What’s The Cheapest Way to Move Home?

How to Save Money Moving Home and Even Make a Profit!

Yes, you read that correctly. Really.

It is so incredible it is worth repeating.

It is possible to make a profit when moving home.

‘How can I save money moving home?’ is the usual question home movers ask themselves.

Now a traditionally very expensive, stressful day can become stress-free and return you a profit!

Want to know how? Prepare yourself for a total change of mindset………

Pack or Purge?

You have deliberated over the usual conundrum about moving home: Do I pack and move home myself, or do I employ a professional removal company to move home for me?

It is one of the most home-moving-related questions on the Internet.

But there is another option you may not even have considered: Pack or Purge? Deciding to move home with the bare essentials and starting anew in your new home.

This essentially means you make the decision to pay to pack and move your possessions or take the absolute bare minimum to your new home.

Read on to discover exactly how that may work.

You may like to read: Ways to Move Home: The Pros and Cons of Every Home Moving Option. There are a number of options for ways that you can move home, from doing everything yourself to hiring a full-service removal company to do everything for you. In this guide, we explore the different options so that you can make a more informed decision as to which is the best option in your circumstances.

Do I Sell Everything I Own and Move Home, Then Buy Only Selected New Items?

Everything? Yes, sell everything.

This is not as crazy a suggestion as it may seem.

The concept here is to sell everything you own before you move home so that you have a surplus of money to buy the ESSENTIAL and TRULY LOVED items you need.

Therefore your new home will only be furnished with items that you really love or need, you will not have any more cluttered cupboards, and your home will be organised and also easier to clean.

Nor will you have to go through the laborious and expensive task of packing for your home move.

Additionally, if you are redecorating the new home or doing major renovations there is no storage or moving things from room to room to worry about.

And come moving day it will be so stress-free, with no loading or unloading to worry about, and no rushing around getting everything organised. It will be the easiest moving day ever.

You may like to read: The Epic Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. In this guide, we suggest the easiest ways to declutter your home and we also look at what is probably the hardest part of decluttering: How to let go of things emotionally.

How to Make the Decision to Declutter

With all the possessions that are accumulated in our homes, you would have thought that we would be incredibly happy.

But usually, just the opposite emotion is created.

We worry that we will be burgled, the item will malfunction, and a newer, faster, shinier model will be released.

We constantly want the latest, brightest, biggest, or best.

The key word here is want, not need.

We actually need very little to have a comfortable home.

All those non-essential items, although aesthetically pleasing, are really just dust collectors.

It is standard practice to declutter your home before moving, it is the classic way to save money when moving house.

Just stop to think for a moment.

How many items do you have in your house that you never use? How many times a decade do you use that must-have infra-red back massager or the spare one that you were given as a gift?

They are sat in the cupboard, untouched for the last 12 years or more, essentially those items are dead money.

These items are your standard, ‘sell before we move, items’.

If you can recognise that you really do not need so many possessions and that your home move will be so much cheaper and easier moving fewer items, then you have arrived at the decision to start decluttering.

Now, let us move the “declutter = reduced moving costs equation”, a step further.

Nothing to move equals no moving costs!

Do the two of you really need four coffee tables or three sets of crockery? Of course not.

Those coffee tables are used to put table lamps upon, none of which have been plugged in, let alone switched on since they were put there. Still, it gives you something to dust every day…….

Now consider the cost of packing up, and moving, that six-seater dining room set.

In these times of mass-produced, self-assembly furniture, the chances are there may not be a huge difference in the pack or purge equation.

It is likely, however, that when you try to reassemble your flat pack furniture, the chipboard will split, or you will have lost the screws during the move.

Coupled with the fact that the table may get damaged in transit, the stress of physically moving it, and the fact that you would have a nice new table, for your nice new home, the scales are tipping towards purge not pack.

You may also like to read: How to Declutter Your Loft When Moving Home. Decluttering your loft is often the hardest, both physically and emotionally. It is often full of things that never see the light of day but equally, we do not want to part with, as well as things that we have shoved up there because we have nowhere else to put them. This guide will help you declutter your loft.

More Reasons Why Purging Not Packing Makes Sense

Now throw into the mix the convenience of having an empty home to redecorate.

If you were planning on redecorating your new home straight away, you would have had to move all your items from room to room again.

Purge and that inconvenience is removed.

If you were planning on major renovations straight away, and were putting your things into storage, the costs will soon mount up.

You will immediately save the storage and redelivery costs using the purge method.

Do you plan to have all the carpets professionally cleaned in your new home, but there is no time before you move in to get it done?

The purge option would give you the opportunity to pamper your new home.

Do you have a family wedding to go to that clashes with your moving day date? No matter how hard you tried, you could not move your moving date.

Purge and that dilemma is immediately resolved.

Downsizing your home? Surely a total purge will make sense as many items of furniture, and cabinets of ornaments, probably will not fit in your new home anyway.

Moving from a gothic mansion to a modern penthouse?

