Has anyone ever paid to have someone unpack you in a move?

[Hisgirl]

We recently retired.

We purged and packed up our large home and are building in a 55+ community.

I was zero help in the actual packing. I hate it beyond anything and mainly did all the purging, selling, donating, organizing. What little packing I did do, was my stuff. My hubby nearly killed himself packing. It was awful.

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Has anyone every done this? If so, how worth it was it to do? Would you do it again?

 

[Mrs.AMC]

No. Actually refused it.
Military moves packed up all belongings
They also unpacked them upon arrival at our new quarters.
I never allowed them to unpack us
The very last thing I wanted was every single item I owned unpacked and laying around in the house all willy-nilly. That would have been a nightmare quite honestly.
I unpack a box, put away that box, move on to another box.
So that's how I always unpacked. Granted, it didn't include the organizing part, that could have been different but I'd likely still not want someone else to organize my house for me. I want it my way, not their way. I rarely agree with the "experts" on the way to do things. I've done it my way for 40+ years. I'm not changing now. LOL

 

[Micca]

We've moved cross-country several times. We pack the fragile and special items, the movers pack the rest. We've never paid for unpacking, it's just easier to open a box and put things away where you want to keep them. Plus when unpacking you don't have to do it all in a limited time Take as much time as you want, it reduces stress.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

A friend of mine had the movers pack up her house when she moved but she did all the un-packing. She said it was worth it.

 

[Hisgirl]

One thing I was thinking, is that by doing it myself, I could continue my purge and leave donations in the box to give away.

 

[barkley]

no, and when we moved all the boxes that were not VITAL (clothes, cooking, bedding...) went into the garage. only as we needed items did we retrieve them. when we hit the 1 year point anything still out there we figured we likely didn't need so we did a quick look-see in each box to ensure we knew what was going but it largely was disposed of/donated.

 

[fla4fun]

I think that kind of service has a place. If you have physical limitations, or time limitations, or just dislike the task, and it doesn’t stretch the budget, I don’t see any reason not to. I have back and knee issues. If I were moving, I would need help packing and unpacking. I could unpack, but it would take me months because I would have to limit how much bending and lifting I did. An unpacking team could get it done in a day and I could get on with my life.

 

[ronandannette]

I'd certainly be willing to give it a go! When we downsized from our big house to the "practice condo" we rented to see if condo living would be suitable, unpacking almost "undid" me. I work full-time and couldn't take any time off. Setting up house is NOT something my DH or DS were able to be truly helpful with. We moved in August 1; it was almost Christmas by the time I finally got everything put away properly.

PS: We had paid for professional packers and movers. It never occurred to me there were people I could pay to unpack.

 

[nw6675]

Unpacking was included when my company at the time moved us from NC to TN. However, we declined it because it would have been too much hassle.

 

[easyas123]

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Honestly, that seems quite reasonable and worth it for a chore you loath and are dreading. I'd do it.

 

[AustinTink]

We recently retired.

We purged and packed up our large home and are building in a 55+ community.

I was zero help in the actual packing. I hate it beyond anything and mainly did all the purging, selling, donating, organizing. What little packing I did do, was my stuff. My hubby nearly killed himself packing. It was awful.

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Has anyone every done this? If so, how worth it was it to do? Would you do it again?

That's a very good price. My friend is an organizer and her company charges a lot more. I know that her clients have all been so appreciative and relieved when she is done helping them. Money well spent in my book.

 

[DLgal]

Like another poster, we are military. We refused to allow the movers to unpack us, even though it was included (and, thus, free) because their job stipulates just unpack and put items down WHEREVER and that sounded like a nightmare for me. Instead, I arranged to unpack myself as long as they promised to come back and remove all the packing boxes and paper, which they did a week later each time. We would just store the flattened boxes and paper in our garage until they came for it. This allowed us to slowly unpack and organize the house one room at a time. To make it easier, we stayed in a hotel for a few extra days so we wouldn't be living out of boxes. We left the hotel only when the house was fully unpacked and clean.

 

[Meriweather]

Never....I HAVE to do it all myself

 

[_19disnA]

Have moved several times over the years for my job and the company paid the moving costs (included boxing & unboxing). If you have things packed by room (i.e. bedroom #1, bedroom #2, family room, basement, etc.) it is very helpful for them to arrange the new rooms, position the furniture, put the beds together or put things in closets. While I didn't find it helpful was in the kitchen. Chances are the kitchen of your new home isn't configured exactly the same way so where to put dishes/pots & pans/utensils/silverware/etc. or all of the other smaller items in the kitchen you are better off doing yourself. Movers can unbox all of your kitchen items and just leave things on the counters to arrange how you want after you finish moving in. They also carted off any of the empty boxes which made cleanup easier.

