Moving house is like having the rug pulled out from under your feet, both physically and metaphorically. Your routine, whether beautifully crafted or roughly stitched, goes out of the window and you’re faced with a domestic chores list on steroids.
Progress in all other aspects of your life is now on hold and you may be feeling overwhelmed.
There’s a large number of tasks of varying difficulty vying for your attention. All need to happen within a short and fixed time frame. It’s this intensity and disruption that makes moving home so stressful.
And so, just as you now use a cleaner, gardener and a laundry service to make life easier, it makes sense to consider using a move manager to help make sure the multitude of tasks happen without any hiccups and your move is successful.
What does a move manager do?
A move manager will oversee every aspect of your move looking after everything from arranging a survey and inventory of your items to organising your removals and packing and unpacking services. They’ll also be present on-site on move day to ensure everything goes smoothly.
While the role of all move managers is to project manage your move, Move by Design will also do some of the doing such as decluttering, professional packing and unpacking and organising at your new home.
Here’s a more detailed list of some of the things your move manager can take care of:
Pre-sale house preparation:
- Decluttering
- Styling
- House maintenance and enhancement
Post-sale move organisation:
- Maintenance requirements for settlement
- Packing
- Furniture removal
- Move day management
- Exit cleaning
- Moving to storage
- Unpacking
- New home set up
- Implementing new home organisation systems
- New home styling
So do you need a move manager?
If like most people you’re increasingly time poor and you’re realising how important it is to focus on your well-being, a move manager could be a very useful service to help you achieve balance while undertaking this typically high stress event.
When considering whether a move manager could add value for your next move experience, it may be helpful to consider the following:
- Do you have the time to manage it yourself? How much time (in hours) you need to invest to make your move happen. It’s important to think about not only the physical work, but the research involved in making sure you get the right removals company, packers, junk removal, cleaners etc. and in changing your utilities and updating your address with numerous service providers etc.
- Do you have the skills to do the job. For example, if you need to declutter, can you do it systematically and easily without feeling drained, stuck or regretful.
Do you know how to pack properly to prevent items from being damaged during the move? How much stuff do you have? How valuable are your items? Can they be easily replaced if damaged? - Do you have the connections required to ensure you get the best people to help with your move? How much desk research is involved in ensuring you get the best service at the best price?
- What would it cost in terms of time, money and health if you did it yourself? What could you be doing instead that would be more beneficial for you/your family/your finances?
Why people use a move manager.
A couple of clients who own businesses have used our move manager service so that they can continue running their business on move day with no interruptions. They were able to hit the ground running in their new home/office with no down time or wasted time.
Sometimes, it just makes sense to use professionals rather than DIY.
Now this example is not move related but I’d like to share a personal experience that demonstrates the advantages of using professionals to look after domestic projects.
We had a fence built around the front of our house last year. We got a couple of quotes from local builders and I also costed up the job for materials hoping my husband could do it. I presented the quotes to him, he thought about it and said “If I do it we have two options:
I take a week off work and don’t get paid (he’s self employed) or I do it over several weekends, which would mean little family time. A greater potential for things to go wrong (we’re dealing with wood, warm weather, and an inexperienced fence builder here). Plus you won’t have the fence for potentially 6 weeks (we had an energetic and curious springer spaniel dog)”.
In addition, there was also the potential that he’d have to have osteopathy to fix his back afterwards. After my husband built a jungle gym for our daughter last Christmas, his back was very sore to the point where he could hardly walk -not great for Christmas day.
It became crystal clear that not only did it make financial sense for us to pay someone to do the job, it made sense from a well being and life balance perspective too.
My husband says he looks at the fence and feels joy at not having endured building it, rather than the grudge he may have felt. Getting someone to build the fence actually changed our experience at a level I could never of imagined. Anyway, back to moving..
What are the benefits of hiring a move manager?
The ultimate aim of a move manager is to make your move easy and enjoyable, but what are the specific benefits of using this service?
1. It frees you up to focus on what’s important in your life.
Rather than frantically packing and directing the furniture removals company, you can spend your time on your work, business, family, friends or your well-being while achieving your property goals at the same time.
2. Your move can run smoothly and efficiently.
Your move manager will have the skills and experience to ensure your move runs efficiently and professionally. They’ll use their skills, experience, connections, systems and processes to turn a complex, stressful event into a simplified, seamless and enjoyable experience for you.
3. One point of contact.
Your move manager is across every element of the move, right down to the smallest detail and they’re your one point of contact for everything related to your move. If your needs change during your move or have any questions or concerns, they’ll provide the solutions, no need to ring around and coordinate with several parties.
4. They know who to contact.
Their experience and connections in the industry helps ensure you get the best service all round, whether for cleaning, maintenance, furniture removals, organising donations, new home electrics or art hanging.
5. No downtime – you’re at home from day one.
Your move manager can ensure you’re set up in your new home by the end of move day so that you’re feeling at home from day one. You can carry on with your usual routine or start a new one on move day, leaving your old home in the morning and arriving at your new home, fully prepped and ready to enjoy by the end of the day.
6. They take care of any issues.
Your move manager will be the buffer between you and any challenges that may arise during the move process. They’ll deal with and resolve issues, leaving you to experience a stress-free move.
7. They have access to unique resources.
Your move manager will have access to unique resources that will help make moving easy, such as inventory calculators, moving checklists and specialist moving guides.
8. It can save you time, money and your health.
As illustrated in my personal example above, hiring a professional can save you time, money and your health. It can be more cost effective to hire someone to do the hard yards for you than take time off work yourself and end up feeling stressed and sore.
What does a move manager charge?
The price a move manager charges can vary significantly depending on what aspects of the move process you’d like them to help with, how large your property is, the items you have in your home, the degree of sorting required prior to packing for a move as well where you’re moving from and to etc.
While senior move managers are quite common here in New Zealand, it’s hard to obtain guide prices without contacting the service provider, discussing the details of your move and asking for a quote.
As a guide though, most removal companies in NZ charge between $55 to $90 per hour per person for their packing service (excluding packing materials), so you can expect a move manger to be charging somewhere in that range too.
At Move by Design, our packages start at $2,499 for full professional packing, your furniture removals booking and full unpack at your new home.
So if you’re moving house it can make sense to use a move manager. You can focus on what’s really important, create a greater sense of balance, and ensure your move unfolds successfully. It may also have deep unforeseen benefits, just like in my fence story above.
If you have a move on the horizon, we’d love to be your move manager and make the experience easy and enjoyable, contact us to find out how we can help turn stress into ease.
Clare Gregory-Jones
Owner, Move by Design.
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