OMG!! It’s been ages since I wrote anything here!! I missed you loyal readers! (yup, all 5 of you. :P)
The past few weeks have been a hectic blur. Since the last time I wrote on this blog, we had successfully hauled our asses out of Subic, squatted in our friends’ lovely home for a month (Thank you again Kuya Don and Margaux!) and have finally settled into our half-way house.
I’m writing this post on the practical part of my blog – so I will try as much as I can to keep the jibberish hirits to a minimum and focus on the pragmatic tips I got from the experience.
I’m hoping that I could tackle 2 topics in this series: Hiring Professional Movers, Hiring Professional Cleaners
ON HIRING PROFESSIONAL MOVERS
Okay, I can feel my dad’s kuripot soul shaking his head in disapproval. We know it was going to be hella expensive to hire professionals, but we literally had no energy left to do the mental and manual labour needed for packing. So to keep our sanity intact, we felt that we needed to splurge on this.
We ended up getting Safehouse Storage because they received glowing reviews from a friend. (shout out to Jo!)
Safehouse Storage is pretty much a one-stop shop for moving. They rent out storage facilities as their main business, but you can hire them to do anything moving- related- from packing, to transporting to storing and even to unpacking if needed (yes, fellow sloths, there is such a service).
Transacting with their main guy, Mel was pretty easy enough. He responded to my text message within the day, scheduled a trip to Subic so he can survey our stuff and gave us a quote right after the visit.
When they got to our place the morning of the move they were all pimped up with packing gear – they had giant rolls of bubble wrap, loads packing tape– everything that would send Monica Gellar’s heart aflutter.
BUT, I have to note though, that it wasn’t the stress-free dream that I expected. There were some missteps made along the way- both on our end on Safehouse’s. Will discuss both in objective detail.
SAFEHOUSE MISHAPS
Trucking issues – Before they even got to our house, they were delayed around 40 minutes or so because their truck broke down. Most of their team came on a separate service, so the delay in packing wasn’t significant. Their truck only arrived after lunch though, so some of the bigger items couldn’t be hauled inside until then. I think this partly contributed to the chaos that ensued after…
Storage Miscalculation – To be totally fair to Mel, he already warned me during his initial survey that there might be a possibility that our refrigerator will not fit in their truck because we had a lot of bulky furniture.
BUT he did promise me that everything else in the house would without problem. He also assured me that they were going to bring a service van for their people and we could load some of the smaller items there. (He even said in a later message, that given that they were going to bring an extra van, he was pretty confident that we could take actually take refrigerator along with us.)
That was a total miscalculation. Not only was the truck filled to the brim, they barely had enough space in the second service to fit all of the workers in, let alone our stuff. We ended up leaving not just the refrigerator but 2 sofa beds and some of Moe’s workout gear.
He also underestimated the number of boxes they would need for the move. (Yes, the movers actually ran out of boxes. It’s just like that time Jollibee ran out of chicken joy.) It was pretty nerve-wracking.
Haphazard packing – Their team started packing away our things in a meticulous manner. But as the day wore on and it was evident that they were running out of boxes, they started becoming more and more careless.
They would combine food with other decorations for instance. And would not properly seal boxes. They also didn’t bother packing away certain sturdier items and would just stuff them in the van.
They almost left our huge- ass pinterest-inspired picture frame (which I totally slaved over – Okay fine. Which Mang Lito totally slaved over ) and a bunch of my formal dresses.
What’s worse- they left without preamble. Didn’t bother checking the cabinets for missed items, didn’t bother waiting for us while we checked all the rooms. Moe, Manang and I had to run through all the rooms ourselves while their truck and van sped off..
Turns out, when we opened one of the kitchen cabinets, they had totally forgotten all of our pots and pans! (I knew the breakfast I served them wasn’t exactly to their liking, but dude… )
Since our own sedan was filled to the brim as well, I had to call them to haul their asses back to get them.
AND since they had run out of boxes, the pans and the dresses were not even packed properly. They literally just dumped the pans into one of the open boxes and one of them had to carry my dresses from Manila to Subic!
