The one elementary decision that you have to take to handle an impending relocation is whether to hire the services of a professional moving company and relax while you attend to other important jobs in hand or to be adventurous enough to hire a large truck, drive it cross-country and have a memorable time while moving. The choice essentially is yours. If you do not mind doing some heavy load lifting, packing the innumerable pieces of furniture in the house and loading them on to the truck, then self moving is just for you. If neither of these options seems too savory, then there is another option for you which is a good combination of best of both worlds. This is called self-service moving, where you do the packing and loading – the professional truck driver drives the vehicle to reach it to the new destination.

Nothing can simpler than self-service moving. Simply contact a reputed moving company and they will bring as many crates you think is necessary for shifting you entire goods and leave them in front of your home at a convenient place. These are weather-resistant crates and the moving company would usually guide you as to how many crates you would probably need to shift your belongings. Once you have packed your things, loaded those on to the crates just lock it up and the company will send their truck to take it away. You could also negotiate with the truck company, if they will send a 28 feet trailer to your home. You can then load your goods and you will be billed only for the amount of space that you have taken. Price is calculated on the basis of linear feet used. Once the truck reaches its destination, you should unload and unpack your goods.

Since in self-service moving, you are packing, unpacking and loading and unloading your self, you can save a lot of money in relocation expenses as professional moving companies would have charged you hourly rates to do the same job. The price of using self-service moving depends on the number of crates you have used and the distance which the truck has to travel. While there is a wide variety of a crate size, an average crate would usually be able to hold 3000 pounds. Self-service moving is even cheaper than self moving considering the amount of money you would have to pay for fuel, toll charges, etc. Between hiring the services of a full moving company, self moving options and self-service moving, the last is the least expensive. Most self-service moving companies have built-in insurance also. Just check with the company how much you are covered for and whether you have to buy additional insurances, in case you are moving valuables like rare art, curio, piano, etc.

Last but never the least important is the peace of mind factor, against which you can not put any price tag. Forget about rented trucks breaking down in the middle of nowhere, with self service moving, all your belongings is clubbed together in a single crate, so there is no chance of them getting mixed up with some one else’s goods, damaged in transit or even lost.