Packing Service
Packing sucks. It’s slow, difficult, dirty and sometimes depressing. Happily, you don’t have to do it yourself if you don’t want to! Almost every moving company offers professional packing services that offer both convenience and peace of mind. A hefty price tag, to be sure – but peace of mind nonetheless.
First things first: you’ve got to determine the level of service you want. You can choose to have your entire house, plus garage and shed magically taken care of by the company, or you can just choose to have a few of the more complicated rooms packed, like the kitchen or living room. You could also elect to have your furniture professionally wrapped, but do all of your items yourself. Still further, you could decide to have professionals pack your fragile belongings and take care of the rest yourself. Truly, the options are endless, and a good moving company representative will be happy to take the time to go over all of the options with you and help you decide which option is the best for you.
It gets better. You can also have your company unpack your belongings for you at your new home, and they’ll take away all of the boxes, padding, and paper. Generally, they won’t put things away, so be prepared to be on hand to help things find their new homes once they’re freed from their cardboard cages.
Also, you don’t necessarily have to go through a moving company. Most cities have at least a handful of companies that provide packing services exclusively. This is a good option if you’re renting a truck but not planning to pay for labour.
When you decide to have your packing professionally done, the first thing you should expect (or ask for!) is that someone will come to your home to perform an assessment. Very often this is a free service done to help you decide which level of service to use. The consultant should be able to give you a very accurate estimate on how much it should cost you to have your belongings packed and/or unpacked. Be sure to be clear about which items you want to pack yourself, and which you want a company to do for you!
The assessment is also a good time to point out any items that are particularly important to you, or are particularly fragile. It may seem obvious to you what is what, but your packers won’t know unless they’ve been briefed.
There is some debate in professional circles as to whether or not you should be at home on hand when the packing service or moving company is packing your belongings. On one hand, it’s good to be available if the packer has questions or concerns and so that you can monitor the process and make sure it’s being done to your satisfaction. On the other hand, watching a stranger manhandle your belongings can be nerve-wracking, and hovering around making suggestions will only annoy a professional! It’s up to you and depends on your level of comfort with the process. Of course, even if you decide to remove yourself from the immediate situation, you should make sure you’re easy to contact in case a question does come up.
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