Professional packers – are they worth it, and when? If you’re thinking about hiring professional packers for your move, we’re breaking down when it makes sense.
Have you considered hiring professional packers for your upcoming move?
Is it worth the investment to avoid the hassle? Do they just pack your stuff up and drive it to your new place or do they offer more? If you do decide to go with professionals, are there ways to save money?
It may seem like a luxury expense, but when you take into account the benefits professional packers can offer, you might be surprised to find that the price tag is worth it.
If you’re on the fence about hiring professional packers, keep reading to find out if they’re a good option for you!
Cost Evaluation
For most people, the choice of whether to hire professional packers comes down to budget vs. time.
Are the service and convenience provided to you worth the money you put into it?
Your Time vs. Cost of Professional Packers
The biggest benefit hiring professional packers is how much time it can save you.
It can take days to organize all your household belongings and plan how they’re going to be packed, stored, and moved.
The process of packing everything up can take weeks if you work or parent full-time. And in the course of packing, you have to decide what you can live without until you unpack it at the new place.
Most professional packers can pack everything in your home in a single day or less, and at an additional cost, they usually offer to unpack for you as well.
Your Moving Expenses
It’s also important to remember that packing and moving yourself is never free.
Unless you have a large truck and are willing to make several trips, you’ll likely have to rent a moving truck, which can be quite intimidating to drive for a non-professional.
You’ll also have to purchase or borrow cardboard boxes, packing tape, markers for boxes, handcarts, and more.
In addition to your expenses, if you can’t pack and move everything in a single weekend, you might end up taking time off work to take care of everything, putting you even further in the hole.
Professional packers include the cost of packing materials, transportation, moving trucks, staff, and time in your price upfront. With all this included, you might be surprised how cost effective packing professionals can be.
What Are Your Options?
Unpacking Service
Unpacking can take weeks or months, and in some cases, a lot of us still have boxes of stuff in a spare room we haven’t unpacked yet.
Your first instinct may be to unpack yourself to save the money, but there are a few reasons to consider paying for professional unpacking:
1. Trying to keep up on life tasks.
The moving process is time-consuming and stressful, but you can’t pause life.
Trying to take care of kids, keeping your house clean, and going to work are all still part of your day, so fitting time in to unpack with all that going on can be a challenge.
2. Packing Fatigue
We all want to believe we won’t want to be lazy after the move, but when you spend weeks or months, planning, organizing, packing, and moving all your belongings, the thought of unpacking and setting up your new home can be very daunting.
Full Service
If cost isn’t your highest concern, and you’re aiming for speed and convenience, most professional packers offer full-service packing, which takes almost all the pain out of the process.
One of the best parts of this is full organization!
Professional packers are also professional organizers and they’ve set up more homes than the average person, so they know what they’re doing.
You have to give up a degree of control, but full-service packers will set up and organize your kitchen drawers and cabinets, linen closets, bathrooms, etc.
If you do have special preferences on where things go, the packers will always defer to your preference on organisation.
Full-service includes:
- Packing and unpacking.
- Organizing and itemizing your belongings prior to packing.
- Unwrapping and ensuring everything made it safely in the move.
- Wiping down furniture and shelves.
- Additional requested cleaning.
- Furniture assembly (bed, desks, tables, etc.)
- Unpacking and storing clothing.
- Organizing rooms, cabinets, drawers, etc.
- Removal of all packing materials.
Large Appliances
Another option for hiring professional packers on the cheap is to move only your large, inconvenient appliances.
Washers, dryers, ovens, and refrigerators are a huge hassle to remove from your home, load onto a truck, and unload at your new home. You also open yourself up to injury and property damage.
Even if you can’t afford anything else, this is an option your should really consider.
Where Are You Traveling?
One of the biggest factors in hiring professionals for your move is location. If you’re moving into the house next door, professional packers may not be necessary, but if you’re moving to another town, province or country, it might be worth it to make the investment.
Local
If you’re moving locally, you may just consider moving appliances or specialty items, unless you really hate packing.
This is obviously the cheapest option, so consider your budget.
National
If you’re moving to another province or state, you lose the option to make multiple trips to move all your things. So you either have to rent a fleet of moving trucks, or make several friends follow you across the country to help you move.
Either way, this is a massive inconvenience of time and cost, so hiring professionals is definitely a smart option.
International
Moving internationally has all the hassle and inconvenience of moving across the nation, times ten.
Multiple trips would cost you thousands of dollars and likely weeks of your time. Many of your possessions would have to be shipped to you anyway. Not to mention, that when planning an international move, the last thing you want to think about is packing boxes and bags with everything you own.
If you’re moving internationally, you would almost definitely benefit from the help of professional packers.
Conclusion
Only you know what you have in your budget to spend on moving, and what your time constraints will be.
But the great thing about hiring a professional packing service is that you have options.
Almost anyone planning a move can benefit from professional packers. Start shopping around and find out what they can do for you!