There is a lot to moving house! While you may well be looking forward to having settled in your new house, the process of getting there can be frustrating and tiring. Thankfully, the Calgary area is full of services that will make your house move easier, cheaper, and even more environmentally friendly. Here are some tips you simply must look into when you’re planning your house move in Calgary.
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1. Use second-hand boxes
A house move requires a lot of big cardboard boxes, which are normally bought for the purposes of moving and then quickly discarded. Even when you recycle your boxes, you will still have only used them for a very short amount of time, which can feel like a waste—besides, moving boxes are usually quite expensive!
You could ask your local supermarket or another large store if they have delivery boxes in good condition to give you for free. However, large stores usually flatten their boxes straight away to the point where they become unusable and often keep them in crates in a yard where they become soggy from the rain or snow. An easier way to acquire second-hand boxes, which is both cheap and environmentally friendly, is to buy them from a dedicated used boxes store (yes, they exist!) or to look for used boxes for sale on online platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree or Craigslist.
However, the best way to get your hands on some used boxes is to ask small local shops or even your neighbours to keep the boxes aside for you whenever they get a delivery. After all, Calgary is the fifth friendliest place in Canada, so you’re bound to find somebody who will help you out!
2. Use a storage and moving company
Traditionally, you would either pack and move all your stuff yourself or hire a moving company to pack and move all your things for you. Hiring a moving company is very expensive. However, moving all your stuff yourself can get very impractical, especially if you’re on your own. Besides, you will probably need to hire a van, which can also be quite expensive.
The team at MIBOX in Calgary offers a hybrid service where they drop off one or more storage containers at your home, which come in various sizes. Once you have packed all your stuff into the container, the company picks it up and delivers it to your new house. This is a perfect in-between solution if you are happy to do the packing yourself but don’t have a way of moving your stuff easily.
3. Hire a packing and unpacking service
Packing and unpacking is usually the most time-consuming aspect of moving house. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to this, or if you think you are going to struggle to pack and unpack your belongings because of limited mobility or childcare responsibilities, you could hire a packing service to do the job for you. Some packing companies in the Calgary area even offer a dedicated package to seniors moving into retirement homes, assisted living complexes, care homes and hospices. You could also hire a packing and unpacking company just to deal with your fragile items.
