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What to Know About Hiring Labor-Only Help for Your Move

Moving is a proven stressful endeavor. Whether you’re simply moving down the street or relocating your entire household to another state, you’ll be guaranteed a couple of headaches during the process.

One of the greatest burdens of moving is the financial aspect of it. Without warning, the expenses can easily escalate out of control. Hiring movers might even cost you more. Fortunately, you have the option of labor-only help.

Labor-only help offers professional services for packing, loading, and unloading household and valuable items. Even full-service moving companies offer labor services only to pack and unpack boxes, furniture, and appliances. It’s a good way to save while still making your move more manageable.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of what to know first before enlisting such service.

What Should I Do Before Hiring Labor-Only Help?

Do you hire labor-only help right away when preparing for a move? Check out this to-do list before hiring help.

  • Assess your home: Make an inventory of the things you want to bring on your move. Most items you own, such as outdated clothes and shoes, old textbooks, and bulky furniture, are no longer practical to move. Take stock of the things you need to donate, sell, or throw in the dumpster.

  • Make a list of the items for professional packing: Start by listing things you need help packing. These include specialty items like antiques, fine art, breakables, appliances, piano, and furniture. Pack the things that you can. Books and clothes are easy to pack so you can do them.

  • Get the appropriate insurance coverage: If you’re moving valuables like jewelry, a grand piano, or a china display case, you’ll need special help for packing. However, professional packers have limited liability for your valuables. Confer with your insurance provider about the correct type of insurance coverage to get for a particular item.

Make sure you know the details of your move so you understand your needs.

Why Should I Hire a Labor-Only Help?

Hiring a professional packer may cost you money, so you might opt for a self-service move. While self-service moving may save you money, hiring a professional packer gives value to your money.

Better control for your move

Instead of feeling pressured for packing, hiring a professional packer gives you better control of your time and sanity. If you’re a career person or have a small child at home, you can’t get together enough time to devote to packing. 

Flexible schedule

Moving soon? No worries. Hiring a packer allows you enough time to pack the things you want to do on your own without having to think about the other items. Just check as they go, so you’re aware of what they’re packing.

Safety

Professional packers have more experience handling large furniture and fragile fixtures. Getting professional help minimizes accidents and damage to your essential things.

What Services Do Labor-Only Help Offer?

You can choose from various services that labor-only help offers to their clients.

Packing and unpacking

Packing your home in boxes is a daunting task, especially if you’re moving for the first time. If you’re a full-time employee or have small children to care for, hiring professional help cuts the stress and the hassle. While you can pack some items, leave the bulkier and more fragile items to professionals to protect them better for transit.

Unpacking may cause more hassle than packing, especially if you don’t know what goes where. Having professional help for unpacking cuts the time so you can settle more efficiently in your new home.

Assembly and disassembly

It is better to hire professionals for packing bulky furniture like couches and beds or fragile furniture like a piano or fixtures like a chandelier. Your items will also get better protection as these people have more experience of packing for a move.

Other packers also have experience disassembling and assembling your electronics, such as your smart TV and sound system. Instead of figuring out how to assemble them, hiring a professional keeps things convenient.

Loading and unloading the truck

If you don’t have enough muscle power, hiring professional labor-only help for loading and unloading the moving truck is easier, especially if you have lots of bulky furniture. Moving to a multiple-story building without an elevator poses another issue that professional help can address.

How Do You Calculate Labor-Only Help Costs?

Labor-only help in the DFW area costs an average of $60-$80 per hour for a team of two. Other factors that may affect cost are:

  • Extra labor
  • Items to be moved
  • Location and placement of the move
  • Extra services
  • Specialty items

How to Hire a Labor-Only Help

Contact a local moving company to hire labor-only help for packing and unpacking your household articles. Get a quote from at least two companies to compare their costs and services. If a friend or relative recently moved, ask for a reference for the moving services. Also, check customer reviews and ratings of the company you’re planning to hire.

The process of hiring labor-only movers is much like hiring regular movers. Research, compare quotes, recommendations, etc.

Cheer Up. You Got This!

Are you still stressing about your impending move? Don’t worry. These practical tips will help you decide whether to hire labor-only help for packing your things. Check out resources like Yelp or BBB for help in finding the right company within your area to facilitate the move.

