Best packers and movers in Mumbai

There are plenty of reasons why people decide to relocate, it could be for better work opportunities, to make commuting to office a little easier by getting a home near to office, to be closer to family, to start at a new place afresh. Reasons may be many but the process remains the same. You can’t escape the planning, packing, loading etc in addition to finding a new home. The whole process after the decision to move is complex, time consuming and stressful since Mumbai is such a big city.

Mumbai, the financial capital of India, houses almost every big Indian as well as International company and this island city boosts of being home to Bollywood. Lakhs of people migrate to and from Mumbai every year and the number of people migrating intra-city is innumerable.

The distance you are relocating over makes little difference in the way things need to planned and executed. Major differences between long distance move and same city move are:

1. You will have to acclimatize yourself to a new weather and climate in long distance relocation while you will have no such need in short distance move.
2. In long distance move, you cannot go check out your new place time and again if you need some clarification of measurement or just to explore the area, while in short distance move, you can go, check out your new place any number of times and even take lighter stuff with you to leave over there to make final relocation a little easier.
3. Long distance move is expensive as compared to short distance move.
4. You might have to leave many things due to their inability to be taken to your new place in long distance move while you can take almost all of your belongings to your new place in short distance move.

However, tips for successful move whether at a long distance or short distance remain the same and they are:

1. PLANNING

Relocation is a life changing event and the best way to ensure that it goes as smoothly as possible is to plan every aspect of it and sticking to the schedule to avoid last minute rush. Try and start looking for packing and moving companies as soon as you have decided to move. The first filter you need to apply to the packers and movers in Mumbai is their capability to transport your belonging over the distance needed by you. Most packers and movers offer local relocation facilities, while some offer national relocational services in Mumbai, and very few cater to international relocation. So the first thing you need to keep in mind is finding those packers and movers who can manage your move over the distance you intend to relocate.

If you have an option to move at a time of your convenience, choose a  time that is lean season for the packers and movers but not rainy season because rains in Mumbai are known to bring the city at a standstill and you do not want yourself to be caught in rain in mid move. In lean seasons, even the best packers and movers in Mumbai offer discounts and are available on a wide range of date as opposed to rush season when they are booked to their capacity. Last minute works rarely prove profitable.

2. Getting Estimates

Don’t take the estimates the packers and movers give you on phone as final, insist on calling some one from the packers and movers to look through you stuff and give a final price including labour, transportation, insurance, GST.  Make sure to tell them that the last price they quoted will be the fees you will be paying them and nothing above this.

If you don’t call representative of the company for a visual survey and trust them to give you a fair estimate on phone, be prepared to shell out far more than they have quoted over telephone over one pretext or another.

3. Research and interview in person

There is plenty of help available online in terms of names and addresses of packers and movers of varying capabilities (in respect of hauling capacities and distance of move) in Mumbai, you can take help of those resources, or you can call the numbers given on this page to start the process. Once you have enough number of recommendations of names of packers and movers and you have called them to see if they can help you, choose atleast five of the top packers and movers in Mumbai which suit your requirements and have catered to you professionally. Go to each of the selected packers and movers office to get a feel of how things are done and if you would like to entrust your belongings to these people. Interview them on the questions that matter to you like:

(i) In how many days can they finalise your move as in move you completely from your old place to your new place?

(ii) What are the safety standards they use while transporting your belongings, cars, bikes, pets etc

(iii)  How long have they been in business?

(iv)  Can they give number of their last few clients whom they have helped move?

(v) Do they provide insurance? What do they cover in their policy?

(vi)  How do they process claims?

(vii) How much do they charge upfront?

(viii) What do they do if the truck carrying your belonging malfunctions mid way in a long distance move?

(ix) Are there any scenarios when you will have to pay more than decided amount?

3. Purging means less expense

In any move,  Mumbai packers and movers charge for packing according to items to be backed and for moving they charge according to the weight of the articles to be moved as well as distance to be covered, since distance can not easily be shortened, the thing that remains that can be downsized is the number of articles which is not very difficult if you think about it. Purge the things that you haven’t used in a long time, Dispose of the things that won’t be of any use to you after you move to your new place, Sell off or donate the things whose cost to transport will be more than their current value. This way, you decrease your expense of moving.

4. Space Planning

Measure the doors, windows, length and breadth of every room so you know beforehand how much of your old furniture will fit into the room for which it is meant. You can draw up a map of your new rooms to make sure you only take the furniture that is going to fit. Just fitting the furniture shouldn’t be your aim, you should check if there is any walking space left in the room after putting the furniture you plan to install there, is the room easy to clean, is the furniture blocking sunlight and air supply etc

Be cautioned that making a map only gives you a tentative idea .

1. Labeling

Packers and movers pack your stuff in a very organised manner so that your belongings remain safe, while still taking least amount of packing material and be easy to locate when they need to be opened.  But if you are packing yourself, what comes naturally to professional packers and movers in Mumbai, will need some getting used to for you. There are few things you need to keep in mind while packing and they are

(i)  Don’t put breakable and non-breakable stuff together

(ii) Pack edgy items like knives etc very carefully

(iii) Don’t forget to label the boxes according to its contents

(iv) Pack according to the future placements of your stuff and not how they are kept now.

(v) In order to decrease the expenses of packing, instead of buying new cartons for storage of the items for moving, ask your local grocery vendors if they can give you the cartons for free, this can save the money you were going to spend on spend. Similarly, in place of buying packing material, use newspaper, blankets, towels, vacuum bags commonly available at home to wrap stuff and only get the bubble wrap for larger items like refrigerators etc.

(vi) Number the boxes so you can remember the total number of boxes you had.

(vii) Label the cables so you can remember which cable is for which electronic.

(viii) Keep all the remote controls together so you don’t misplace any of them.

But it is always better to hire professional packers to do the packing to alleviate the stress of moving, to make sure that your stuff remains safe and to get full benefit of insurance.