Moving is hands-down one of the most exasperating and overwhelming experiences you may ever have. The physical stress of moving heavy furniture through tight doors isn’t the only thing to worry about. There’s also the emotional stress that comes with leaving behind people, places and items you may now share emotional attachments with.
Hiring professional movers to handle packing, loading, hauling and unloading of your valuables can make it easier to cope with these stresses.
Are you in search of a full moving service company? Or are you better off with a DIY moving option instead? NearbyMovers can help you by connecting you to the right mover for your moving needs. Our partner lenders are big, established names in the moving industry and have good customer ratings.
What Are the Types of Movers?
Local Moving Companies
They are also known as intrastate movers. These movers charge on an hourly basis and usually operate within a 100-mile radius.
Interstate Moving Companies
Interstate moving companies are experts at handling all logistics related to state-to-state relocations. They are usually licensed within the states they operate to facilitate these relocations.
Long-distance Moving Companies
They are professional movers that arrange interstate moves and relocations. They’d usually have all the proper operating licenses and permits for the states they will be crossing. It’s considered a long distance move if the distance covered is greater than 100 miles.
International Moving Companies
It’s impossible to work through the logistics of moving from one country to another without the input of experts. Cross-country movers make light work of these relocations by helping with the numerous paperwork usually involved in such international moves.
Household Movers
They are moving companies that specialize in moving household items. Household movers are the go-to resource for people who need to move their furniture, TVs, electric cookers, and other household items from their place to a new home.
Specialty movers
Specialty movers are moving companies set up to move particular delicate and valuable items like pianos, hot tubs, antiques, wine collections, and pool tables. These valuables are usually fragile, require special handling and so, should be left to specialty movers to handle.
Full moving services
They oversee the entire moving process from beginning to end. That is, they pack, load, transport, unload, install, and assemble the moved items. Some may also provide cleaning services. They are the safest, and most convenient moving option.
Partial moving services
You may opt for partial moving service if you want greater control over the relocation process or want to cut moving costs. You may choose to handle packing for instance, and outsource only the loading and unloading services to a moving company.
What Are the Best Moving Companies?
Allied Van Lines: Overall Best
Allied Van Lines gives you the best of both worlds - excellent customer service and premium moving service. Their customer base enjoys good customer support, high customer satisfaction ratings, excellent insurance options, full-service packing, vehicle tracking, and secure international moving services.
Unlike many moving companies, they move your items using their own trucks and team. However, they may outsource your move to a partner if they do not cover operations in your area. The website is easy to navigate, and you also request a free quote from there and get coverage information.
Pros
- Excellent insurance options
- Good and customer-friendly cancellation policy
- Can help with donating unwanted items to NGOs via its Salvation Army partnership
- Provides excellent GPS tracking of your shipment
Cons
May be a little expensive relative to others
International Van Lines: Best for Cross-Country Moving
International Van lines are available across states and about 180 countries, and are thus, the most reliable when it comes to cross-country moving. They live up to their name in facilitating moves across countries. Since items are prone to damage over such long distances, International Van Lines provides some comprehensive insurance options to cover potential damages to really expensive items.
They also have really flexible payment options for customers and provide discounts to military personnel.
Pros
- Have flexible payment options
- Provide a discount to military personnel
- Provides storage
- Facilitates local moving also
Cons
Customers must make 25% of the estimate as a deposit to schedule a move
United Van Lines: Best for Full Moving Services
United Van Lines is easily one of the most reliable moving companies you can find around. Unlike a few other moving companies, they are not only concerned with moving your goods from your old place to your new space. They may also help with cleaning and installing electronic gadgets in your new space.
Did you know that they also have a General Services Administration (GSA) clearance to move items for the military and government? They are debatably your best option when you need to move big gear, electronic gadgets, furniture, and household items.
Pros
- Quick online estimates and more accurate in-home evaluation
- Cleaning services
- Available nationwide
- Tracking capabilities to get real-time updates about your move
Cons
- Customers service isn’t so reliable
- A little pricey compared to the competition
American Van Lines: Best for Long-Distance Moves
Long-distance moving is the specialty of this reliable, long-established, family-run moving business. On moving day, they take inventory of your stocks, individually package items according to their fragility and ensure that all goods are moved safely from their current to new location without any damage.
They specialize in international, military, and out-of-state moving and can also help with corporate and commercial moving. They are also big on customer service and have thus won two Newsweeks’ Best Customer Service Awards in the recent past.
Pros
- They have a flat-rate pricing model
- Reliable customer service
- Protection plans for transported items
- Staff/movers have at least 10 years of moving experience
Cons
- Local moving is not available
- Needs a 50% deposit to book a move
U-Pack: Best for City-to-City Moves
Unlike many others on this list, they are a DIY moving service and facilitate door-to-door moving. By DIY, we mean, you self-pack your containers and all U-Pack has to do is handle the transportation.
