Picture this: you’ve just landed a new job in a new city, and there’s no way you can commute from where you currently stay to the new office daily. So you decide to shift closer to your new job because such opportunities only come once. But you are so busy with handing over at your current job and other things that you don’t have time to start packing and organizing how you will shift from your current house to your new one. That’s where professional shifting comes in.
Professional shifting can make this process more manageable by helping you plan out the logistics of the move, packing all your belongings, loading them onto the truck, and delivering them to your new home intact and unbroken.
How does the process work?
While professional shifting involves hiring the services of professional movers, it should not be confused with hiring the services of handypersons for a household relocation.
Professional shifting is the process of hiring a company or individual to help shift your furniture and other belongings from one house to another. These companies have trucks and specialized equipment, such as dollies, hand trucks, or wheeled carts, and usually charge a fee for their services.
When you involve professional shifters in your move, here is how the process of shifting should typically look like:
Pre-move survey
Right after you get in touch with a professional relocation company, they should typically offer to conduct a pre-move survey. This is basically an inspection of your house and items to see if they need special packing materials or equipment, how much packing material they will require, etc.
During this survey, the relocation company will also decide how much they will charge you for the entire shift. For instance, the price may go up if you have valuable or fragile items that need special handling and transportation. Also, the price may go up if you have a huge house with many items.
Packing items to be shifted
On shifting day, the relocation company should arrive early or at the agreed time at your house and start packing immediately.
The process of packing is technical because it involves carefully handling items that could be very fragile or expensive.
For instance, if you have expensive art in your home, professional movers may need to use glassine and bubble cushioning and then secure it with packing tape. When packing the art inside the moving boxes, the movers should ensure that they use the right size (not too big or too small) and then fill in the gap (if any) with extra packing paper.
Everything should be packed securely, and all the boxes should be marked accordingly with large writings. For instance, boxes containing items that can easily break should be labeled as “fragile.” On the other hand, the shifters should label each box with its corresponding room for easier unpacking.
Shifting the items out of the home
This part of the shifting process can be especially tricky if you live on the highest floor of an apartment building or your doorways are particularly narrow. However, if you hire the services of a professional shifting company, this shouldn’t be a problem.
A professional relocation company will ideally have specialized equipment to shift household items from your house or apartment. So if you live on the highest floor of your apartment building and don’t have lifts, a serious shifting company will have equipment such as shoulder dollies to help ease the process of shifting heavy items down the stairs.
Packing, loading, and securing items in the truck
After packing everything in shifting boxes, the shifters should load your household items into the shifting trucks for transportation to your new house. This process requires technical knowledge so your items aren’t damaged or broken.
For instance, the professional shifters you hire will know that they will first load the largest and heaviest items first and place them at the front of the truck near the cab of the driver. After this, the rest of the items should come next, with the largest and heaviest boxes placed at the bottom and the lighter ones on top.
Unloading and unpacking items at the new home
How long your items will be delivered to your new home depends on how far your new home is from your old place. Your relocation company will probably know how long it will take, and they will communicate this with you.
When unloading your items from the truck, the professional shifters will also have to take as much care as possible. They should also have a system in place for easier and faster unpacking. For instance, if they had labeled the boxes as per room, unpacking and arranging the items would be much easier and take the shortest time.
You should also expect the shifters to arrange your items and hook everything up. For instance, they should hang your clothes, make your beds, arrange the kitchen accordingly, mount your television, connect your DSTV, etc.
What exactly are you paying for?
Now that we understand what is involved in the process of professional shifting, you might be wondering what exactly it is you pay for when you hire the services of a professional shifting company.
Well, here are some of the things that you pay for when you hire professional relocation services:
Time
Time is money, and the process of shifting takes time. It will take less time to shift a one-bedroom time than it will take to shift a five-bedroom mansion. This is the number one thing that most professional shifters factor in when charging you for their services. So the longer it will take to pack, shift and unpack your items, the more it will cost you.
Packing materials
The more items you have, the more packing materials the professional shifters will require to wrap your items. Moreover, if you have fragile or expensive items, these will require special packing materials, which also cost more. This is one of the things relocation companies look at during the pre-move survey and when drawing up a quote for your shift.
Fuel
Almost all shifting companies will include a fuel charge on your quote. What is the distance between your old and new house? Is it a short or long-distance shift? The shorter the distance, the lesser the fuel required to transport your goods, while the opposite is true. Moreover, if you have many household items requiring more than one truck to transport them, this will translate to a higher fuel charge.
Workforce
Shifting cannot be possible without people – not just people, but trained professionals. When paying for shifting services, the number of shifters required to carry out your relocation will affect how much you will end up paying. If you have a lot of household goods that need to be relocated, this may require more shifters than a relocation with fewer items, and the more shifters, the more it will cost for your entire relocation.
Safety and convenience
Imagine packing all your household items, looking for transporters, and then unpacking and arranging the items in your new house. Doing all this by yourself and even with the help of family and friends is a challenging task and will leave you burnt out and frustrated. When you hire the services of a relocation company, you get to leave all the organizing and coordinating to people you can trust with your items.
Looking for professional shifters?
The shifting process is long and tiresome, but it doesn’t have to be so. A reputable professional shifting company can make your shift much smoother by taking care of all the little things that make the process a nightmare.
Do you have an upcoming shift, and are you looking for a reputable relocation company in Uganda? At Nellions, we offer the best relocating services and have the most professional staff to support you through the whole process of shifting.
Call us today at +256 753 000 100 or +256 783 294 229 if you plan on relocating soon, and we’ll give you a FREE quote! You may also email us at MOVE@NELLIONS.CO.UG.
