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Status:
" Charleston South Carolina"
(set 9 days ago)
Location: home...finally, home .
8,816 posts, read 21,285,041 times
Reputation: 20102
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I will be moving across the country & although I am looking forward to the move itself, the idea of packing and actually moving is overwhelming. Has anyone had experience in having the MOVERS do the packing? What exactly do they do? How much extra do they charge & do you think that it's worth the extra money?
Thanks for any help.
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I didnt pay - it was a corporate relo. I packed the easy stuff (kids toys, books, linen closet) months in advance. they did the rest and did a good job. warning - at the end - they scoop all your "junkdrawers" into a box and you get it how you left it. I would do it again though!
My wife and I are considering the same thing. My company is paying for most of my relocation, so it takes alot of the sting out of the moving bill. So far, we've gotten three quotes to move from CA to CO and each one charged around $800 extra to pack our stuff (we have a large-ish 1 bedroom). I am leaning towards letting them pack it, although my wife doesnt like the idea of other people touching her stuff (especially her clothes).
That being said, from everything I've heard, the movers are better packers than we are, so if youre looking for the least amount of breakage, it may be worth it.
I've done the corporate relo 5 times so I didnt pay for it. I do like the service though...if something breaks they pay for it. FWIW I haven't had much breakage, just some chips in a desk and a glass or two.
DH was military for twenty years and we moved approx. every 2 years and movers packed everything. Our last move (as civilians) required that we pay for the move, so we did the packing. Inconvenient, but worth saving the money to us. Our last 2 professional moves were a bit over $17,000. The move we did ourselves cost us about $200 in supplies, about $500 for loaders/unloaders, and $2800 for the Broadway Express truck. It wasn't fun, but certainly worth the savings.
My last move was about 20 years ago from Ohio to Tennessee...we had the movers pack for us and I have to say it was the smoothest move I've ever made! Truly, it took a lot of stress out of the scenario for us.
One word of caution though...go through your junk drawers ahead of time and throw out the stuff you don't need. Also empty your trash before they start packing or they'll pack it up to move it with you! Yep...it happened to me with a small bathroom trash can...they packed it trash and all and it got moved to Tennessee! LOL!
Also empty your trash before they start packing or they'll pack it up to move it with you!
And I would also advise you to put your "dirty" linens in a separate bag or box if you can't wash it before the removal, or it may be packed with clean stuff!
My wife and I are considering the same thing. My company is paying for most of my relocation, so it takes alot of the sting out of the moving bill. So far, we've gotten three quotes to move from CA to CO and each one charged around $800 extra to pack our stuff (we have a large-ish 1 bedroom). I am leaning towards letting them pack it, although my wife doesnt like the idea of other people touching her stuff (especially her clothes).
That being said, from everything I've heard, the movers are better packers than we are, so if youre looking for the least amount of breakage, it may be worth it.
Them packing clothes is one of the best parts of having them pack for you! They have large wardrobe boxes that have a pole in them to hang the clothes right on the hanger! The wardrobe boxes make it a snap to move clothes and so forth!
We did this. It was necessary. We ended up with several hundred boxes. We had an army of neighbors come to our house and pack but we still had a lot left that the movers had to do. Our army of neighbors working 8-10 hours a day (even while I was gone) saved us about $2500. They also did a much better job generally. Neighbors look at each item and make a decision as to whether it should be packed and whether it needs special protection. They set some things aside for us to take in the car, because they were just too fragile or valuable.
The "professionals" really know a lot about how to pack certain items, but they do not care about your stuff at all. That is why they have insurance. Further, they get paid by the box, so they have incentive to under fill each box.
We did not unpack most of the boxes for over a year after we moved. When we finally unpacked, we found several broken items because they were just tossed into a box with no packing. We also found that they had packed the trash out of the trash can in one box. Another box contained an immense amount of packing material wrapped around a wrench (which did not need protection). The packing material filled the entire box.
For the most part they did a decent job. They did a better job packing fragile items than I or my helpful neighbors did (the packers have better materials for this purpose). Considering that they packed around 200 boxes, five our six screwball boxes is not a terrible record, but it did make me a bit angry. The excessively wrapped wrench and the packed and bubble wrapped trash made me madder than the things that were broken. If I had to do it again, I am not sure if I would use them, but I would certainly watch them carefully. I would also unpack everything upon arrival Werther I was ready to unpack or not. When we found the broken items more than a year later, it was far to late to tell them that it was their responsibility.
One side note, if you have mechanical clocks (usually antique) do not let them pack them. If you do not know how to prepare and pack a clock for shipping, take it to a clock store and have them do it for you
I would not do it. My parents did this and a lot of my mothers china cubby stuff was "missing" Stuff you can't replace like my great grams red glass salt shakers with silver tops. A silver tea set and full service set that was a wedding present to them. I will never ever let anyone touch my stuff. I think its really best to just downsize and DIY. Just do one room a day and its really easy.
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