How much cheaper to move yourself?

[Northey]

I had originally planned to use a full packings and removals service but as other unexpected costs are popping up I'm starting to panic about money and think about doing it myself. Is it just the cost of vehicle hire, petrol and hefty box purchase, or is there anything I'm forgetting? I'm trying to work out if it's really worth it in cost terms.

Have you had quotes for removals?

It is so so much easier to get someone else to do it for you - they are like locusts going round making everything disappear in an hour.

Any cost saving by doing it yourself will cost you in wrinkles and grey hair from the stress of it

What Patty said. We moved ourselves once as it was only a mile down the road and seemed silly to get a removal firm.

Never again!

By way of a quick tip, Pickfords will negotiate their prices so any quote you get from them you can knock off at least 10% with no arguing. If you are a hard nosed negotiator, you could probably knock them down even more.

Pickfords website came up with £1000. But I am not working at the moment, so actually do have time to pack (and to be honest would welcome the activity), and it looks like hiring a van would be under £100, petrol would be £100ish, boxes - ummm, say £100 (I have no idea how many we'd need but can't be more than that). £300 v £1000 seems quite tempting.

You'll probably get it cheaper with Pickfords if you pack yourself and just let them do the lugging of it all.

You'd probably get it even cheaper with a local independent firm.

It only takes one dropped tv / computer to blow any saving you may make.

Re hiring a van - you will probably need at least 2 if not 3 days hire as it takes a long time to load / unload and may need multiple trips, so you may need to have it the day before to load up and leave stuff on it that you haven't managed to unload etc

We bought/collected boxes and packed everything up ourselves last time then got a local removals man to come (with some other big strapping fellas) to do the actual moving bit. I like the packing up bit and think it's worthwhile having a big sort out but wouldnt fancy the actual moving. Cost about £250 from memory so not much more than a van/petrol and significantly less effort!

We packed ourselves, but got Pickfords to do the actual moving. They still supply all the boxes and packing materials for you even if you self-pack - they deliver the stuff a week or two before (whenever you like, really) so you can pack up.

See what they'd charge just for moving? Will you fit everything in one van load?

I think so. We don't have masses of furniture. Though our sofas are immense and will require window removal :(

One factor is that DP and I are living apart at the moment (me in our old flat with all our stuff, and he in the new house with no furniture). We are under offer at the moment, and had planned to wait for exchange before moving, in case the sale falls through and we have to re-market (everyone seems to say that houses sell better when viewers see them furnished). Or if we decide to let it instead, we would need to have all the furniture back in again. But I am suddenly hit with a huge lonely desire to move now. I think that's why I'm tempted by this cheaper sort of halfway house, so we could almost afford to move in two stages - clothes and books and bookcases sort of stuff. And then big furniture things when I feel more confident that the sale will actually happen.

I've been quoted £395 for a three bed semi to move 15 miles by a small independent company. I always do the packing myself to save costs and to have a sort out. I always consider it money well invested after I did it once myself and makes the moving day itself immeasurably easier.

Sofas through the window sounds nightmarish and like a disaster waiting to happen...

It is horrid when your DP moves and you're left behind. We did this on our last move as I couldn't get an early leaving date (made me work my full 3 month notice period as they couldn't recruit a replacement - I'm irreplaceable, me ) but DH had to move as his job couldn't wait for him. I spent a very sad and lonely month and hated every minute of it!

Thanks emsyj. It is quite shit, especially as I've now stopped work so have nothing to distract me from my loooooooneliness. I just don't want to go and live in his house with no stuff - he is sleeping on the floor, surrounded by piles of clean pants sort of thing. I want to be back with him, but not quite like that. I like sleeping in a bed.

I wonder if I dare risk just moving everything and hoping that the same actually completes.

That the sale actually completes.

We moved ourselves this summer. Never again. Saved about £300 & went mad.

What was so maddening about it, Rilla? Am still tempted...

Me again!!! Our problem was mainly that the van we hired wasn't big enough to fit all our furniture in, so we had to do lots of trips and that was hideous. Also it is quite strenuous moving furniture around, and heavy boxes of books etc. I am just naturally very lazy I suppose!

When we moved using Pickfords, we just stood there whilst they whipped everything out of the house. They struggled a bit with a mahoossive old desk that we had upstairs (in a very small terraced house with a steep staircase) and I think if we'd been doing the move ourselves we'd have had to just abandon it.

