ECT Moving & Cleaning News

Month: August 2018

What to Leave for the Movers to Pack

Moving Tips

When you move you might be wondering if you should be packing everything yourself or leaving a few things to let your moving company pack.

At the end of the day there is nothing that you can’t pack. If you pack yourself you are going to safe money but you might put your possessions at risk as you don’t pack for a living and don’t understand how easily things can be damaged when being moved. Getting a professional mover in the obvious choice and in the long run it might end up being cheaper if you end up damaging some of your goods that need replacing due to poor packing.

Use Plastic Packing Crates

If you want the Beez Neez of packing then get plastic packing crates. If you have even been in the offices of a courier or transport company you may have seen these lying around. Plastic packing crates can be dented like cardboard boxes can even if dropped. Think about how much that cardboard box is going through. How many times it will be picked up, based around, moved and so on. Before , during and after the move.

Also think about how much time you will spend taping boxes closed. Plastic packing crates jut snap shut, simple!

Be There or Be Square!

If you decide to get a professional moving company to help with your packing. Be there, be present. This way you will know what boxes contain what items. An easy way to mange this is to just take some notes on your phone. Any packing company worth half their worth will have the packing crates they use numbered or have a section on them to write a number.

You can easily keep track of what is in what or just use the room the crate is for. For example crates 1 to 5 are for the kitchen, crates 6 to 9 and for the living room and so on.

Pack Sooner Rather than Later

If you are packing yourself then start soon. Start a good four weeks out. This is exactly what I recommended my customer did when I ran my moving company and it’s also what I recommend on my moving checklist.

You would be surprised how many times I had customers ‘reschedule’ their move when they did their own packing as they though it would only take a few hours. Trust me! Start early! As in weeks early! Even a small two bedroom apartment can take a few days to fully pack to be ready to move.

Be Fragile with the Fragile

Take care with fragile items. And even if you do get a moving company to pack for you it is still best that you pack your fragile items. If they are not big it’s even a good idea to transport them yourself. If you have room to fit a few boxes in your car.

The other things you can pack yourself that don’t really need the help of a professional moving company is things like bedding and pillows. Blankets and pillows can’t exactly break from being dropped. So it’s very easy to pick up a few cardboard boxes form shops or online and pack them up. This will save you money with your move.

Bonus Tip

In the UK your moving company can’t actually disconnect your oven or white-goods. So this task falls on you. Don’t forget to do this as if you leave the property and start your trip to your new place you will get a call from your moving company telling you tom come back pronto!

 

 

Pre-Moving Checklist

Checklists, Moving Tips

Moving can be stressful and there are so many things to consider. Here is a quick checklist I put together so you can make sure you have all the steps you need covered.

Fell free to bookmark this page or just print the page off. Then you can check things off as you complete them.

Moving Checklist

8 Weeks Out

6 Weeks Out

  • Get an in home site visit from your moving company to get a proper estimate. Make sure you talk about the final cost that should be a fixed price. Insurance, packing and loading, delivery time frames and how claims work if there is damage.
  • Sort through all your things you don’t need. Maybe have a sale or just throw away thins you don’t want, give them to friends or to charity.

4 Weeks Out

  • If you are having packing completed for you by the moving company get it booked in now with plenty of time to spare.
  • If you are going to do all the packing yourself, start now.
  • If you need storage. Start looking into options now. Speak to the moving company you are going with as they might do storage also.
  • Arrange for any repair work or cleaning to start at you new house so it’s completed when you move in.

3 Weeks Out

  • Call all the utility companies and arrange for everything to be disconnected the day after you move. And for the connections to start the day before you move in to the new place (or sooner if needed).
  • Make arrangements for a hotel, Airbnb or a friends place during your move while you won’t have a bed to sleep in.
  • If you live in an apartment and have a lot of large things to move then speak to management as you should be able to reserve the elevator for when you move takes place.

2 Weeks Out

  • Start to call everyone else that needs a call for address changes. You might want to use an address change service. Most charge for this. I not do it yourself. For example insurance companies, your drivers licenses, bank accounts, credit cards and other utilities like the internet and for mobile company and so on.
  • Setup mail forwarding with the post office.
  • Make arrangements for plants and pet transport as moving companies wont generally deal with this.

1 Week out

  • Arrange any regular delivers you have scheduled to be cancelled or the address updated to you new address.