Best Way to Unload Your Moving Truck After a Cross-Country Haul

Are you planning a cross-country move and planning to transport your belongings with a rental moving truck? The trip itself will be challenging, but you can’t forget about unloading everything after your arrival. Unloading will require physical labor and take up several hours of your time. To help you make the process easier, here are some tips for unloading your moving truck after the big move.

1. Your body will be tight due for sitting in the car for many hours

That’s why you should always start by doing some stretching exercises to loosen up your muscles. Unloading your belongings will be physically demanding, and the last thing you want to do is injure yourself. And if you’re tired due to a long drive, you should take a short nap before you even start unloading.

2. Make sure the moving truck is parked in a desirable location

Keep it close to your apartment or home and make sure that it’s parked under shade if it’s a sunny and hot day. The heat can make it difficult for you to unload everything.

3. Before unloading a single item, you want to inspect your space

Get an idea of the pathing you’ll need to take and where your belongings should go. You should also open all the doors and secure them to make the unloading process easier.

4. How you’ve loaded the moving truck will often determine how you unload it

Make sure that you put a lot of thought into organizing your belongings and furniture in the beginning. While you won’t be able to organize everything perfectly, the idea is to group as many things so that the unloading process is easier.

5. Start by moving all the small boxes and light furniture

This will clear the way for your large furniture as they are easily be moved to their proper location. You don’t want to have all your belongings out on the street as you try to remove everything that is blocking your furniture.

6. Get family members to find their belongings and move it to their room

If you’re moving with family, this is the easiest way to start putting a dent to the job. It is because everyone will know what belongs to them and where it should go. Also, make sure you tell family members to set their belongings out of the way of doors and group them to make way for large furniture.

7. Large furniture should be unloaded right before heavy and fragile boxes

The reason why is because you don’t want too many things to get in the way while you’re moving in your furniture. You also want to avoid the possibility of fragile boxes getting bumped into while you’re moving large furniture in.

8. Finish by unloading the heavy and fragile boxes

It’s highly recommended that you hire professionals movers to help you unload. It will prevent unnecessary injuries and also save you a lot of time. Many moving companies offer hourly labor-only moving services if you only need help with the unloading aspect of your move.

moving-truck

These tips should help you make the unloading process easier. You still have a large job ahead of you even after your cross-country move. That’s why it’s important to think about how you’re going to go about moving everything into your new home.

How to Pack a Television for a Long Distance Move

Most televisions are very expensive items, so you will want to play it safe when you pack them for a move to make sure they survive it in one piece. They’re fairly delicate items, so it pays to be careful and apply a few special techniques to help protect them from damage.

Unplug and Organize

Your TV probably has a bunch of cords, both for the TV itself and for accessories or attachments. You will need to unplug them to move the TV, and that means you need a way to keep them organized. Sorting your cables and storing the properly will make it much easier to get the TV set up in your new home. Most cables risk damage when they get bent out of shape or tugged too hard, so it is also important to protect them. Almost any of the common cable organization methods will do the job. Just pick your favorite and organize them before you pack the rest of the system.

packing-a-tv

Use the Original Box

You want your TV to move around as little as possible while you are shipping it. The original box is ideal for preventing movement because it is sized specifically to fit your TV. If you still have the box, be sure to use it when you pack your TV. If you don’t have the original box, you’ll need to find an alternative cardboard TV box. Try to get something that is roughly the same size and shape as the original. Some companies will sell special boxes that simulate the original packaging, but you can make do with almost any box if you don’t want to spend the money.

Pad the Gaps

The container for your TV will probably have some gaps in it. That is a bad thing, because those gaps provide space for the TV to slide around, which risks damage. You can solve that problem by stuffing those gaps with towels, blankets, or any other convenient textiles. They are soft and flexible enough to almost any space easily, and they will stop the TV from moving around. You may need a similar layer of packing around the outside of the box to keep it from sliding around your truck, depending on how you organize things!

Cover the Screen

The screen is the most delicate part of the TV, so it needs some extra prevention to prevent scratches or even shattering. This is the trickiest step, and it does call for some special tools. You will need either a long sheet of bubble wrap, or a sheet of cardboard and some stretch wrap. You will probably have those around from other parts of the move, but you might need to run to the store if you are missing any of them.

television

If you are using bubble wrap, simply wrap it around the TV while being sure to cover all of the screen. If you are using cardboard, cut a piece that covers the entire screen. Wrap the stretch wrap around the TV and the cardboard to hold it in place. Be sure to make sure that everything is clean and smooth before it goes over the screen to make sure there is no scratching!