Customized Moving With The Pros

Moving from one house to another is not a walk in the park. If you think that you can just magically whisk away all your stuff from one place to another in a blink of an eye, then you should seriously consider seeing a shrink. However, you can always do the next best thing to a magical act, and that is to hire some professional moving help.

The When, the Where and the How

Moving companies can virtually take care of all your moving day worries without you having a conniption fit and a strained muscle at the same time. However, that doesn't mean you'll have a total hands-off approach come moving day. You still have to determine all the necessary details of the kind of service you want, or in rather simpler terms: when you want it, where you want it, and most importantly, how you want it.

You have to know upfront that professional movers charge you a basic rate for the loading, hauling and unloading of your intended cargo. Anything else other than those three tasks comes with an additional cost, which means you have to shell out some extra money if you want them to include packing your belongings to their service. And according to the American Moving and Storage Association (AMSA), the premier organization of professional movers, the rate for the packing and unpacking service is entirely determined by the cargo's weight. So, to some degree, the kind of moving service you want to have will be very much dependent on how much you are willing to spend.

If you are either running on a tight budget, or are very particular about the moving service you want to have, you can consider opting for a customized moving service that'll suit your specific need. This way, both you and mover will have the perfect idea of what to expect to give and receive, exclusive of all the unnecessary and unwanted things for both of the parties.

Customize Moving: Things to Consider

• To start off, if you are planning to pack and unpack some of your belongings yourself, you can avail of custom packing services, which is usually charged by the number of cartons or boxes used instead by their total weight. And if by any chance that you don't have enough boxes on your own, the professional movers can provide you with some at an extra cost.
• Now, after choosing your packing and unpacking strategy, you need to determine if you're going to get extra coverage, and if so, what specific kind of coverage, in case your items incur some damage before, during and after transit by the moving company. You can choose from basic coverage — already inclusive in your moving cost, which only pays for certain damage per pound of goods — to a full replacement value coverage, which can definitely cost more but ensures total security from any subsequent damage.
• Also, hiring professional movers can be heaven-sent if you're moving out but not immediately moving into another house because they can pack, haul and store away your things in the meantime. This way, you don't have to bother looking for a temporary place to keep your prized possessions. The usual rate for storage depends on both the weight of the goods and the length of storage time.
• Another alternative worth considering is a feature called self-service moving, which entails doing all the packing, loading and unloading yourself, and then using a moving company's vehicle and driver to haul it off to its destination. The charge for this kind of service is based on the space consumed by your load and the distance traveled, which is considerably less than what you'll pay for using full-service moving. And speaking of distances, you have to determine if you're doing a long-haul move, which is more than 450 miles, or a short-haul move, which is 450 miles or less, because professional movers employ a different approach regarding the distance, and you might be billed by the hour instead of by weight.

In any case, customizing your move through the various ways stated above will be both cost- and time-efficient for you. And who knows? By getting a good customized service, maybe you can really pull a rabbit out of the hat come moving day.