR money should be spent in ways that enhance your life. Sorry, but i never seemed to have a pack of friends with time and truck. If you do, then it is probably a fun thing to do. I don't want to "do it myself". There are some things i don't want to do myself. Is it "lazy" not to churn your own butter? Did you build your own house entirely by hand? Do you make your own wool and grow your own cotton and all of that? Lazy is a relative term.

[quince]

Lazy is a GOOD thing, as long as you're also motivated to get things done. You find the most efficient and effective way of getting things done- which might be letting someone else pack the damned boxes!

[weltschmerz]

My son is a crew chief for a moving company. Most people opt to have their stuff packed for them.
Movers really hate it when people say "Oh! Didn't I mention that we have a piano?"
If the movers are there all day, please at least offer them some water. Springing for a pizza is nice.

[Rocky Mtn Saver]

May 17, 2012 18:59:51 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

My son is a crew chief for a moving company. Most people opt to have their stuff packed for them.
Movers really hate it when people say "Oh! Didn't I mention that we have a piano?"
If the movers are there all day, please at least offer them some water. Springing for a pizza is nice.

I was one of those "well, we thought we wanted all that furniture upstairs, but now we are thinking the basement..."

And we always feed and hydrate our movers. I know we don't have to, but it seems like the humane thing to do. ;D

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Last time I moved, I let the company both pack and move me. Easiest move ever, once everything was set up.

Total losses was a broken pizza stone.

You are still going to have to unack everything yourself.......

[deantrip]

On a related note, how much does it cost to have movers come in and do everything professionally? Just curious

[lexpenguin]

I've never had anyone pack for me, but I've hired movers for the actual move.

Part of my thinking was that I'm not really thrilled when friends want me to do free labour for them (including hand making wedding invitations or helping with a move, etc.) at this stage in life (when we were all broke 20 year-olds, it was totally different) so I won't ask them - and it's probably not fair to keep asking my 70 old dad to keep lifting my furniture around, either.

Generally, if I can't do it entirely by myself (or with my husband) we hire people.

[bean29]

I tried to hire movers for our move from our last house to an apt. DH and his Mother decided it was not necessary. Move day rolled around and workaholic DH was still not home at 6 pm. MIL was really upset w /him but guess who got to listen to her.

MIL is a little more careful to check with me now.

Next time I will hire movers.

With the number of moves you expect to make-I think you should go the lazy way, otherwise moving will feel more like a hassle.

Sent from my MB855 using ProBoards

[cronewitch]

My favorite move was when married and in college. I went to school and came home to the new apartment. My ex hired someone to help him move, a son of a friend. He knew I didn't really want to move so he said he would do all the moving and did.

I have never hired movers but my brother hired them and then the same ones again to move mom. Two men and a truck and the guys were great about putting things where you want them then moving them when you change your mind.

We are all over 60 now and my nephew has a really bad back so moving next time is going to be too much for me. I will probably do most of it because I don't think you can get movers to do things like moving boats and I don't want them packing my personal things. So I will buy the new house then start taking trips with my pickup full of boxes. Then for furniture and garage moving hire some cheap labor and rent a truck maybe twice so it isn't so much at once. I have a large house, 6 car garage, 3 boats, 3 trucks, a car, a camper, sheds full of stuff and a basement full of stuff so moving isn't like apartment to apartment moving. I will try to get rid of stuff so I don't have to move it too.

[constanz22]

May 17, 2012 21:40:21 GMT -5 deantrip said:

On a related note, how much does it cost to have movers come in and do everything professionally? Just curious

It depends on a lot of different factors, but, mainly, how big of a house/apt and how much crap you have, how much heavy stuff/big furniture you have and how far you are moving. I didn't have them pack for me, just load a 3 BR, and basement 1200 sf house and move 20 miles, was about $400 ish for 3 guys with tip. It took maybe 5 hours and I had a lot of crap. I rented the truck though and had a coworker drive it. It was more for them to do it. They came to the house a couple weeks prior to the move to see what all you have before giving a price. I think most of the places that offered packing charged by the hour. I found my movers through e-move or e-movers. It was linked through Uhaul's website. I was very happy with them.

[Deleted]

all of you that like to pack and move, come down here and help me!!!!

If I could pay someone to pack and move our stuff, I'd do it in a heartbeat. There really isn't much that I *wouldn't* pay someone to do if I could afford it.

