Moving: Hire a Moving Company or Do It Yourself?

Hiring a moving company comes to mind when you need to change your residence, office, or simply transport larger items from one place to another. Along with the idea of contacting a moving company come thoughts about whether you should at all, what the mover actually does better, and maybe you could do it yourself, after all there's a Bolt van around the corner…

To ensure these questions stop nagging you, Estonia's largest and most experienced moving company AVA-Ekspress brings out the most common fears and concerns of clients and debunks myths that often cause headaches.

You can move just as quickly as a moving company.

Experience, including personal experience, shows that when moving yourself, the scope of work is often underestimated and your own abilities are overestimated. If you undertake a move yourself, even a small apartment can take a day or two, and it's likely to be accompanied by severe back pain or the fact that friends who came to help won't take your calls anymore.

At first, it might seem like moving a couple of people, some chairs, tables, and boxes is nothing – one trip with a van and a couple of hours of carrying, but reality is different at least 9 out of 10 times. Without proper equipment like dollies, lifting straps, shelving systems, and countless other items, both in the movers' hands and in the moving van, a self-move can take 2-3 times longer. In the process, injuries easily occur both to furniture, if the van doesn't have wall anchors and tie-down straps, for example, and to yourself, if you haven't learned the correct lifting techniques or purchased equipment.

If you entrust the move to specialists who are used to running up and down stairs with cabinets five days a week, then an average two-room apartment can be moved in a couple of three hours, with your back spared and friendships intact.

If you want quality service, it's probably a very expensive service.

To be honest, the difference in prices in the moving sector is rather small, and smaller operators mostly do work at the same rates as the largest companies. In terms of price-to-quality ratio, the large companies are certainly somewhat ahead, as experience and skill have accumulated over the years. Often, price differences also result from the classic "cash payment" condition, or from the fact that the company lacks the statutory moving company insurance. However, one should be careful about this, because without doing things correctly, there is no guarantee that if something goes wrong, care will be taken on your behalf.

To get the best price from large operators, it's always advisable to book your move well in advance, as it's then very easy to offer a good price from the open schedule. It's also always worth mentioning any price you've received from elsewhere to the sales team, as almost every time they manage to offer something cheaper or at least equivalent. Getting the same cheap move but with more safety and quality sounds good, doesn't it?

It only makes sense to use a moving company for larger amounts of things.

Of course, a moving company is most useful when moving a large multi-story house or a huge office. However, it certainly can't be said that only moving larger quantities of things makes sense. Even moving one sofa and a washing machine from one end of the city to the other normally requires a lot of effort (renting a van, carrying items, time spent), which can be completely eliminated by calling a moving company.

The moving company comes to you, quickly and conveniently transports your items to the new location, places them exactly as needed, and it's done – without any hassle and super quickly. Often we're only asked to carry one cabinet up the stairs or exchange some item between apartments or offices. It's simply so much more convenient, and ultimately cheaper, than doing the whole process yourself.

Working with large companies comes with a lot of bureaucracy and contracts.

Actually, working with larger moving companies doesn't involve anything more than doing it with men and a car found from "classifieds portals". You only need to send us an inquiry, which we respond to with a price, then confirm the desired price and time, and next you just wait for the movers to arrive. That's how simple it is, no bureaucracy at all.

Additionally, you can pay for the service on-site with a card, just like going to a store. So ordering from large companies is sometimes even more convenient. Our goal is not to make moving complicated for a person, but as simple and worry-free as possible.

What if the moving company breaks something of mine?

Damage to items does happen, but very rarely, and if a moving company damages something or something breaks, the moving company is responsible for compensating for that damage according to the Law of Obligations. That's why it's important to hire a real moving company, not two men, a dog, and a van found on the internet or in classified ads.

Large companies have liability insurance in place to compensate for such damages arising from law, for example AVA-Ekspress has an amount of 100,000 euros. Additionally, it's possible to purchase extra insurance for each order with the help of the moving company if the items are very valuable or special.

What if something goes missing during the move?

Again, this happens extremely rarely. Usually, going missing is related to some item being left behind a closed door or a label coming off a box. Or later inspection reveals that missing items have ended up in a completely different box – based on our experience, we usually start with an inspection of either the starting or destination location. Another option is that we let the client calmly place all items in their proper places in the new location, because missing items usually don't stay missing. However, if items really can't be found, the company is responsible for them the same way as for anything breaking.

I need to provide the necessary items for the moving company (for example, cardboard boxes) myself. Or do I have to pay extra for them?

You certainly don't need to worry about boxes yourself – we can always help. We have ultra-strong and cheaper moving boxes than store prices, cheaper plastic rental boxes, or reused moving boxes. For larger moves, we can provide rental boxes for free, everything can always be discussed.

If there's a man in the house, then he has to move everything himself.

At first, moving tends to seem like a simple thing to undertake – especially if there's a man in the house. Unfortunately, moving is full of various nuances. For example, different furniture items and appliances have different ways of being lifted and secured in the car so that they don't get damaged or hurt the movers. There are very special moving techniques, plastic wraps, moving boxes, and packing techniques that ensure safe transport of items to a new location.

When moving yourself, it's not possible to do this, especially not at the level that professional movers can achieve. And ultimately, the whole process is much more cumbersome and risky than calling movers. We have many families among our customers who initially planned to move themselves but after carrying the first cabinet down and removing a bunch of boxes, a few hours had passed, and they realized that calling movers saves both health and nerves.

I'm left alone with my move after ordering

No, certainly not – we help with all possible questions and concerns. Everything that needs clarification, explanation, or simply discussion for peace of mind, will definitely get an answer. The goal is still a satisfied customer and as comfortable a move as possible. For example, we happily help with marking techniques, packing techniques, and logistics, which are always big sources of worry during a move and cause stress. Our job is to mitigate that.

If you need a worry-free move and friendly service, then contact AVA-Ekspress HERE!