Hire a Professional Team of Movers to Reduce the Stress of Relocation

By: John Garcia | Date Posted: November 3, 2022

To many people, relocation means moving from the place you have built your life and called home for years. Living in one place for years means accumulating many household items, meaning it can be challenging to move all that stuff, even if the move is a few blocks down the street.

But the challenge becomes even greater when you have to move across states. While selling or donating your stuff can be an excellent way to move and start afresh at your new location, this option may not work out in all situations. So, carrying household items to the new home is often the ideal option for most people.

Here are two relocation options you will want to consider if you have determined that moving your stuff is the best option.

The DIY Move

Reasons why picking the right moving company can make your move go smoothly

A DIY move is where you do the moving. If you own a truck, you only need to load your stuff and drive it to your new location. Few people have a truck that can carry all their stuff at once. So, if you are using something like a pick-up truck, you may need to make several round trips which may not be workable if you are moving across states.

The second DIY option would be hiring a truck from hauling truck companies such as U-haul, loading up your stuff, and driving to your new destination. The most significant advantage of the DIY move is it can be relatively cheaper than hiring professional moves.

Conversely, a DIY move can be significantly stressful because it requires you to do everything yourself. To many people, the DIY move is not ideal, leaving hiring professional movers as the most favorable option.

Hiring Professional Movers

Provide Professional Services

Moving will be stressful no matter the option you choose. But working with professional movers is often less stressful than a DIY move. But you have to ensure that you only work with movers with a track record of offering top-quality services to their clients.

Here are several things you may need to consider when choosing a mover:

Recommendations

If you know a friend or a relative that has moved across states in the recent past, you can reach out to them and ask them about their experiences with their movers. If you do not know anyone who has moved in the recent past, you can turn to social media for recommendations.

Friends and connections on social media often give an honest opinion about a mover unless they have vested interests in a moving company. If you notice an inclination towards one company among the recommendations you get, it probably is a good one. But pay attention to its reviews on its website and other sites before settling for it.

License and Insurance

License and Insurance

Your household items could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. With such a high value of goods, you want to ensure that you only entrust the transportation of your stuff to licensed interstate movers that have proper insurance.

All interstate movers are required by law to register with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). After registration, the moving company is assigned a unique USDOT number which acts as an identifier. To get the unique identifier, a company must fulfill all federal requirements for movers, which includes carrying the proper insurance.

So before contracting a moving company, it would be a good idea to ask for their USDOT number and run it through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database to check the moverā€™s status. If a moverā€™s number is not on the database, they probably have not fulfilled the federal requirements and, thus, are not a good choice for a moving company.

Your Needs and Cost

Different people will have different needs depending on the stuff they want to be moved. If you are moving from a four-bedroom house, you will need a larger truck to haul your goods than someone moving from a studio apartment.

The size of your shipment will also determine how much you pay. Itā€™s important to compare rates and choose a mover that best fits your budget. However, itā€™s important not to use price as the only determining factor in your choice.

You must also confirm that the mover is up front in all their charges. You do not want to be surprised with charges down the road. If the cost of moving is too high, you can look for ways to cut costs, and here are two of them.

Reduce Your Load

Declutter

The most efficient way of reducing the cost of moving is reducing your load. There are several ways to reduce your load, including selling some stuff or donating.

For example, if you have old pieces of furniture you intend to replace soon, moving them to your new destination may not make economic sense. The best option would be to sell them at a knockoff price or donate them. This way, you can save space for the things you canā€™t leave behind.

Handle Some Tasks Yourself

The rates charged by a mover will depend on the tasks they are supposed to perform, such as packing, loading, and moving your stuff into your new home. You can negotiate rates with a moving company if you choose to do some of these things on your own, like packing.

Packing can be relatively time-consuming. But you can start packing as much as one month before the move, so you only need to do a little of it each day.

Doing your packing yourself could also save on the cost of packages because you will have sufficient time to improvise. For example, you could use waste packaging from a store to pack your stuff without paying a dime.

Beware of Scams

Millions of Americans move from one state to another each year. While most of these movers make a move with manageable stress, some fall into the hands of fraudsters. If you are careful to follow the tips and ideas mentioned in this post, you will steer away from scammers.

The first red flag for scammers will be deals that are too good to be true or a mover without a physical address. Whatever you do, do not go for a moving company whose details you canā€™t verify from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrationā€™s database.

Thank you for reading!

John
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John is the founder and chief editor of Homienjoy. With over 15 years of experience in the home improvement industry, John is passionate about helping homeowners confidently tackle their projects. Holding a civil engineering degree and working as a contractor, project manager, and consultant, John brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Homienjoy community.

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