[MN-Investor]

When DH and I go on a long trip in which we drive, we rent a car instead of putting the miles on our own car. Economically, it makes sense.

Likewise, if we were to move, I would not want to put the wear and tear on our bodies. Granted, we're in our 50s now, but it's still an arduous task to pack and move a whole household. Even if you hired someone to move the large items, there's still a lot of bending and lifting to move everything else. I'd save my energy for the unpacking which is something that we would have to do anyway.

We wish my father had listened to us and left all the packing to the movers. At ages 79 and 80, my mom and dad moved to be closer to my brother and me. Dad decided to not wait for the movers and to move the steel shelving units that had been upstairs on his own. Mom stood at the bottom of the stairs and Dad lost his grip. The shelving slammed into Mom and caused her to crash into a table behind her. She ended up with a compression fraction to her back. With her osteoporosis, she was essentially laid up for the next month. So much for her helping with any packing after that!

[Deleted]

I guess i don't understand why people feel they have to justify how they spend their money to other people. I don't have to have any reason to hire a mover, other than i just want to and that works for me and that is how i choose to spend the money i earn. I don't have to justify my time, health or give reasons to anyone. If someone else wants to think that is "lazy" that is their problem, not mine. It isn't any of their business how i spend the money I earned.

[Formerly SK]

I've never hired movers (we have a lot of friends who will happily work for pizza/beer) but I can't say I'm against it. I don't think I'd ever hire someone to pack though because moving IMO is the perfect time to purge. You rarely get moments when you are emptying every book from a shelf or item from a closet. I always use the opportunity to decide how much I really care about the item and then often send it to Goodwill.

[Angel!]

May 18, 2012 8:25:42 GMT -5 MN-Investor said:

When DH and I go on a long trip in which we drive, we rent a car instead of putting the miles on our own car. Economically, it makes sense.

Does it really though? This logic has never made sense to me unless you are leasing or only plan to keep the car X number of years & want to limit depreciation during that time frame.

If you plan to drive the car until it dies, it seems depreciation would be a non-issue & the cost of maintenance per mile would be far lower than the cost to rent.

Even the depreciation is going to be variable. I just looked up my car on KBB & if I had 50,000 fewer miles, my car would be worth ~$3K more. If I had 50,000 more miles, my car would be worth ~$3K less. So that comes out to about 6 cents/mile depreciation.

I know the govt uses 55 cents/mile is driving costs, but I have found with my car it is far, far lower. Like so far maintenance has cost me ~3 cents/mile & gas costs me ~10 cents/mile (but you will still have to pay that for a rental). Add in the 6 cents/mile depreciation & you are looking at a cost of less than 20 cents/mile. You could say 25 cents/mile if you want to assume some major ($5K) repair in my future. I don't see how a rental will cost less, because you will still have the gas costs.

I really don't see the value in renting vs driving your own car.

[Deleted]

Moving sucks, but you are young and strong. Do you own moving if it saves $500.

[Deleted]

$500? When is the last time you moved? It costs in the K's to pack and move an entire household. I thought a snakey accountant like you would be more knowledgable.!

[Deleted]

May 18, 2012 8:55:44 GMT -5 @shooby said:

$500? When is the last time you moved? It costs in the K's to pack and move an entire household. I thought a snakey accountant like you would be more knowledgable.!

I am just going by what Cawaiu posted in the OP.

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

I have done both kinds of moves and have several family members in the moving business. I definitely prefer to pay the movers (and that incldes being in areas where I don't get a family discount).

One big thing to consider is the liability if you pack yourself. If they are taking the boxes and you choose to pack everything, generallly the liability for them is none if the stuff gets broken during transit (The assumption is that you probably packed it wrong). They will note which boxes they packed (CP-carrier packed) versus which ones you packed (shipper packed). My experience is that professional movers do a good job packing and don't scrimp on the paper/boxes (will not cram everything into one box. Will use more boxes to ensure your stuff doesn't get smashed). They generally get paid based on the pounds + distance for the move so there is no incentive to have a smaller size of boxes (where there might be that incentive with you since you buy the boxes and rent the truck based on size).

Go for the pros and let them do what they do. They are generally worth it!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

May 17, 2012 21:40:21 GMT -5 deantrip said:

On a related note, how much does it cost to have movers come in and do everything professionally? Just curious

For me, a 1 BR apartment from TX to KY it ran about $4000.