An extreme example, but the point is that your thousands of possessions from your old home may not lend themselves to the character or ambiance you which to create in your new home.

Purge and start anew.

Don’t forget that anything that you cannot sell, or give to family and friends, can be donated to charity.

The practical advantages of a purge are evident.

You may also like to read: How to Do a Car Boot Sale Before Moving Home. In this guide, we share some top tips for doing a car boot sale so that you can make some money towards the beautiful new things for your new home.

Is it Cheaper to Ship Your Home Contents or Buy New?

Now you have been introduced to this new part of the home move equation, you need to do some financial and emotional evaluations to decide which way to go.

There are many articles in our home moving blog that deal with the subject of ‘How much will it cost to move home by myself?’ ‘Or how much does it cost to hire a professional removal company for my home move?’

Just remember that every house move is different, so overestimate the costs involved so that you have a safety margin in case of unexpected events.

To estimate a removal company versus a DIY home move, consider the following:

The Average Cost of Moving Home Yourself

Packaging materials + hire of moving equipment (sack barrow, vehicle straps etc.) + Van Hire + Fuel + Insurance + Contingency, to pay for insurance excess in case of an accident.

Although you cannot put a monetary value on it, factor in your time and inconvenience to pack your move yourself.

Also consider the risk factor of injury to yourself, and the stress that you will experience when performing a DIY home move.

The Average Cost of Hiring a Professional Removal Company

• The average costs for moving from a 1 or 2-bedroom property are around £850- £1500 plus VAT
• Packing costs approximately £275-£475

You may also like to read: What is the Average Cost to Move a 1 or 2-bedroom Home? in which we look at the costs involved in moving out of a 1 or 2-bedroom home in more depth.

The average cost of moving a 3-bedroom home varies across the country so here are some examples

• London to Milton Keynes – £1500-£2200
• Birmingham to Oxford – £1400-£1700
• Glasgow to Edinburgh – £1450-£1550
• Cardiff to Swansea – £1475-£175
• Packing costs approximately £775

You may also like to read: What is the Average Cost to Move a 3 Bedroom home? in which we look at the costs involved in moving from a 3 bedroom home in more depth.

Every home move is different so the only way to know how much a removal company will charge you is to get some quotes so that you can compare prices and services.

Ensure you know exactly what you are being quoted for, and that you have researched the removal company thoroughly using the reviews published online.

Remember that each additional service they provide has a cost implication.

Ensure you factor in the cost of insurance.

Make sure that you are fully insured for any breakages or damage. The screen on your 50’ TV being cracked and not covered by insurance would surely ruin moving day for you.

The Cost of Purging When Moving Home

A search through an online site such as eBay or Loot, will show you how much you can reasonably expect to sell and buy your furniture and household goods for.

Make a list of only the essential items you will need to set up your new home, then do the maths:

The total selling price for every item, minus the cost price to replace only the essential items, compared to the total moving cost.

Don’t forget that you probably already have the money saved for the home removal costs, so immediately, that money is still in your pocket.

Let’s demonstrate that with figures:

Sell your homewares for £1000

Essentials will cost you       £800

Moving costs saved            £900

You now have £1100 in your new home piggy bank.

This is purely an example, obviously, every home move will be different, but you can see how the concept works.

But……….. And there is always a but…………….

Now comes the difficult part, the emotional attachment to an item.

You can probably associate an emotion, or memory, with many, many items around the home.

What will happen if you do not have that box of photographs, stored at the back of the wardrobe for the last 5 years?

What will happen if you do not have the child’s first blanket which has been in the attic for 20 years?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

You will still have the memories and emotions they created within you. Not having the physical object will not remove the memory.

You are going to have to make some tough decisions here, but this is the perfect time to do it.

So, the questions to ask, when contemplating whether should I pack and move, or sell my home contents before moving home, are:

How strong is the emotional bond?

Is it of such financial value that you could never afford to replace it?

Is the item so rare that it is irreplaceable?

Set yourself a limit of, for example, six small boxes to fill, for moving to your new home. Enough to fill one car only.

This way, you will evaluate every individual item that goes in each box, on the scale of your emotional, financial, or scarcity, attachment.

Imagine how liberating, and cost-effective it would be to sell everything and move home.

Not to mention how practical, when factoring in the lack of stress, the simplicity of moving day, and the ease with which you can then decide how to furnish and decorate your new home.

You may also like to read: Small Home Moves: Moving With No Furniture. Your home move will be so much easier and cheaper by not taking your furniture with you. That leaves just a pile of boxes to get to your new home. In this guide, we look at the cheapest ways to move boxes to your new home.

For most people, however, it is unlikely that you will sell EVERY item you own, but certainly, you can approach the decluttering stage of your home move with renewed vigor and a new perspective.

If you still end up with a room full of boxes, and a pile of furniture that you simply cannot bear to part with, remember to get a renewed home moving estimate for the services of a reputable removal company to help you move home.

Please come back and tell us via the comments below how your home declutter went and just how far down the total purge route you went.