1  to 2 Days Out

  • Pack all your clothes, valuables, toiletries, and anything that you will need as soon as you move into your new place that you didn’t actually pack with your make pack a few weeks back.
  • Turn off the fridge and freezers. Make sure any excess waters is wiped down before they are moved.

I hope this moving checklist helps you. This is the exact checklist that I used to give my customers.

 

 

How to Find a Reputable Moving Company Online

Moving Tips

In my years of running ECT Moving Group I saw dozens and dozens of removal companies come and go. Most of those companies that didn’t make it did and ended up shutting their doors did the exact things I’m going to tell you about below that you should look out for.

In fact when I retired I simply closed down my own removals business. I didn’t sell it off or let it get acquired. As I know there are lots of good moving companies out there in the UK but in my local area no one was up to par and I didn’t want the brand I spend half a lifetime building damaged.

So how do you use the internet to find a good moving company?

1. Start with Googling for Moving Companies in Your City

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with so many options for moving companies and their being so many steps to actually moving homes. So the best way to start is to just Googling the city you are in plus ‘removals company’ or ‘removals’. You don’t need to get overwhelmed. Find a few companies to start looking into by using this method. Look at the websites of the companies that come up and find a company that would suit your needs.

As not all companies will be suitable. Some moving companies only do man and a van services. Some companies offer everything and some do a mix. You’ll also be able to find out if the company you are look at covers the area you are looking at moving to if you poke around o their site. This is a fast way to narrow down a few choices and make a short list.

This also removes companies that don’t have a website. We are in 2018 now. If you run a business and don’t have a website then something is be hidden in my opinion. Find a couple of removal companies you want to go with and just keep them in mind.

We will use this house moving and removal services company – We Move and Clean as an example. So lets move on to step #2.

2. Read Online Reviews

The second step you should take when it comes to assessing a removalist is to read their reviews. There are many places online that you can go to read review of a company as long as they have their profile setup:

  • Checkatrade
  • Google My Business
  • Facebook
  • Yelp
  • Yell
  • Glass Door
  • Trustpilot
  • Bark
  • Bidvine

This is just a small sample of review sites. By far the biggest ‘go to’ sites in the UK and specifically for moving businesses are Google My Business and Checkatrade. If you look at the bigger picture there are hundreds of sites that you can leave reviews on and even some just more moving like RemovalReviews.co.uk and MyMovingReviews.com.

Just Google the companies name you are looking for and tag ‘reviews’ on to the end. For example if the company you were looking at was We Move and Clean then you’d Google ‘We Move and Clean reviews’.

That way you should get all the sites coming up and their Google My Business showing up. See what I mean with the image on the left. If you don’t find their Google My Business their search out the business name and address in Google Maps and it should come up.

So what now? Well, get reading!

The reality is that most people are at least 10x to 20x more likely to leave a good review than a positive one. It’s an unfortunate part of human nature.

So if you come across a company like say We Move and Clean and you see they have closing in on 200 reviews on Checkatrade, almost 100 on Facebook and 30 on Yell. And all those ratings are very close to perfect scores in 5/5 or 10/10 then you know you have a winner. You know that company is doing a very good job with providing their service.

But don’t just look at the number of reviews and the star rating. Actually look through the reviews. Look for recent reviews. Look at what people commented on, did they do a short move, a long move, did they mention how their property was treated, what service the got and so on.

Reviews are a true way to gauge how a company treats its customers and also how their treat themselves. As how one runs a business is also how one runs their own life in my honest opinion.

3. Check Social Media

In 2018 and beyond a company should have a presence with social media. Go to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and any other social media platform you like and see if you can find the moving company you are looking to hire.

Any good company will have a presence even if they are not very active. It’s at least a peace of mind factor. If I’m going to be frank I won’t actually use a business if they are not on Facebook. I use Facebook daily and it’s a part of my life.

If a business is not on Facebook then at least check YouTube. From example this We Move and Clean video on YouTube explains their removals service. Not only is this a good sign that you are dealing with a reputable business but in this case you’re learning more about what the business does and it can give you move confidence to pull the trigger.

Here is the same video mentioned above if you don’t want to leave our site.

 

4. Get a Quote

The next step is to get a quote and ask for an in home estimate or it can also be called a site visit.

The last thing you want to do is ask for a moving quote over the phone in a 30 second phone call. This is the fastest way to get the wrong quote and end up with a quote that is double once the move starts as you didn’t let the moving company know about a lot of things that would be chargeable.

