Lessons learnt from a nightmare move.

I had such a horrible experience moving out of our home of 5 years yesterday that I am still reeling from its trauma right now, 24 hours later.

1. Go with the tried and tested

Firstly i should have gone with the tried and tested. Our previous experience with Watchman Home Movers was great, but they were not free for the move at 9am, their earliest slot was 3pm which was too late for us. So our friend recommended us Helping Hand as they had good experiences with them.

2. It sure pays to have a reliable quote done.

So what happened next was that Helping Hands had someone come to our place, with a clipboard and pen, to do a walk through of our whole house so he could give us a quote. He took a look at my 4 bedroom HDB flat and concluded that we needed 1.5 to 2 loads of a 14ft lorry. Quoting me a range of $350-$400 for 1.5-2 trips. (I don't know how they will arrive at the final sum, but on hindsight this would have been less painful and cost just as much as Moving Cube)

Then I came across some IG ad, advertising Moving Cube's promo of just $288 for a load.

I jumped at it and contacted the number on the ad for a quote. The guy, Marcus, gave me a further discount of $268 for 1 load (because we were using our own boxes) and quoted me 1.5 loads just by asking him to send me pictures of my house via WhatsApp.

They also promised a $20 grab food gift card (so thoughtful I thought!) as well as FOC dismantling of our string system shelving and our bed. I felt so bought over by his confident assurances via whatsapp.

Hence I engaged them instead.

3. It sure pays to be cheap.

When the movers came yesterday, I spent 30 minutes waiting and wondering if they would actually come because I did not receive any confirmation calls (I should have called/whatsapped a day earlier). When I texted Marcus, he assured me that they would be there anytime soon because the movers left their office at 8.10am. I waited... and then I got a call at 9.40am telling me that they will arrive in 6 minutes. I can't fault them too much on this, as they gave me a range of 9-10am on the invoice they issued.

They walked in my house, took a look at all my items and indicated that it would take them at least 3 loads to complete everything. I was still hopeful that perhaps we could take only 1.5 loads. don't forget this was what was quoted to me via whatsapp!

I felt so disappointed because I wasn't prepared for the move to take so long.

Looking back, I should have made a firm decision to let whatever is more important, the heavier pieces of furniture go first as that was my initial priority. But it got messy through the move. I should have been more organised and decisive on what should go first and what could stay.

It sure pays to really get someone for a reliable quote! How can WhatsApp pictures be accurate?

They set out from my house at around 11.30am after taking a really long time moving out from my place.

Then they unloaded it all and came back for the next load. Then, I was still confident they could do it in 2 loads or so.

But guess what we ended up having 3 loads, a 2x increase from the initial vague quote of 1.5 loads.

The movers were only done by 7.40pm and my husband and I were all so tired by then. I was not even sure I managed it all well because there were still loose some items I could not bring over with the movers.

I packed my handphone charger with the movers and could not charge my phone all day either and it went flat in the afternoon! I was so confident that we could finish the move in just a couple of hours. So imagine my dismay when they took the entire day!

Oh yes another point to note was that there was only 3 movers, at some point there was only 2. Manpower wasn't that great. I guess that is how they can charge me less! By keeping the manpower lean.

So it would be wise to clarify with the moving company from the start. Which was what Helping Hand did when they first quoted me, saying that it would be 4-5 people. That would make the job way easier and less painful!

And I guess things being in standard cardboard boxes sure helps. But unfortunately we had a lot of furniture to bring over which does not maximise the space as well.