Shifting? Here’s how you can do it efficiently in a crunched budget. Home is where your heart is, and often it lies in the valuables we collect and preserve piece by piece to make a simple cemented house, a space we can call our home. Leaving your current home and shifting to a new place can be challenging, exciting, and overwhelming, all at the same time.
You can be feeling a whirl of emotions, but amidst this, you also want the process to be less stressful- mentally, physically, and even financially; after all, building a new space already brings in so many expenses that you certainly can’t spend a lot on just hiring professionals like packers and movers.
Here are a few tips to hack you through minimizing your cost of hiring packers and movers.
First things first, clearly understand your needs
The cost that packers and movers charge depends on various factors, like how much weight your belongings have, the size of your house, and the number of services you require from packers and movers. For instance, if you have many heavy items or a very big place that you would like to shift, the cost-shifting in these circumstances will automatically be higher.
To counter this, decluttering is a good option. Don’t start randomly packaging all the items you have at hand; make a list of what you would like to give away or not take to your new home. This also saves a lot of time for you to rearrange your new space. You can also see if you can do some of the work independently, like dismantling the appliances, packaging smaller items into boxes, or segregating your items beforehand. This will save more time and give a cushion to our budget as the service provider will need to do less; hence, their charges will be exclusive of these services.
Keeping all these things in mind, you can contact various packer and mover agencies to get the best and most affordable quotations. You can then decide the best and the most pocket-friendly ones according to your preferences and needs.
Select the time of your move wisely!
Often, we plan to move in haste. Planning and mutually deciding on the dates with your selected packing and moving company gives both parties comfort and convenience. This way, the company won’t have to go the extra mile to shift your belongings in one go at short notice. Instead, you can mutually decide on moving the products in parts, with other goods, or on dates when the company has a lesser workload and can easily accommodate your needs. Keep in mind your cooperation can save you some good bucks.
You can also strategically plan your dates during the off-season or on days the company is less likely to have assignments. In India, most clients usually prefer to shift during weekends or on public holidays; the peak season is from January to July. Voilà, we saved you some market research, and here you have the answer: if it’s feasible, avoid shifting during these times, and automatically, the company will provide you with an affordable quote because they will be short on work and desperately need to outshine their competitors.
Keep your new space ready with basic amenities.
Think about it: if your new house isn’t ready to move in, and you’ve already gotten your stuff packed and shipped, the buffer time you’d require to make the place operational and take your goods is sitting ideally in the company’s warehouse, increasing your bills.
So, first, take the pain of at least getting your new place ready and then decide on moving your belongings.
If you’re confused, a basic checklist for operationalizing your new home would be.
- Getting the bath fittings ready.
- A basic operational kitchen,
- Having the house fully painted with the desired flooring
- Water and electricity are connected.
Get insured
Even when you’ve followed the previous steps and are happy to move ahead with the desired packer and mover, be smart enough to get your stuff insured; otherwise, you might lose more than you took pride in saving. No matter how securely you get your belongings packed, you must always take accidents and human errors into account and make the company liable for any losses. You can discuss this with the service providers in your initial meetings. For this, you’ll have to provide them with the list of the valuables being shifted and their value; this will then be used to cover your belongings in an insurance plan.
As they say, a stitch in time saves nine. So, no matter how irresistible a deal you’re getting, always ask the company to help you with the insurance and save the hassle.
Be smart enough to get the right things packed!
Even if all your stuff is insured, this doesn’t mean you’ll not pay attention to fragile items or may suffer damage in transit. Things like laptops, tablets, and small kitchen pottery are most likely to get damaged due to the heavy impact of the other items that are being shifted. You can keep such things aside and carry them with you safely to your destination instead of giving them to the packers. If moving with yourself is not an option, you can also ask them to use good cushioning material to pack them, like airbags or bubble wrap.
The bottom line is, even when you have somebody taking care of the laborious process of packing and moving, you should still be alert, guiding, assisting, and supervising from time to time because nobody knows your stuff better than you. Isn’t it?