Rent a Truck or Hire Movers? An Honest Chicago Comparison

In terms of the stress it puts on the people who live there, a move is in no way easier than a major renovation. An apartment move can turn into a real nightmare if you go into it without knowledge and preparation. So is it cheaper to rent a truck or hire movers? Below we go through the options one by one, so you can work out how to move and save as much time, money and nerves as you can.

Three ways to move: a rental truck and friends, a truck plus a crew, or full-service movers

The first and simplest option is to organize the move yourself. You will have to collect all your things on your own, pack them, haul them and then unpack them at the new place and put everything where it goes. On the plus side, it is cheap, but it will cost you a lot of energy and nerves.

The second option saves you part of the time and effort. You can pack your things yourself, rent a truck and hire a crew to load it. The workers do the carrying and loading, and that is already less of a headache. If you only need people for the heavy part, the moving labor crews we send out work exactly like that.

Finally, the third option is to hire a moving company and hand all the responsibility over to it. Such companies have a lot of experience with organizing fast apartment moves without wasted effort. Of course, you should understand that this way costs more than the first two. For a breakdown of what drives the bill, see our guide to Chicago moving costs.

Is it worth hiring movers, or is it a whim?

There are plenty of moving companies on the market — firms that organize professional apartment moves. They take on most of the worries of the move, for a fee, of course. These services are in high demand today, but many people still have doubts. Let us go through it in order.

What doing it yourself really takes

Say you have decided to save money and handle the job yourself. To do that you will need to get through a number of steps.

Sort everything

Take all your things out of where they are stored and sort them: clothes, kitchen utensils, appliances, books, decor. Part of it will surely go to the trash, and something can be given away. Keep in mind that there will most likely be far more things than you think. So sorting will take at least a few days, if not weeks (if you are doing it in the evenings, after work).

Pack what is left

Pack everything you have not thrown out or given away. This is the most important stage of getting ready for an apartment move. How well things survive the trip depends on the quality of the packing. If it seems very simple to you, you are badly mistaken. Packing has many nuances and fine points. Dishes, for example, are best wrapped in bubble wrap and put in boxes, and for dressers and cabinets it is recommended to also use sheets of cardboard (a separate question is where to get them). Since you have decided to pack everything yourself, you will have to study how to do it properly and go looking for materials. Or you can pass just this part on to a packing and unpacking crew.

Take the furniture apart

Taken apart, furniture takes up less room in the truck. If you do not have the right skills, taking it apart will eat a good deal of time. On top of that, if you start without experience, you risk ruining the furniture.

Find a truck

This is the hardest part of a do-it-yourself move. Few people have their own cargo vehicle, so most likely you will have to rent one. That is why, even if you organize the move from apartment to apartment on your own, the move will not be free. Also, without experience it is very hard to tell what kind of truck you will need, especially if there are a lot of things. Will one small truck be enough, or do you need a second one? Or maybe, instead of two small trucks, rent one big one? A mistake in choosing the truck means lost time and money: if it turns out there is not enough room in the box, you will have to urgently look for another vehicle, which means paying extra.

Find people to lift

In theory you can carry the boxes and furniture yourself, but first, it is hard, and second, it is risky (there is a good chance of getting hurt or breaking something valuable). Hired help is one more line of expenses. Besides, there is no guarantee that a crew found through an ad will handle the job the way you want. It could turn out that the helpers are, for example, inexperienced students, and in that case you can hardly expect careful handling of your things or knowledge of how moving is done.

And so it turns out that the planned savings turn into extra spending. It is far from certain that moving your things to a new apartment on your own will come out much cheaper than help from professionals. But the main thing is not even that. It is that by doing the move yourself you will spend a lot of time and are sure to get a huge amount of stress.

Rent a truck or hire movers: the options side by side

A household move is not always across town, and you usually want to take everything in one trip. Here are the ways it can be organized, with the pluses and minuses of each.

The quick version is in the table below. With a rental truck, keep in mind that it has to be returned, and after handing it over you need to get back somehow. With a hired crew, check the condition of your things after delivery in any case. When choosing a moving company, look at its experience and reputation.

Inside the city, a full-service move is the work of our local moving team in Chicago; for a move out of state, see our long distance moving service.

Can you hire movers just to load and unload a truck?

Yes — this is the middle option from the start of the article. You pack your things yourself, and the workers do the carrying and loading. There is less of a headache, and you keep part of the savings. If you drive the truck yourself, you can order help with loading and unloading only, and the crew loads the truck so the things take up as little room as possible.

A move with a crew goes easier and faster if you follow a few simple tips for getting ready. Some of them are below.

When hiring movers pays off

It is much more convenient to turn to a moving company. Here are the main advantages of that decision:

• All the work is done by one company. You do not need to look separately for movers, drivers, or rent a truck.
• There is no need to pack things: the company's staff bring the right materials and do this properly. Part of the items (clothes, shoes) you can pack yourself, and leave the hardest stages of the process to professionals.
• Moving trucks are fitted out for carrying furniture and fragile items. Inside, furniture is wrapped in moving blankets and strapped to the wall of the box.

But even if you have decided to order the move from professionals, part of the work you will have to do yourself. First of all, that concerns the first stage — sorting and dividing up your things. Even a short hop across the neighborhood goes the same way; our short distance movers page covers those.

Portable containers vs movers

A portable container is one more way to move: it is dropped off at your door, you fill it, and it is hauled away. But the lifting and loading still fall on you, with all the same risks to things and backs listed above. Why a crew is worth it here, we covered in our post on loading a moving container.

And if the budget is the main concern, students in particular, look at our tips for moving on a student budget.