For the bedroom closets, they had large boxes (like a portable upright closet) which basically held the all of the clothing items on hangars. Made it very easy for the movers to just unbox those things and put them into the new closets. They also took away those large boxes when they were done.

While it is helpful to have the main rooms organized as you move in, it isn't necessary to do everything the first day you move in. I am not sure of the value of hiring someone else who is local and not associated with the moving company to arrange things. You would probably spend more time explaining where to put everything and can do a better job of that on your own. What I would call 'home decor' items are probably something better off done yourself. Chances are where you put pictures/wall hangings or other decor items I never found helpful for someone else to do. The rooms of the new home were never exactly configured the same as the old, so it took some time to figure out what to put where. You may also have purchased some new items in preparation for moving.

If you are retired it also isn't like you have to get things done right away so you can return to your job. You will be home all of the time, so over a period of a few weeks, you can work on organizing your new location and save a few dollars you would have otherwise spent during the move.

 

[cobright]

We recently retired.

We purged and packed up our large home and are building in a 55+ community.

I was zero help in the actual packing. I hate it beyond anything and mainly did all the purging, selling, donating, organizing. What little packing I did do, was my stuff. My hubby nearly killed himself packing. It was awful.

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Has anyone every done this? If so, how worth it was it to do? Would you do it again?

Every overseas assignment I ever took, I negotiated this service in my move. It’s absolutely a great service.

That price seems high but It would depend on just how much stuff we’re talking about. Post a gig on Craigslist and see what response you get.

 

[Praying Colonel]

We recently retired.

We purged and packed up our large home and are building in a 55+ community.

I was zero help in the actual packing. I hate it beyond anything and mainly did all the purging, selling, donating, organizing. What little packing I did do, was my stuff. My hubby nearly killed himself packing. It was awful.

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Has anyone every done this? If so, how worth it was it to do? Would you do it again?

We just did the same last year. We still have boxes in our garage we haven't gone through yet. Our excuse is it's too hot and we'll do it when it gets cooler, but it's really just an excuse.

Like others, I was in the military and we chose not to have them unpack us. What we ended up with is unpacking the core stuff we used a lot but having a bunch of boxes we never opened and just carried around with us like pets. When we were moving last year we went through boxes that hadn't been unpacked since our last PCS move in the early 90s. It was ridiculous.

(I guess you can see a trend here with us. )

I'm cheap by nature, but 1500-1800 for 2 people to unpack all your boxes and organize your house sounds very reasonable.

 

[cvjw]

We haven’t, but we will when we move in a couple years. I am paying for someone to pack the old house and unpack at the new house. Just too overwhelming.

 

[jdb in AZ]

When mom was pregnant with me (ready to hatch) her sis-in-law helped move my parents to a new apartment. Mom came home with a new baby and couldn't locate anything. So yes, I'd prefer to do my own unpacking.

OTOH we had a "great flood" (pipe leaked while we were on vacation) a few years ago, and all the flooring in the house had to be replaced. The insurance company paid movers to photograph all our belongings before they were packed. When they unpacked the china cabinet (after the recarpeting) they used the pictures to set up the cabinet the way it had been.

 

[disykat]

During the pandemic we moved my mom from an assisted living apartment to a room in the memory care unit my father was living in across the parking lot. She was not allowed to visit him and they were both struggling, so we moved her into an empty room. We were not allowed in to facilitate the move and had to hire a service. The lady was great, packed her, moved her, unpacked her. (It was a bit ridiculous since we could have easily taken the same precautions she did, but we were all doing our best to follow the rules.) It was a little funny standing outside my mom's window on my phone trying to help her locate items inside a room I'd never seen. That said, easiest move physically I've ever made. Definitely the way to go, if affordable, if we'd been able to be there to see what was going where! She was extremely organized. All the Boxes that didn't get moved from her apartment to the room got sent back to their house completely labeled. (We're still going through some of them as we prep the house for sale.) We had to rely on her to decide what went where, and she did a great job. She specialized in moving senior citizens so I think that really helped. We got her name from the facility so she was familiar with the setup there.

 

[jump00]

We recently retired.

We purged and packed up our large home and are building in a 55+ community.

I was zero help in the actual packing. I hate it beyond anything and mainly did all the purging, selling, donating, organizing. What little packing I did do, was my stuff. My hubby nearly killed himself packing. It was awful.

When our house is ready, allllllll those boxes will be delivered. I found a local company, some organizing ladies, who will come unpack for you and organize your house. The cost would be 1500-1800.

Has anyone every done this? If so, how worth it was it to do? Would you do it again?

Would absolutely love this!