By The Real Cost of a Move
Moving costs more than most people expect. Professional movers for a local move run $800 to $2,500 depending on the size of your household and distance. Long-distance professional moves can cost $3,000 to $10,000 or more. Add packing supplies, deposits, travel costs, meals during the chaos, and time off work, and the total cost of a move frequently exceeds what people budgeted.
The good news: most of these costs are more controllable than they seem. The decisions you make in the weeks before the move determine most of the total cost. The decisions you make during the move matter much less.
Moving Less Stuff Is the Biggest Saving
The single most effective cost reduction for any move is having less to move. Less stuff means fewer boxes, a smaller truck, fewer hours of labor if you’re using movers, and less chaos.
A move is the best possible time for a serious purge. Everything you own either goes with you or gets sold, donated, or thrown away. The furniture that doesn’t fit the new place. The boxes in storage you haven’t opened since the last move. The items that will cost more to transport than they’re worth.
Selling items before a move through Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist can fund part of the move while simultaneously reducing what needs to be transported. A couch sold for $150 is $150 toward moving costs and several fewer hundred pounds to carry.
DIY Moving vs Professional Movers
For local moves, renting a truck and doing it yourself with a few friends is dramatically cheaper than professional movers. A 16-foot truck from a major rental company runs $40 to $100 per day before mileage. Add gas and you might spend $150 to $250 total.
The real cost of DIY is your time, your friends’ time, and the risk of injury or property damage without professional experience. For households with less than a two-bedroom worth of furniture, college students, and people with helpful friends, DIY is excellent value.
For larger moves, households with heavy furniture, long-distance moves, or anyone without reliable help, the time and stress savings of professional movers often justify the cost. Getting three quotes from licensed movers and booking the lowest reasonable one minimizes the professional option’s cost.
Free and Cheap Packing Supplies
Boxes from a moving company or U-Haul cost $2 to $5 each, and a full home uses 30 to 60 boxes. That’s $60 to $300 in boxes alone.
Free boxes are everywhere if you know where to look. Liquor store boxes are excellent, they’re sturdy and have dividers. Grocery stores break down boxes daily that they’d otherwise recycle. Facebook Marketplace and Nextdoor consistently have free moving boxes from recent movers who no longer need them.
For fragile items, clothing and linens are free padding. Wrap dishes in t-shirts. Use pillows inside box corners. Fill empty spaces with socks or dish towels. Professional bubble wrap and packing paper are nice but rarely necessary for a careful packer.
The Timing That Saves Money
Moving costs vary by timing in ways most people don’t know about.
End-of-month moves are the most expensive. That’s when leases typically start and end, so demand for trucks and movers peaks. Mid-month moves are cheaper.
Summer is the most expensive season for professional movers. Demand peaks when families move between school years. Winter moves are cheaper, sometimes significantly, from professional movers willing to negotiate during slower periods.
Weekday moves are cheaper than weekend moves for professional services. If you can move on a Tuesday, you’ll pay less than on a Saturday when demand is highest.
