How it works

Moving to a new house is one of the most common situations we can encounter in our days. And despite the fact we move averagely a few times before settling for good, removals are still some of the most trying situations that can happen to us. Just figuring out the logistics of shipping all your belongings between houses is quite a job and when you add securing your belongings for transportation, unpacking as well as selecting the suitable company to assist you with removal, it seems truly huge as well as quite nerve-wracking. Fortunately there are couple of things you can do to make the move as simple as can be as well as significantly less nerve-wracking.

Packing as well as securing your items for transportation

The most important thing you have to remember while packing is that you should create a coherent plan that you’ll have to abide by during the move. It is best to create a list of every item you want transported. Such a list will not only help you pack but additionally will allow you to make sure that all of your things were successfully transported to your new home. Removal calls for transporting a big amount of various items, including a big amount of little items that are easily forgettable under the pressure of time – a list will help you make sure they all made it to the place of destination safely. The next important step is labelling all the cardboards as clearly as you can. One of the most common ways of labelling boxes is by category. For example all the kitchen supplies as well as appliances go into cardboards labelled ‘kitchen’, all the duvets and personal items in the cardboards tagged ‘bedroom’ and so on. You’ll quickly find out how much time labelling can save once you get to the unpacking part. Remember to tag both sides and the top of the box, so that you (and the transport provider) can be sure which box goes where, no matter how they will be stacked inside the transporting vehicle.

Take special care with delicate things. Enclose them in protective layers of fabric or bubble wrap and label them clearly (together with a “This way up” sign). You should also ensure that the transport provider is aware that he’ll be transporting delicate goods as well as which cardboards requires handling with caution.

When you are shipping furniture, it’s important to take everything out of them prior to the removal as well as ship all the things inside separately. Any unattached items in cupboards or cabinets could harm your furniture on the road. Additionally it is smart to close all the furniture doors and drawers with some tape to make sure they won’t open on the road. You can use ordinary Scotch tape for that. Another issue is the matter of loading the furniture inside the transporting car. Before trying to move your furniture out of the house, be certain that they will fit via front doors, stairways and into the elevator (if your building has one). If so, you can move them without disassembling (be sure to have at least 1 person to help you!). If they can’t, dismantling them is the only way to move them safely. Be careful with dismantling – make sure you have all the nails and screws in one place 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 want to fill the transporting car to the maximum, because dismantled furniture will be much easier to stack efficiently.  

Whenever securing smaller things, such as magazines, kitchen appliances, cosmetics etc., cardboards will be the most obvious choice. It’s very possible that you won’t have enough boxes to fit all your belongings – but there is a couple of ways to get additional boxes. Firstly you may acquire new cardboards in most of the home-improvement as well as construction stores. However since you’ll most likely require quite a few cardboards, you can decide upon a more affordable method. Go to nearby stores and see if they have any boxes they don’t need any more. Stores tend to possess a great amount of unnecessary cardboards and most of the time they are happy to share. 

An alternative to boxes would be using bags, particularly for transporting clothes and little items. There is a quite bigger possibility that you will find the bags at home. As mentioned, bags will be a sufficient choice when storing textiles, magazines as well as small things, there are some downsides, though. Bags are much more flimsy than cardboards as well as susceptible to breaking, if you decide to use them for storing items with edges (like books, cutlery and so on). Moreover – stacking bags on top of each other is much more difficult than stacking cardboards in similar fashion.

One of the most difficult things to ship are houseplants. It’s always best to ship them by yourself, however if something prevents you from doing that, you need to be certain that the hauler is aware of what he will be transporting. One day prior to the shipment water the plants generously and allow the water to sink in. It’s important that the plants are watered enough to endure the transportation, but it’s equally important to allow them to take in what they can before putting the plants in a cardboard (you need to pour off the extra water from the saucer, to make sure it won’t accidentally leak through the container).

Choosing the best hauler

Obviously, apart from properly securing your cargo for the removal, it is also important to find a suitable transport provider. Which aspects of transportation should you acknowledge while making your decision? Cost of the service, certainly, is important, particularly on lengthy, international routes, but that’s only one of the factors. When shipping everything you have you should firstly take into consideration if your load will be properly protected when given to the hauler. Whenever posting your listing on a shipping marketplace, like Clicktrans, you not only can ask possible haulers every question you require an answer to before making your decision about a transport provider but also you can read feedback given by previous customers on each transport provider’s profile page. Not much is more reliable than reviews given by someone who’s already hired the transport provider you are thinking of hiring.  

Prices of removal

The cost of removal is really hard to asses, because it varies considerably due to the weight and dimensions of the cargo as well as how long the route is. If you plan to ship a lot of delicate things, the price is likely to be higher. The same goes for international removals – domestic routes are normally cheaper than shipping your things into another country.