Recent reports suggest that homeowners are spending an eye-watering £4,000 in hidden costs when moving home. From legal fees, removal insurance and buying new furniture, there’s so much that goes into moving home. After that, you’ve still got to pay an hourly rate for professional moving services to ensure your items get from A to B promptly. However, investing in a self-drive van hire instead can save you a significant amount of money. Doing so is also a more flexible option and can reduce the stress of an already stressful process.
To give you clarity on the moving process, we’ve provided some practical tips which will help you move home or office efficiently and effectively.
Consider a Self Hire Van To Get Your Items From A to B
If you’ve decided that you would rather complete your move without the help of a removal company, a self-drive van hire is essential. By investing in a long wheelbase van hire, you can greatly reduce the number of trips you need to make.
Moving home is never an easy task and will almost certainly involve the transportation of a huge number of boxes, pieces of furniture and other items. Whether you’re moving within a city or across the country, this process is challenging. Five trips in a car could turn into one trip with an LWB van rental within a city. If you’re travelling across the country, committing to more than one self-drive van hire could be beneficial. By enlisting some friends or family to drive one of the other vans, you may even be able to get all of your possessions moved in one go!
By using a self-drive van hire, you can be flexible about your move which can, in turn, relieve stress. You will have complete control over when you move and can do so over several days if you wish. Similarly, you will have complete responsibility for your possessions and won’t have to pay an hourly rate for a removalist. Simply book the van and pay for the fuel and the rest is up to you!
Declutter Thoroughly Before Packing
Before you even begin to think about packing away your goods and organising a self-drive van hire, you should start a process of decluttering. Packing is difficult enough when you’ve already ‘trimmed the fat’ off your possessions. However, having to wade through items you might not even want as well just adds to the stress of the process.
It’s widely advised to systematically go through your home to discover items that can be discarded before starting the moving process. If you have any old bits of furniture which have seen better years, any broken electronics or other possessions you no longer need, it’s time to dispose of them. Of course, you should recycle as many of your items as possible.
Start Early and Ensure You Have The Right Materials
As soon as you have your new home secured, you should begin the moving process. Even if your move is months away, it’s a good idea to start looking into the price of self-drive van hire services and collecting packing materials. Getting started early will relieve a huge amount of stress and pressure further down the road.
You’ll need plenty of packing materials, like boxes, tape and labels. You should also begin collecting quotes for your self-drive van hire and start looking into local recycling centres for your decluttering process. By getting all of your ducks in a row, you’ll make the moving process easier when it comes to the crunch.
Packing Methods In Preparation For Your Van Hire
Now that you’ve got all of your packing materials together, had a thorough declutter and you’ve organised a self-drive van hire, there are some packing methods to keep in mind. As well as starting as early as possible, it’s important to make a priority list and have boxes ready in a variety of sizes. The items on your priority list should be packed separately and kept in an accessible location so that you can unpack them first.
When going through your home, you should start at the very top and work your way down to give the packing process a bit of order. Pack one room at a time and ensure that all boxes are properly labelled so you know where to put them at the other end. When packing heavy items, always keep them in the smaller boxes so that they’re more manageable and you don’t get any injuries.
Book Some Time Off Work To Beat The Rush
If possible, try not to complete your move on a weekend. Aim to book some time off work during the week and then schedule your self-drive van hire to coincide with this time off. By avoiding rush hour and the weekend traffic, you will make the process far less stressful. As well as this, you’re more likely to find parking in a busy city during working hours!
Enlist The Help of Your Family
As mentioned before, you may need some additional help when moving home. Particularly if you’re moving in alone, enlisting the help of friends and family can be invaluable. Of course, this all depends on their schedules, but if you can get a helping hand, it can make all of the difference. In the best circumstance, you might be able to organise more than one self-drive van hire and have a friend or family member drive one of these rentals. That way, you won’t need to make nearly as many trips.
Bring Essentials With You
It’s a great idea to bring some essentials with you in an easily-accessible place in your self-drive van hire. Pack important documents together as well as some luxuries which will help you feel at home straight away. You could pack some tea, coffee, snacks and a kettle together so you can have a hot drink as soon as you arrive.
Sort Out Utilities Before You Arrive
In a similar vein to having your essentials with you when you first arrive at your new home, it’s also a good idea to have all of your utilities sorted out before you arrive too. If you’ve got young kids who are moving with you, you might want to have the internet sorted out already so they can watch a film whilst you break the back of the unpacking.
Having your children feeling happy, content and relaxed will ensure you can get on with the job at hand. This will also allow you to stream some music whilst you work and makes the moving in process that much more bearable.
Looking For Vehicle Hire In The Midlands and The South West? Contact Chief Vehicle Rentals Today
Do you require a small van or long wheelbase van hire for your home relocation? If you’ve been looking for LWB van rental in the Midlands or the South West, Chief Rentals should be your go-to provider in the area.
We have a vast range of cars, vans and trucks to choose from, so no matter the size of your project, we can provide a solution for you. Our long wheelbase van hire service is perfect for those who require a little more space when moving home or office. These vehicles are large enough to transport a significant amount of items without being too challenging to drive.
If you need to transport even larger objects, we can also provide tipper van hire services. These vehicles are excellent for landscape projects or to assist in clearing a construction site.
To find out more, please feel free to contact us today. You can find us at either of our Birmingham or Torbay offices. Alternatively, you can book a vehicle online with us today.
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