AIBU to think there must be an alternative to hiring a removals van?

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AIBU in thinking there MUST be an alternative to hiring a removals company when you are only moving a couple of doors down the road?
It seems bonkers to have to pay over a grand (local rates are expensive!) to load lots of stuff in a van, drive 30 metres and unload it all, but apparently as everyone in the chain needs to exchange at the same time there isn't an alternative as the properties all need to be empty simultaneously.
Any ideas?!!

Do you actually have any experience buying a property? No solicitor would let you do that!

We hired a shipping container for 4 weeks for £100, and boxed as much and we could in that time and stored it. Then hired 2 trucks on the day for the rest of the house for £500. Moved it all then emptied the shipping container into 1 truck and done. Our best removal quote was £3k though.

We moved 3 miles away and needed 3 Luton vans. Worth every penny

You're not paying for the driving part so much as well, removal, though? Literally removing things from one location to another. It's no easier to wrangle a sofa out of a door and back into another one because there's a short distance between the two properties.

There isn't. Don't even try.

I’d pay for a removal service. They know how to get large bits of furniture down awkward stairs which is something most of us would struggle with. They will be far more efficient and quicker than you doing it yourself. Plus they are insured.

These are all excellent points I needed to hear! Thank you!

Good point re what the money is paying for.

Oh good grief! Maybe it will be more expensive than I imagined!

That is a good point - we do have v awkward stairs... And I have the upper body strength of a marshmallow

We moved within the same village and hired a van and did loads of trips. It was absolutely horrendous and by the end of the day I’d have paid every penny I had to a removal firm to do it for me. Feel free to learn from my error 😁

We moved five minutes’ drive away, from one side of our little town to the other. We hired a self-drive van for 2 days, the day before completion and day of. The first load went a few miles away to my parents’ garage on the day before moving day; the second we moved on moving day into the garage of our new home. This meant we could clean thoroughly (and in fact replace all the upstairs carpets, too) before we had to unpack into the new house. Much easier than trying to move all our stuff to re carpet after we’d moved everything in. I couldn’t imagine just moving all our things straight into a home we hadn’t cleaned throughly ourselves, even if it superficially looked clean.

Get quotes on www.shiply.com.

It's like an eBay for small or large removals. They keep the costs down by combining jobs. You accept the quote you like best after reviewing costs and reading customer feedback.

I've moved 5 times in 5 years, 3 with movers and twice without because I was a cocky fucker who thought I could do it myself with a friend or two. Its fucking gruelling, takes HOURS longer then you think it will because professionals do it in in one load with a big truck not multiple, they can get furniture up and down far easier then I could because they know what they're doing.

We moved to a second floor apartment and worked out we had each gone up and down the stairs 83 times in one day doing it ourselves.

Never again. I will spend that money now without a second thought. Not a single second thought

We had the luxury of time on our side moving with no chain on either end so could do the ferrying on a friend's open truck. We also got lucky on a nice day in summer so no issue with our possessions being affected by the weather. It also helped that we were upsizing and had an avaliable downstairs room to put things in for sorting later. Oh and DS was a young enough baby not to have too much stuff by that point.

When friend moved a longer distance they also did DIY, but for the stress and shunting up and down with time and milage costs, that was definitely a false economy.

Declutter before packing time too. Don't pack what won't serve you in your new life/ home. (DM never did fully unpack from her move nearly 40 years ago, so that was a waste of lugging those boxes around!)

With a time pressure it's worth having professional help and you can try and see if such a local move can have the reduced milage and transport time taken into account.

Horses or well trained dogs 😂
Also in stitches at the human chain suggestion - passing a sofa around like pass the parcel. (I would never do that as I only have 2 friends)

Removals are so much better than a load of friends helping. They are insured for one, can pack the van in the best way, dismantle and put furniture together again etc and take a huge amount of stress and pressure of you on moving day. Having moved several times, would never do it myself, they are worth their weight in gold.

A cart on wheels?

I don’t see how you can try to negotiate the cost just because it’s a short distance - you’re still paying for the same amount of labour and a van for the day? Surely it’s not very unusual to be moving only a short distance?

Oh God this!

It is more than 25 years since we last moved and we used professional removers then.

But 3 years ago DD bought a flat about 15 miles away and was moving there from home. At first DH glibly said "Oh hire a van. I'll drive it and we will help". However, as I began to realise how much stuff she actually had, and bearing in mind DH and I are in our 60s now, I put my foot down. Well TBH I said hire a firm and we will pay.

So, so glad. Her flat was on the second floor. Even the removal men had a little difficulty negotiating the stairs with the 3 seater sofa and, if that hadn't defeated us, I think the dozens of boxes of books would have finished us off.

Having packed at the end of guide camp using a human chain, and then packing/unpacking several times while at uni and going into first flat, there was no way on earth I would ever do a DIY move again. I've managed to find the funds somehow for moving each time, or negotiated a relocation package with the new job.
It's money well spent, even if you're only moving to the next street.

Wheelbarrow?

Erm just move it yourself?

My first house was literally a street away from where I was living so I carried everything (not that much) over.

When DH sold his house we drove all his stuff across the country in two hired Luton vans.

When we bought this house we moved everything ourselves with hired vans.

The difference was we have always made sure there was no chain and paid rent/double mortgages for a month to give us the time and space to do it that way.

Man and a van is far cheaper. You need 2 strong people to lift so many you hire plus one other person. The rest load up into smaller boxes that are easier to carry into van. Person you hire will stay in back of van and load it up.