Should you hire a moving company, or do it yourself?

The honest version of the question

Moving yourself is cheaper. That part is true, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The real question is a narrower one: how much cheaper, and what are you giving up to get there.

What follows is the arithmetic as we actually see it, including the cases where we would tell you to do it yourself. We move people for a living, so read this with the appropriate scepticism — but the numbers are the same ones on our price list, and you can check them.

What doing it yourself actually costs

The comparison people make in their head is that a company costs money and friends are free. The comparison that matters includes everything on both sides.

Doing it yourself, for an average one-bedroom flat in Belgrade:

• The vehicle. A van with a driver is €200 a day with 200 km included — see van rental. Fuel is on top. A self-drive rental is less, if you are insured to drive it and confident reversing a long-wheelbase van down a Belgrade side street.
• Packing materials. Boxes, tape, bubble wrap and stretch film for a whole flat come to roughly RSD 1,800–4,700 if you buy them yourself.
• Two or three trips instead of one. This is the cost people never count. A crew that loads professionally fits a one-bedroom flat into one load; most people doing it themselves do not, and each extra trip is fuel, time and another flight of stairs.
• Feeding everyone. Minor, but real.
• A day, sometimes two. Yours, and your friends'.

Against that, a studio move with a crew starts at around RSD 17,000, and a one-bedroom flat is not far above it. The gap is usually smaller than people expect — and it closes further the moment anything goes wrong.

When we would tell you to do it yourself

There are moves where hiring us is a waste of your money, and we would rather say so than take it.

• A student room or a studio with no large furniture. A few boxes, a mattress, a desk. Borrow an estate car, do it in two trips, keep the money.
• A move within the same building, or next door. No vehicle, no distance, nothing to optimise.
• You are moving in stages over several weeks because you have the keys to both places. Boxes can go across in the boot of a car, and you only need help for the furniture on one afternoon.
• Both flats have a working lift, ground-floor access and a parking space outside. That combination removes most of what you would be paying for.

If one of those describes your move, our van with a driver for a day is often all you need — the vehicle and someone who can drive it, without the full crew.

When doing it yourself goes wrong

The pattern is consistent enough that we can almost predict it. Three things turn a cheap move into an expensive one.

Stairs

Everything is manageable on the flat. Nothing is manageable on stairs. A wardrobe, a fridge or a three-seat sofa going down a narrow staircase is where injuries happen, and where walls, banisters and doorframes get damaged — and you will be paying for that wall out of a deposit.

Loading the van badly

Load space is not about how much fits; it is about what is underneath what. Heavy pieces at the bottom, flat surfaces vertical, boxes on top, nothing free to move. Done badly, you either make a second trip or arrive with a scratched table — and in a van loaded by you, nobody is liable for that but you.

Nobody is insured

This is the part that is easy to overlook until it matters. If a friend drops your television, that is your television. If a friend hurts their back carrying your washing machine, that is a conversation neither of you wants to have. A registered company carries insurance for the goods it moves, and its crew is covered for the work — our guide to insurance in transit sets out exactly what that does and does not cover.

How to check a company before you book it

If you do hire someone, the checks below take about ten minutes and rule out most of what goes wrong. Apply them to us as well.

• Is it a registered business? You can look the company up in the business register, or simply ask for an invoice. A mover who will not issue one has no obligations to you at all.
• Is the quote in writing, and itemised? A figure given over the telephone without anyone seeing the flat is a guess, and guesses are revised upwards on the day. Insist on a survey — ours is free — and on knowing what the price includes: floors without a lift, distance, packing, dismantling.
• What does the insurance actually cover? Ask for the limit and the exclusions, not just a yes. Items packed by the owner are a standard exclusion almost everywhere.
• Are the reviews recent and specific? Ten generic five-star reviews posted in one week tell you less than three detailed ones from this year.
• Will they say what they cannot do? A company that has no problem with every single question — the piano, the sixth floor, the same-day date — has not thought about your move yet.

Somewhere in between

It is not actually a binary choice, and this is the option most people do not know exists.

You can pack everything yourself — clothes, books, bedding, kitchen things — and pay only for the crew, the van and the carrying. That is the cheapest sensible version of a hired move, and for most flats it saves a meaningful amount, because packing is the labour-intensive part.

Or you keep the reverse split: do the carrying with friends, but have the furniture dismantled and reassembled professionally, because that is where self-moves most often come unstuck.

What we would not split is the fragile things. Glass, porcelain, framed art and electronics are the one category where the saving is small and the downside is permanent — the reasoning is in our guide to packing fragile items.

So: which one

Short version. Studio, no heavy furniture, lift or ground floor, short distance — do it yourself and spend the money on something else. Anything with a wardrobe, a washing machine, a staircase or a deadline — hire a crew, and pack the clothes and books yourself to keep the price down.

If you are not sure which of those your move is, that is exactly what the survey is for. We come and look, and you get a written price with nothing hidden in it — including, occasionally, the advice that you do not need us. Call 066/50-40-30-9 or send us the details.

Frequently asked questions