Movers Vancouver | How to save money

In this article, Movers Vancouver gives a few helpful tips on reducing your moving costs.

We here at Movers Vancouver know that moving can be a very stressful time in your life. I mean, who enjoys the process of packing up thousands of items, including that dusty old record player which hasn’t been touched since university days and that old disco dress which hasn’t been worn since you were twenty years younger and thirty pounds lighter, just so that it can be moved a couple miles and then subsequently unpacked. Not only that, but during your great escape it is likely that at some point half of this stuff will disappear only to reappear once your ulcer has finally acted up again.

Adding to this already stressful situation is the fact that moving can be an extremely expensive endeavor. That is why we, Movers Vancouver, are here to provide a few handy tips on how to reduce the financial burden of moving whether it be to Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, or anywhere else on the Lower Mainland for that matter.

In order to reduce cost, we must first ask ourselves, where do costs arise? Although it may be obvious, many people forget or do not seem to realize that most cost generally accrues when we hire someone else to do something rather than doing it ourselves. So, for example, many moving companies in Vancouver will clean your house, pack all of your belongings, transport them to a desired location or provide storage for them until your new place is ready, and unpack your stuff. Although this seems like an advantageous proposition to most people, as they have to do little to no work by themselves, it can also be extremely expensive.

Movers Vancouver recommends that you try to perform easily accomplished chores by yourself, assuming expenses are a factor in your decision making process. So:

1.) Instead of hiring someone to clean your house before moving, take some time and do it yourself. It will seem a monumental task at the beginning, however, as long as you start early and ask for help from friends and family it will gradually be accomplished.

2.) Similar to above, pack as much of your stuff as you can. It is often beneficial to hold a garage sale before moving as this will allow you to get rid of as much stuff as possible. If you don’t have time to hold a garage sale then simply give some of your useless things away to the needy. Additionally, give yourself time; packing can be an exhaustive exercise. Don’t expect to complete the task in a few days. Set aside a few hours each day to go through your stuff and put them into appropriately labeled boxes.

3.) Try not to move until your new place is ready. If your new home or apartment is not ready upon your arrival, then you will be forced to utilize storage facilities. Although this may be necessary in certain situations, cost will be reduced if you are able to mitigate the storage time.

Ultimately, cost generally depends upon the amount of time a moving company must spend working for you. Although long-distance transportation is usually billed according to distance travelled, local transportation services most often charge according to some fixed hourly rate (adjusted slightly according to the time of the month as well as the number of workers who will be on the job). Therefore, the less time these workers are dealing with you and your stuff, the less they will be able to charge you. Let’s look at a quick, simple, example before we leave for the day. Say company A spends 3 hours moving your stuff at $90 dollars per hour. How much will you be charged? Well, basic elementary math tells me that $90 times 3 is equal to $270. Now, instead, say, company A spends 3 hours packing your stuff, 1 hour cleaning your home, and 3 hours moving your stuff (all at $90 dollars per hour). How much will you be charged this time? After all the computations are complete, it comes out to $630! That’s more than double the price. Obviously, you as an individual must determine the value of your time, however, Movers Vancouver recommends that you at least think about doing some of these tasks yourself if you are overly concerned with the financial results of your next great journey.