Doing a DIY move can be very stressful, especially if you have a lot of items to move. However, moving presents the perfect opportunity to reorganize your life. Also, moving comes with numerous options—and some of these options will force you to make hard decisions. From hiring a realtor to deciding whether to hire movers, this can make you overwhelmed.
Choosing to hire movers or do a DIY move will depend on your budget, complexity of the move, proximity to your new home, as well as your personality. All in all, moving without hiring movers can save you a lot of money. In this post, we shall discuss a few tips on how to move without hiring movers.
Get the right moving tools?
This is the first step towards making your DIY move a success. With the right moving equipment, you will find it easier to pack and move your items. Getting the required moving boxes, bubble wrap, and packing tape will help to pack your items securely.
Besides, you will need to buy moving blankets that protect your valuable items from breaking while moving. Besides, you should get a tool kit when doing a DIY move, as this will allow you to disassemble your furniture.
Here are some of the moving equipment and tools that you will need:
- 4 wheel dolly
- Appliance dolly with straps
- Furniture dolly
- Extra tie downs and straps
- Furniture blankets or pads
Please note that you’ll need these tools if you want to move your belongings safely. Furthermore, it’s always a good idea to move heavy items like appliances and furniture on wheels rather than carrying them by hand.
Get rid of your unwanted items
You will need to sort through your items to determine what you need to keep and what you need to discard. After that, you can donate or sell items that you don’t need. If you are moving on a tight budget, selling your unwanted items is one of the best ways to meet your moving budget.
Yes, it’s very common for people to have a hard time selling everything when moving and starting over again. However, try to sell as much as you can when doing a DIY move, as this will reduce your moving costs.
As you go through your belongings, set up ‘sell,’ ‘donate,’ and ‘keep’ piles. Now pack the items that you’ve decided to keep. Next, you can organize a garage sale for the items you’ve decided to sell. Also, listing them on Craigslist is another effective way of selling the items. Lastly, you can donate the items that you didn’t sell to a charity.
Ask friends or family to help you
Planning a DIY move does not mean moving alone. By nature, moving is not an easy task—and you don’t want to end up frustrated because of poor planning. So, it’s always a good idea to look for at least 2 people to assist you when planning a DIY move. This can either be friends or family. Always make sure that you give anyone willing to assist you on your moving day a few weeks’ notice.
When you ask your friends or family to assist you with your move, you shouldn’t expect everything to go on perfectly because they are not experienced movers. If you want to save money and you don’t have delicate items to move, it’s fine to ask your friends to help you with the move. All you need to do is to provide them with food, drinks, and take them out for a treat after you’ve completed everything.
Hire a pet sitter or babysitter during the moving day
Your small kids and pets can significantly slow you down during your moving day. Well, you can easily manage your pet since you can put them in a certain room or put them outside. However, you will need someone to watch over your small children on a moving day. If possible, have a family member look after them. If that’s not possible, you can hire a babysitter to take care of your kids.
All in all, you need to ensure that your pets and kids won’t disturb you on your moving day. Failing to make the necessary arrangements in advance can make your moving day chaotic—and this is the last thing you’d want to experience when doing a DIY move.
Keep your items organized
The professional Toronto movers from Torex Moving Company say that keeping your items organized before your moving day will make everything easier once you move into your new house. A good way to organize your things is to create a color-coded system. This will make your DIY move much easier than when you decide to randomly keep your items in a box.
Create a spreadsheet, and then assign a color for every room. Then, number every box, indicating the items that correspond to every number. By doing this, you’ll find it easier to know exactly the contents of each box, and you will not have a challenge in accessing important items when you move into the new house.