Typically, customers have three days to pack their loads. They may do this themselves or engage a packing and unpacking service third-party provider. It is a good option if you have a trim budget and do not mind packing or unpacking yourself.
Pros
- It is located nationwide
- A good self-move or DIY option
- Has a good liability coverage
- Budget-friendly
Cons
Packing and unpacking have to be secured via a third-party provider
Two Men and a Truck: Best for Local and Small-Home Moves
Two men and a truck's home staging and specialty services make it one of the most sought-after options for local and small-home services. Consider subscribing to its home staging service if you are looking to sell your current home quickly. They can help arrange your home to make it more visually appealing to potential buyers. They provide specialty services like piano moving and can also provide customers with packing supplies like small boxes, lamp boxes, packing tape, and bubble wrap.
Pros
- User-friendly and easy-to-navigate website
- Provides a wide variety of moving options, including specialty services
- Users get free estimates or quotes
Cons
Some locations have limited support
These are some of the best moving companies available today, based on reliability and efficiency. However, there is an unwritten rule that local does it best and these companies may not just be close enough to you.
To find the best local professional movers, use NearbyMovers. We have done an in-depth evaluation of moving companies in nearly every corner of the US and can, on request, provide you with a wholesome, rich list of certified, reliable, and the most highly rated mover names in your locality. Check us out now!
How Can I Choose the Right Moving Company For Me?
Get recommendations
There’s nothing like hearing from a loved one who’s used the same service. Ask friends, families, and loved ones who have moved in the recent past what moving services they used and if they’d recommend them.
Check customer reviews
Read a service’s phone reviews to know how proficient they are at what they do, and perhaps, more importantly, how they treat their customers. From reviews, you can tell how cheap or expensive their moving costs are compared to the market average, and how efficient and time-saving their processes are.
Use a verified moving directories service
A web search can provide you with some results, but the results are likely unorganized and may be unavailable near you. How about getting an organized profile listicle of all certified and reliable moving companies near you? A service like NearbyMovers can help you with this list.
Get free estimates and compare
Once you have gotten a shortlist of moving companies that can do the job, approach them for an estimate. It helps if they can provide you with a rough on-site estimate. Get at least three estimates and compare them before committing to any service. This way, you can be sure you are going with the best available option.
Get a Free Moving Estimate Now!
NearbyMovers can save you the stress of scrolling through several Google pages or your local business directories in search of reliable movers closest to you. Call us at (888) 217-1969 to let us know what kind of moving service you may want and get a free estimate. Or better still, enter your zip code in the search bar and we will provide you a list of nearby movers whose services best match your moving needs.
Look at the highlighted services, and compare their services, customer reviews, and pricing plans to help you make a decision. Chosen a mover yet? Contact them to schedule a pickup date and intimate them with everything you may need them to handle. Then, get ready to receive them on the agreed date. Our movers promise premium service.
What Are Some Tips for Moving?
It’s been established that moving can be quite overwhelming and stressful. Therefore, after getting a free moving estimate and locking in on a moving company of your choice, it’s only smart to begin to plan your move, so that you don’t come crumbling under stress as the moving time draws closer.
Here are some things you should know or do before moving:
Sort out your items
Separate the useful items from the non-essentials, and discard the latter. This is to help give space on the moving truck. Remember to suppress your emotional attachments to these items. Pick them apart and decide whether you really need that item or you could do without it.
Get packing boxes
In order not to waste time on packing day, get enough packing boxes to fit your properties. You may want to get even more than you estimated, to take care of any contingencies.
Pack the essentials
Although you will be paying the moving company for helping you pack, they’d never understand what’s essential to you as much as you do. Therefore, get a special bag to accommodate all essentials like certificates, gadget accessories, toothbrushes, change of clothes, underwear, etc.
Use a moving checklist
The disorderliness and chaoticness of a moving day can make you forget some things. Therefore, create a checklist of things you want to do before, during, and after moving. Then, tick them one after the other as soon as they are done.
FAQs:
Why should I hire a moving company?
Don’t you think they’d be more efficient and quicker at moving your things than you would do yourself? They should.
A moving company is experienced at moving household and office items. They know the quickest route to take to your new space, provide better protection for fragile items, and can help shoulder the stress of moving into a new place.
How much does moving cost on average?
Moving cost is variable and depends on many factors including your location, how far you’re moving, the number of items you are moving, and the size of your home.
On average, long-distance moving will cost you between $2400 and $5000. Usually, a moving company will give you a free quote to keep you acquainted with the financial implications of moving.
Should I tip movers?
You aren’t obligated to tip movers. However, movers will usually appreciate a tip for a job well-done. They’d also prefer to get it in cash. Typically, most people who tip movers give them between 15-20% of the total cost of the move for large moves, and under 10% for smaller moves. Note that this is for the group and not for each individual.