According to Statistics Canada, 21% of all households intend to move within the next 5 years. But research suggests that 22% of movers report that their possessions did not make it to the new property in the same condition they left in.
Moving home is a stressful and often expensive event, so it’s common to recruit the help of friends and family to ease the financial strain.
But are there downsides to asking your friends to help you move?
If so, what are they? Keep reading or visit for more information at this website as we explore some of the top reasons why professional movers may be the smarter, faster, and cheaper option when moving.
1. No Tools or Equipment
The first obvious benefit of hiring professional movers is access to equipment. You won’t have any problem purchasing cardboard boxes and tape from a local store, but there’s more to a move than boxing items up. You may need:
• A van or truck
• A dolly (utility or furniture)
• Furniture sliders
• Moving pads and blankets
• Moving ropes and straps
• Gloves
It’s also possible that you’ll need a toolkit to take certain items apart. You may already have one in your home, but is it well equipped enough? You don’t want to wait until moving day to find out.
2. No Insurance
A lack of equipment increases the likelihood of something getting broken. It might be your TV, it might be a family heirloom, or it might be one of your friends. Professional movers will be covered by insurance, meaning that damage to property or injury will be covered.
Movers have training and safety procedures that your friends may be less likely to adhere to. How long will a friendship last after a fall down the stairs or a smashed antique mirror?
3. Less Reliable
Moving help from friends does have its benefits, but reliability may not be one of them. Professional movers are there to do a job, whereas your friends may become bored, tired, hungry, or annoying.
Will your friends carry golf clubs or baseball bats without swinging them? Will they move boxes of old photographs without rummaging through to find embarrassing pictures? The more friends that help you move, the more likely it is that chaos will ensue.
4. No Help Unpacking
Over 5 years, more than 4 million Canadians moved house, with 35% moving to a different town, city, or reserve. Your friends might turn up to help you pack the rental van or load up several cars, but will they travel to your new home as well?
Movers will be there, helping move your furniture and possessions from the van into your new home.
5. Difficult to Organize
How many friends do you need to help you move? Organizing a day where one or two are free might not be a big problem. But trying to organize four or five could prove challenging!
If you’ve got a big sofa, a piano, a pool table, gardening equipment, or a giant freezer, you’re going to need a few pairs of hands. Even more so if you’re lacking equipment. There usually isn’t a large period to organize moving, so you need to consider how quickly you’ll be able to round up your friends.
Hiring movers offers you the opportunity to book a specific time and day. You’ll know when they’ll turn up, what to expect, and roughly how long it will take.
6. Time Management
How long does it take to move? This is a frequently asked question, and it falls into the same category as, “How long is a piece of string?” The realistic answer is that it all depends on the size of your home, how many possessions you have, how organized you are, and the home you’re moving into.
If your friends are helping move all your belongings out of one home and into another, they are unlikely to be as motivated as you are. They don’t have time pressure, and they know they can leave whenever they like.
With movers, they have a job to do and it’s in their best interest to get it done as quickly and as professionally as possible.
7. Payback
One of the benefits of asking your friends for moving help is that it is free labor. But just as there’s no such thing as a free lunch, there’s also no such thing as free movers. You now owe your friends, and they’ll be eager to cash in the next time they move.
Not only that but there’s an unspoken rule about helping a friend move: They must provide the food. Buying pizzas or Chinese takeout for a group of friends may sound cheap, but they’ll be sure to get their money’s worth.
After all, moving is an exhausting day’s work! At least with movers, you’ll know how much you’re going to be paying upfront.
8. Disappearing Act
Lastly, you must consider the very real possibility that your friends might not turn up. That’s not a judgment of the type of friends you keep, but things happen, and your move may drop down their list of priorities.
It could be something minor, such as a group of them drinking the night before and then feeling too hungover to turn up. But it could be something more pressing, such as a medical emergency or the babysitter phoning in sick.
The reality is that moving day may arrive, and you may be left to do it yourself—a task that could be impossible, depending on the furniture and appliances you own. By hiring movers, you know that they’ll turn up to do the job.
We Can Help You Move
Asking your friends to help you move may seem like a fun and cheap way of moving, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Professional movers have insurance, equipment, training, and motivation that your friends lack.
