How it works

Moving to a new house is among the most common situations we can come across in our days. And even though we move averagely a few times in our lifetime, removals are still among the most stressful situations possible. Just figuring out the logistics of shipping all your belongings between houses is quite a task and with packing, unpacking and selecting the right transport provider to help you with the move, it seems truly huge and very stressful. Thankfully there are a few ways to make the move as simple as can be and significantly less stressful.

Packing as well as securing your items for the time of the removal

One crucial thing you should remember while packing is that you need a coherent list of steps that you’ll have to stick to during the move. It is good to make an inventory of every item you want to transport. It can not only make the packing easier but additionally will allow you to make sure that all of your things were successfully transported to its place of destination. Removal entails shipping a great deal of various items, among them a lot of little items that can be easily misplaced when packed in a hurry – a list will help you make sure they all made it to your new home safely. Another important step is labelling all the boxes as precisely as you can. One of the more common ways of labelling cardboards is by category. For example all the kitchen accessories and devices go into boxes tagged ‘kitchen’, all the duvets and personal items in the cardboards labelled ‘bedroom’ and so on. You’ll be surprised how time-saving tagging can be once you start the unpacking. Remember to label both sides and the top of the box, to make sure that you (as well as the transport provider) will be able to recognize which box goes where, no matter how they will be stacked inside the transporting car.

Take special care when preparing to transport fragile items. Enclose them in thick layers of fabric or bubble wrap and tag them clearly (together with a “This way up” sign). You should also ensure that the transport provider is aware that he’ll be shipping delicate load as well as which boxes requires handling with caution.

When it comes to furniture, it’s important to take everything out of them before the removal and transport everything that was inside separately. Any loose items in cupboards or cabinets could harm your furniture during shipment. Additionally it is smart to close all the furniture doors and drawers with some tape to make sure they cannot open during shipment. You can use regular Scotch tape for that. Another issue is the matter of loading the furniture into the shipping vehicle. Before trying to move your furniture out of the apartment, be certain that they will fit via front doors, stairways and into the elevator (if your old apartment has one). If so, you’ll be able to move them without dismantling (find at least one person to assist you!). If they cannot, disassembling them is the sole way to move them without harm. Be cautious with that – make sure you store all the pins and bolts gathered like in a Ziploc bag as well as that you’ve secured delicate elements of the furniture properly. Dismantling furniture is also convenient when you want to fill the transporting vehicle to the maximum, because disassembled furniture will take a lot less place.  

When securing minor things, such as books, kitchen appliances, decorations and much more, cardboards will be the most efficient choice. It’s probable that you won’t have enough boxes to fit all your belongings – but there is a couple of ways to get additional boxes. For example you can get new cardboards in all home-improvement and construction stores. However as you’ll most likely require quite a few boxes, you may decide upon a more budget-friendly method. Go to your local stores and ask if they have any boxes they don’t need any more. Shops usually possess a great amount of unnecessary cardboards and they are usually happy to share. 

An alternative to boxes will be using bags, particularly for transporting clothes as well as little items. There is a much higher possibility that you will find the bags at home. As stated above, bags will be a decent choice for storing textiles, magazines and little things, but unfortunately they have a couple of disadvantages. Bags are much more flimsy than cardboards and prone to breaking, if you decide to use them for shipping things with hard corners (for example books, cutlery etc.). Moreover – placing bags on top of each other is much more difficult than stacking cardboards in similar fashion.

Among the most difficult items to transport are houseplants. It is usually smartest to move them individually, but if something prevents you from doing that, make sure that the transport provider is aware of what he is going to transport. A day prior to the move water the plants generously and allow the water to sink in. It’s important that the plants have enough water to suffer through the transportation, but it’s equally important to let them absorb what they can before placing them in a container (you have to get rid of the extra water gathered on the saucer, so that it won’t accidentally leak through the box).

Selecting the right transport provider

Of course, apart from suitably securing your load for the shipment, it is equally important to select a suitable transport provider. What factors must you consider when selecting the right person? Cost of the service, obviously, is important, particularly on longer, routes between countries, but that’s only one of the factors. When shipping all your belongings you need to firstly consider if your things will be properly protected when given to the transport provider. Whenever posting your listing on a shipping marketplace, like Clicktrans, you not only can ask prospective haulers all the questions you require an answer to before deciding upon a hauler but also you may read feedback left by previous customers on each transport provider’s profile page. Nothing is more reliable than reviews given by a person who’s already hired the hauler you are considering.  

Prices of removal

Price of removal is quite hard to estimate, because it varies considerably due to the weight and dimensions of the cargo as well as how long the route is. If you are transporting a lot of delicate items, the price is probable to go up. It’s similar for international removals – routes within one country are frequently cheaper than shipping your items into another country.