Once you have your estimate. Get it in writing. In paper or at least an email copy and make sure the words of words to the nature of ‘quote is final’ is present. If you don’t see that ask for a new quote that mentions the quote is final and there will be no more charges.

This is very important as lots of moving companies add on extra charges and you never find out until it’s to late! Don’t fall victim to this foul play!

That wraps it up. If you follow these steps you should be able to easily find a good moving company online.

 

 

Moving Across the UK without Spending a Fortune!

Moving Tips

Are you moving across the country and wanting to not go broke in the process? While moving is inevitably expensive, there are certain things you can do to slash the costs. The best steps you can take are to hire the movers well in advance and anticipate some glitches and plan accordingly. Take a look at these 5 tips for moving across the country.

Is it that time again? Time to move? But this time you have to go all the way? Maybe you are heading from London to Glasgow. Or maybe Dover to Blackpool. Nevertheless is going to be a long trip. This mini guide should help you figure out how to move without spending a fortune.

There are certain things you can do that will cut costs and these are easy to implement. Lets jump right into it!

Have a Moving Sale!

We collect a lot of junk over the years. Everyone does this, just be honest with yourself. Ok, reality check over? You were honest with yourself? Good! When you are moving you have the perfect opportunity to sell you spare things that will only cost you to move. Think about places like eBay or have a garage sale.

Don’t just think about the small things. Think about the things that are big and bulky that hold a good resale value. Do you really need that chest or draws? Or that bookcase? Or that wardrobe? Big items like this cost a lot of move. By the time you sell everything off you should have a nice budget to rebuy some nice second hand or even new things when your move is finished.

Pick a Good Moving Date

Have you ever showed up to the airport and your jaw has just dropped? Or have you gone for a road trip to only be stuck in traffic half the time?

It’s a very good idea to do a quick Google search for holidays and what local events are taking place. This way you will avoid queues. It’s also more expensive to move during holidays and weekends. So it’s best to schedule you move during the middle of the week. You are moving long haul so you don’t need to worry about taking time off work as you won’t be at work for that week.

Use a Moving Company

Moving does not have to be that expensive. All you need to do is shop around and look at all the different options that are out there.

The good part about using a professional moving company is that this is their job day in and day out. So they know what they are doing. You belongings will be taken care of. You won’t have to organise much at all and you’ll have everything moves safely.

To not break the bank and use a moving company you will want to shop around. For a long haul move across the country I can’t recommend using a man with a van service and most companies wont offer this long haul. What you will want is a full service move. But you can reduce your costs quite easily. Lots of moving companies offer packing services, don’t take it, pack yourself. They also offer crate hire. Just buy some packing boxes locally on online.

Most moving companies also offer furniture disassembly and reassembly at your new home. Don’t opt for this. It will take you move time but moving will be cheaper. It’s really this simple, avoid extra.

To keep your costs down get a full moving service but old pay for the move itself! Simply, right?

Organise Everything Before Moving

Sure you could just put some boxes into a room and throw everything in them. Tape them up and be done with it. But that is not very smart. It won’t take you all that much longer to get organised to home your home.

A few basic things you can try are:

  • Electronics only boxes
  • Clothes only boxes
  • Kitchen only boxes
  • Bathroom only boxes.

And so on…

So take the kitchen for example. You have appliances. They all go in one box, then all the cutlery along with plates and other similar items goes in another box and so on.

Finally label the boxes.

When you move into your new home you will just be able to put boxes in the room they need to get before you start unpacking instead of causing more wok for yourself by putting all the boxes in the living room and then having to carry them to the right room again. Or worse if you packed everything and anything into boxes and labelled nothing…

Urrrmm…. Well, you will spend day sorting our your mess!

So get organised!

I hope this mini guide on moving across the county has helped! Leave your comments below and let me know what you think!

 

We Will Be Back Soon!

Misc

Welcome back!

ETC Moving and Cleaning News is a rebrand of ETC Cleaning Services and ETC Moving Services run by now retired Rhys Owen. As Rhys wanted to stay involved in the moving and cleaning industries he decided that build the best resource for the two industries the UK has ever seen would be the perfect way to do it!

Stay tuned as we are launching soon!

AUGUST UPDATE – We have launched. Read our first blog post – Moving Across the UK without Spending a Fortune! More will  be coming soon. We have started of with some moving content. Cleaning content to come soon!