I had previously explained to Melchor that we were leaving all of this stuff in a rental that was still currently being renovated and we needed to seal the boxes properly. So for them to be haphazard about the packing was pretty much a big deal.
Ofcourse, I have to admit that it wasn’t totally just Safehouse’s booboos that made the move a little bit more stressful, in all honesty, Moe and I could have handled the move much better.
ON OUR ROOKIE MISTAKES
Not prioritizing– To be honest, Safehouse’s life would have been much easier if we had bothered to at least sort through the things that needed to be packed. But knowing that we hired professional packers made us lazy (or lazier).
In hindsight, knowing that there was a possibility that we might leave stuff, we should have prioritized what we really wanted to take with us and what we were okay to leave behind.
For instance, our 3 year-old ref was not in the best shape, but it was certainly more valuable than our huge plastic trash bin or a box full of hangers.
We could have also opted to leave behind Moe’s 6-year old broken TV and his ugly black chrome TV console (which by the way he isn’t even using anymore- he opted to steal my zebra table. HUMPH).
I should have insisted on a run through of the house before they started packing and should have directed their efforts more closely.
Taking manang’s stuff for granted – When Manang came to live with us, she only had one medium-sized bag with her and one itty-bitty purse. So I figured, you know what, even if you take into account all the linen and other personal effects we gave her, everything would probably fit into 3 or 4 big bags.
Little did we know that our frail manang had hoarder tendencies and was pretty much a shopaholic.
When we asked her to get her things from her room – She ended up giving us 8 supersized bags!! WTH right?
Anyway, moral of the story: We should have done a more thorough run through when Melchor did his survey. Lesson learned the hard way.
Hiring a separate truck – Safehouse only had one truck – a 6 wheeler. When we moved to Subic, my favorite uncle (Hi Papa Sibot!) hooked us up with a 10-wheeler truck. And we had less stuff then. Granted, we only filled half of the van, but still, hiring a bigger truck would have saved us a lot of grief.
We should have gone through the trouble of coordinating with 2 suppliers (Safehouse for packing, and another truck for transporting) instead of just praying a hail mary that everything would fit in one trip. Not very smart in hindsight.
THE VERDICT
So if I had to do it all over again, would we hire professional movers?
HELL YES. This is so duh, that I won’t even elaborate.
Would we hire Safehouse Storage again though? Probably. They had their mishaps sure, but I inquired with other professional movers, and they had the cheapest quote and were the easiest to communicate with. Plus, like I said, maybe things would have been easier if I made sure their efforts were more directed. So they’re worth a second chance I think.
Anyway, for brevity’s sake, will sum up this lengthy blog to 5 parting lessons:
- Hire professional movers
- Assess all the things you would need to move thoroughly
- Prioritize
- (In the words my Assumptionista alter-ego) Be hands on; make mando
- Hire separate suppliers for packing and transporting if needed.
Hope you learned something guys! Will discuss more experiences and lessons that we learned in my next entry. 🙂
ROBERT LEE says
Thanks for a wonderful share and this is incredibly helpful for others who may, in the future, need a professional mover, or to check out Safehouse. When I moved last year, I did not have a lot of stuff. So over the days before moving, I was already bringing things to friends here and there for storage. And then brought the essentials to where I now live. Dahan dahan ko lang balikan if I need other things. Turns out, most of them I don’t even use.
Laveena Sengar says
This is very informative post. I have been moving all my life because my father was in defence. So I have a lot of experience in moving. Totally get what you are dealing with.
Pia says
Thanks Laveena! Moving definitely is a challenge!
Teresa says
We didn’t hire movers when we moved to our new house and when we moved out of our condo and my husband’s apartment. I think we like being hands-on in packing our things. But we hired a van and their staff to help in carrying the boxes and other things we packed. The unpacking was challenging. It took us months before we got to unpack our boxes. We didn’t have maids at that time and we had 3 small kids.
