There is no doubt about it, moving costs money. That is why many people ask friends to help them move. They think it will help them to save on the cost of hiring professional removalists. However, this is not always a good idea; what you save can be lost in other ways. And you can run into many different problems.
- For a start, friends are not getting paid to do this. That means they may not show up if they get a better offer or if they have other more urgent family businesses to attend to. And they may not bother to let you know they are not coming. So you will be stranded with a lot of furniture and no one to load it, even if you hire a truck.
- You need to have a licence and experience to drive a hire truck. If your friends offer the use of their ute or one-tonner, remember it probably won’t have a roof. What if moving day dawns and it is rampant rain? Even a light shower can ruin furniture and bedding.
- Do your friends have training in how to lift properly? If they put their back out and lose work due to injury from lifting your goods you will certainly feel bad about it. Depending on how good a friend they are, they may ask you to pay for their medical costs – or even sue you.
- Have your friends had experience in packing and stacking furniture? If it is not packed into a truck to distribute weight properly, the whole vehicle can become unstable and a possible crash around a tight corner is likely. Or the furniture may move and become scratched or broken.
- Having furniture or treasured goods damaged can cost a great deal – much more than the cost of moving – and there will be no insurance.
- Friends may be willing to help load furniture into a hired truck, but will they really want to travel with you to help unload at the other end? If not, who will help you?
All these things should be taken into consideration when you have to move. When you hire professional removalists these issues will not become a problem. Furniture removalists in Melbourne and other centres are running a business, so they are not going to leave you high and dry without the kind of help you need. And they are professionals who know the best ways of wrapping, packing and moving a household of goods across the city or across the country.
Even though they charge for their services, hiring someone you can trust and who knows how to do the job at this end and at your destination is far better.
