The moving process can often feel neverending. By the time you find a new place to live you just wish you could click your heels together, say “there’s no place like home”, and be there already.
We get it.
The best way to keep your patience – and sanity – intact is to have a good idea of what to expect. How much time does it take to move? There are a few factors to take into account. We’ll help you explore some of the considerations so you can estimate the time it will take you to move. Then you can take some stress off your shoulders.
Estimate Time
General Time Frame
There are a few factors that affect how much time it takes to move, but we’ll get to those specifics in a moment. A good starting point is a general idea of timing based on the size of your home. Professional moving companies give the following estimates, so let’s start here:
- Studio or One Bedroom Apartment: 2-3 hours
- Two Bedrooms: 3-5 hours
- Three or Four Bedrooms: Up to 7 hours
- Five+Bedrooms: 8-10 hours
These are a very general starting point that allows a professional mover to estimate the number of people required for the job and to provide a quote. These timeframes of course don’t include any extra work you’ll be putting in, such as packing boxes or cleaning your place.
If you hire a full-service mover to do your packing for you, they’ll take that into account.
Factors to Consider
Not limited to just the size of your space, there are some other factors to consider that may affect how much time it takes to move. This includes:
- Furniture and large items
- How much disassembly is required
- Number of boxes
- Loose and unpacked items
- Quantity of fragile items or those requiring special handling
- Accessibility for the moving truck
- Flights of stairs
- Size or accessibility of your elevator
- Hallways or awkward corners to navigate
- Weather conditions
- Distance between addresses
- Traffic and road conditions
These things will all affect how much time it takes to move, so consider which ones apply to you. Make sure you discuss each with your moving company to ensure your estimate is accurate and they’re well prepared on moving day. This will help everything go more smoothly.
Preparing Your New Space
Moving is more than just the physical move, of course. You’ll want to move into your new place and settle in. For many of us, that means doing some cleaning beforehand.
Depending on where you’re moving, your rental company or previous owners may (should!) have done some basic cleaning of the place before you arrived. There are likely some finishing touches you’ll like to do yourself. Give yourself time to give your new place a scrub and factor that into how much time it takes to move. If you also need to hang curtains to have some privacy, can you consider yourself moved in before you tick that off the list?
Closing Out Your Old One
You’ll want to do the same for the new tenants in your old place. This may include time for repairs like patching dings in the wall, scuffs on the floor, and caulking the bathtub. Consider how much time you’ll need to get these repairs done before you consider yourself fully moved out.
You’ll also need to do some cleaning so the person who comes after you can enter into a clean home as well. If you choose to do the cleaning yourself, you’ll need to count a few hours – at least – out of your own time to take care of the work. While it costs a bit more, hiring a cleaner to come will allow you to multitask.
When you’re ready to get moving, FlatRate is here to help. Our professional, reliable movers can help you with an estimate on how much time it takes to move, and then get you moving.