My parents always moved themselves. Well I say themselves they figured with four kids it would be easier to do it with free labour. So it was a mind blowing experience when we moved in here... as DP was at a job interview and we had to do it in a day I got a local firm in to do it. The reduction in stress, bone aching tiredness and all round reduction in swearing (except at estate agents and conveyancers that remains whoever you move with Unfortunately) was worth every single penny. We got quotes and references from 3 local firms. Wouldn't touch pickfords after they lost PIL's full dining set FFS how do you misplace a table and five of six chairs

The van was too small to fit our stuff in (2 adults, 1 child moving out of a furnished flat). We had to hire another van to get the stuff we had to leave behind. All the hard labour was exhausting, as was the packing for weeks beforehand. Honestly, moving is now one of the things I will throw money at so I dont have to do it.

We were thrown by the fact we'd moved in as childless postgrads, so had arrived with a few boxes in the back of the car. Lived there for 5 years & had a kid - IMO you cannot move yourself once you have more thana couple of posters & a stereo.

We've just moved house (last Fri), so it's all veeery fresh in my mind We have a one year old.

We hired 2 men & a van, and bought boxes off eBay for about £30. Admittedly they were absolutely superb (efficient, took care of walls, furniture etc), and came in at around £200, but the packing and unpacking has left me a nervous wreck and I'm still surrounded by boxes. And probably still will be at Christmas.

Never again. Next time I'm throwing money at a proper company, no matter what.

It is not the packing that is the issue it's the physical effort of packing the van and the unpacking the van at the other end.

Lots of things can go wrong with that, what if you are ill, or like my DH last year, broke an arm

We have always had removal people do it. We pay for the insurance at both properties just in case they put a hole in the wall of the house you are leaving.

We moved from a 3 bed house last year, had 3 Pickfords men over a 2 day period as our stuff was going into storage (couldn't get completion dates to match and would have done anything to leave the last house)

All you do when they take your stuff is hoover up as they empty each room

Trust us all, when you have packed those boxes which you could be doing now, imagine hauling them around for about 8 hours in total.

It is all the furniture and the contents of all the furniture, your garden contents, for us that was climbing frame, slide, ride on toys etc. The kitchen cabinet contents alone should be enough to make you cry.

Our 3 bed house was relatively small but we still needed 2 Pickfords trucks

I have an awful premonition that I am going to ignore all your warnings and try to do it myself, an then be back here posting exhausted hysteria...

I think if you have the money, then yes, getting someone to do it for you is ideal, but if you don't, yes, its a pain in the neck but not undo-able.

We've never paid for a removal firm to do any of it - whether it be the packing or the actual removal. Last time we moved (18 months ago) we had 3 children (all under 5) and all the tat equipment / toys that go with that, and all the normal furniture etc that you'd have in a big 3 bedroomed property with a cellar and loft! We did have my parents to help - my Mum looked after the children and my Dad helped with the heavy lifting. We hired a large van (the largest you can on a normal driving licence) with a tail lift for 48 hours - collected it on the Friday evening and had to return it by the Monday morning I think, and it cost about £70 I think. Bought boxes from ebay and apart from the thank you gifts for the help, was certainly less than £100. Yes it was hard work but moving into a house that needed lots doing to it with a limited budget, we had better uses for the cash!

Good luck

Pickfords quoted me £1200 + VAT to move us 4 miles.

Put most of the small stuff we dont really use much into a storage facility in the town we were moving to for a month - £120 inc VAT

Bought a removal package of boxes, tape, tissues, bubbles wrap etc for £99 inc VAT

Rented a 7.5 tonne tail lift lorry for £180 inc VAT

Took 2 trips in the lorry and another to unload the storage unit. Done by 2pm

Total cost: £499 inc VAT

Doing it again at the end of this month!

Ooh, how big was your house, becaroo?

I would never, ever , ever move myself. In fact, I never even pack myself.

I figure it's costing me enough to move as it is, an extra grand or so to be packed and move is worth every penny.

we did it ourselves a few months ago and although it was knackering twas well worth it as it only cost £50 to hire the van (a favour) and the petrol. My dreams that night though were full of "move it two inches to your right...to YOUR RIGHT YOU SILLY SOD" etc etc Nowt was broken and the wine was gratefully drunk afterwards