How it works

Changing house is one of the most common situations we can encounter in our life. And despite the fact we change the place we live in at least a few times before settling for good, removals are still among the most nerve-wracking situations that can happen to us. Just figuring out the organization of shipping all your belongings between houses is a very large task and when you add securing your belongings for transportation, unpacking as well as choosing the best transport provider to help you with removal, it seems truly huge and quite nerve-wracking. Thankfully there are a few ways to make the move as efficient as can be as well as considerably less stressful.

Packing as well as securing your items for shipment

One crucial thing you have to remember while preparing for the removal is that you should create a coherent list of steps that you’ll have to abide by through the whole process. It is smart to make a list of every item you need to ship. It can not only make the packing easier but also will allow you to check if all of your things were safely shipped to its place of destination. Removal entails transporting a big amount of various items, among them a big amount of little things that are easily misplaced when packed in a hurry – an inventory will ensure that you will remember to check if they all made it to the place of destination safely. Another important step is labelling all the cardboards as clearly as you are able to. One of the most helpful ways of tagging cardboards is by the room name. For example all the kitchen supplies as well as devices go into cardboards labelled ‘kitchen’, all the pillows and blankets in the box labelled ‘bedroom’ and so on. You’ll see how time-saving tagging can be once you start the unpacking. Remember to tag both sides and the top of the cardboard, so that you (and the transport provider) can be sure which box goes where, no matter how they will be placed in the transporting car.

Be extra careful with delicate items. Wrap them in protective layers of fabric and bubble foil as well as tag them clearly (together with a “This way up” label). You also need to make sure that the transport provider is aware that he’ll be shipping delicate cargo and which boxes requires handling with caution.

When you want to transport furniture, it’s crucial to empty them before the removal and ship everything that was inside separately. Any loose items inside closets and cabinets can harm your furniture during shipment. It’s also smart to secure all the furniture doors as well as drawers using tape so that they won’t open during transportation. You can use regular Scotch tape to do that. There is also a matter of loading the furniture into the shipping vehicle. Before attempting to move your furniture from the house, make sure that you’ll be able to transport them via front doors, stairways and into the elevator (if your old apartment has one). If so, you’ll be able to move them without disassembling (find at least 1 person to help you!). If they cannot, disassembling them is the only way to move them without harm. Be careful with dismantling – make sure you store all the pins as well as bolts gathered like in a Ziploc bag as well as that you’ve secured all the elements of the furniture sufficiently. Dismantling furniture is also a good idea whenever you need to fill the transporting vehicle to the maximum, because dismantled furniture will be much easier to stack efficiently.  

Whenever securing smaller items, such as books, tableware, decorations and so on, cardboards will be the most obvious choice. It’s most likely that you won’t have enough boxes to fit all your belongings – however there is a few methods to get some more. For example you may acquire new boxes in all home-improvement and construction stores. However as you’ll most likely need lots of boxes, you can choose a more budget-friendly method. Visit your local stores and see if they have some boxes they don’t need any more. Stores tend to possess a great amount of unneeded boxes and they are usually willing to share. 

An alternative to boxes would be using bags, particularly for transporting textiles and little stuff. There is a much bigger chance that you will find the bags at home. As mentioned, bags will serve as a decent choice for packing textiles, magazines and little things, but unfortunately they have a couple of disadvantages. Bags are much less durable than boxes and susceptible to tearing, should you decide to use them for shipping items with hard corners (like books, stationery etc.). Moreover – stacking bags on top of each other is much harder than stacking cardboards the same way.

One of the most difficult loads to transport are houseplants. It’s obviously safest to transport them by yourself, however if something prevents you from doing that, make sure that the transport provider is aware of what he is going to transport. A day before the removal water the plants thoroughly and give them a moment. It’s important that the plants have enough water to endure the shipment, but also to allow them to absorb what they can before placing them in a cardboard (you need to pour off the extra water from the saucer, so that it won’t soak through the container).

Choosing the right hauler

Obviously, apart from properly securing your items for the removal, it is also important to choose a suitable hauler. What factors must you consider when selecting the right person? Price, of course, is important, particularly on lengthy, international routes, but that’s only 1 factor. Whenever transporting all your belongings you need to in the first place take into consideration if your things will be properly protected in the hands of the transport provider. Whenever posting your listing on a shipping marketplace, like Clicktrans, you not only may ask prospective transport providers every question you need answered before making your decision about a transport provider but also you may read feedback left by former customers on each hauler’s profile page. Nothing is more believable than feedback given by someone who’s already hired the hauler you are thinking of hiring.  

Prices of removal

Price of removal is quite hard to estimate, because it changes, sometimes drastically due to how much the cargo weights and how big it is or how long the route is. If you plan to ship a lot of delicate items, the price is likely to go up. It’s similar for removals between countries – routes within one country are usually cheaper than transporting your items into another country.