Pia says
Hi Teresa! I admire you for getting it all done by yourself. I don’t even have kids and we were completely overwhelmed! And don’t get me started with unpacking. My husband and I hired movers to unpack but I ended up re-organizing everything anyway. I still have a couple of boxes left that I haven’t touched. :/
Nilyn says
Right now, the house where we live in isn’t ours. Which means, sooner or later, we’ll leave this place and move again. haha. I hope the next time we move in, it’ll be for good. We’re planning to move to our province in Davao in the next few years. Hopefully, that’s what God wants for us too. We will see. 🙂
Pia says
Davao is lovely! Keeping my fingers crossed that you end up there too! 🙂
Dominic Barrios says
That was one very insightful post on hiring professional movers. I do agree, though, moving can be really really stressful, tiring and a lot of times nakakatamad. Just moving our things to our house just a block away is a big hassle. Just glad that we’ve finished moving already and we don’t have to undergo that stress again.
But professional movers is a big help especially if you’re moving very far from where you previously lived.
Pia says
Hi Dominic! The funny thing is, after our permanent house is finished, we’ll have to move a couple of streets away too. Hopefully since we got to experience moving hundreds of kilometres away, we’ll be totally chill about the next one.
PRERNA SINHA says
I like the idea of using pictures and adding quotes on them. I recently moved homes and I can say for sure, a bit of packing on your own especially valuables is a good idea. Even after so many precautions I am missing some basic stuff and you don’t realise for weeks as you are so busy settling down in the new place.
Pia says
Ack! You are so on point – and I learned that the hard way. I still have some knickknacks that I can’t find until now so yes definitely a good idea to take note of personal items even when you’re hiring movers. 🙂
Angelie Pangilinan says
How much did it cost you all in all? We moved last year and we did the packing. We only hired a hauling company and it only costs us 2,500php. I know it’s very much convenient to hire someone to do the packing for you because it’s really tiring. However, I am so attached to our things I can’t imagine someone else packing them for me. I’d rather get tired, really. But that’s just me.
Pia says
Hi Angelie, it cost us way more than 2500 that’s for sure. But then again, we did have to move from Subic to Manila, I heard it’s much much cheaper if you’re just moving within the metro. 🙂
master ryo says
This sure is lengthy but tons with lesson.
In my case I take and move things one step at time and true in essence
Packing and preparation is the key to have a seamless moving.
cheers! http://www.masterryo.com
Pia says
Hi Ryo! Thanks for reading even if it was lenghty! We actually had an easier time moving from Manila to Subic because we had all the time in the world. But moving back was totally stressful because we had scheduling constraints. Definitely stressful when you don’t have time to prepare!
Nya says
This was a very informative post. Since I am a single girl, and always on the move for the last years (I left my home country with 3 bags and a laptop), I never really had the need to hire professional movers. However, the last time I’ve moved I had considerably more stuff so I did hire a van and two men to help me carry the stuff. But as for the packing and unpacking, to be honest, I’d rather do it myself.
Pia says
Hahaa. We’re total opposites Nya. i’ve never been a do-it-yourself kinda girl. 😛
Zwitsy says
I didn’t know that there is service like that. All I kow is just the lipat bahay wherein they just offer the trucking service. Well, yeah… if ever I need to move out on my own, such service is indeed helpful most especially if you are alone with your kids!
Pia says
Hi Zwitsy! I would totally recommend it. 🙂 Worth the splurge honestly. 🙂
Carola says
I love moving! I’ve moved homes quite some times now (around 7 times) and I love it. Not per se the actual moving (=stress) but merely a new house, neighborhood. Just something new!! I loved your post. I’ve never hired a professional mover. So I think it’s interesting to learn. Maybe I can do this on my next move! It’s a good thing to already read about the things that go wrong. I hate delays! Strange that they ran out of boxed! You would expect them to be prepared better.
Pia says
I can’t imagine having to move seven times! Twice was already a handful for me. 🙂 We’re preparing for another move, this time to our permanent house, next year. Can I message you for tips? 🙂
Geraldine says
I’ve been following your blog when you moved to Subic, and now you’re moving back to Manila! We have decided and we’ll be moving to Subic na. Thanks for this info, we’re starting to research on movers, truckings etc. =)
Pia says
Aww, I can’t believe I missed you! Subic is an awesome place – I’m sure you’ll love it! Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help with the transition. 🙂