Getting Your Friends to Work like Professional Movers

Paying for professional movers when you are on a low budget can save you a lot of money. Turning to friends is always an option but it can often come with its own cost. Plotting a specific plan to get your friends to work like the pros, without you having to order them around, will help tremendously.

Preparation

No one is going to want to help you if you are unorganized. It creates havoc and slows the whole process down, flaring tempers and patience. Make sure you have everything ready to go on the day of your move.

Things to think about when packing are:

1. Supplies – If friends are helping you pack make sure you have plenty of tape, boxes, thick black markers, bubble wrap and/or blankets, towels or paper for breakables
2. Ask for Help – If money is tight ask your friends if they have any of these supplies available to donate
3. Piles – Know what you want to go where and make piles accordingly. For example, keep your boxed kitchen supplies in one stack, bedroom stuff in another, and so on
4. Label – Make sure everything is labeled on all sides as this will make unpacking much easier. Keep your labeled piles together and they will hopefully get moved this way so you won’t be frantically searching for the pancake spatula amongst the living room boxes

Don’t Ask Them to Help You with an Unnecessarily Lengthy Move

Most likely you will need a a van or truck to move your things, because using a small two door car will take os many trips the moving process will exceed everyone’s patience. If no one has a van or truck they are willing to let you use, save your cash and rent one. Try not to skimp here because if your vehicle is too small your move will slow down considerably.

Assign Specific Tasks to Specific Friends

Every good professional moving team has assignments. One worker stays in the truck while two others work moving from the apartment door to the truck and maybe there are two more stacking and handing off boxes inside the apartment. This can easily be done with friends. If someone is smaller and not as strong put them in the truck out front to avoid tickets or theft (make sure they have a cell phone and of course the keys to the vehicle). Use the strongest of the bunch to move items from the apartment to the truck. The others can work in the apartment. It is recommended that you only take on a task that won’t prevent things from getting mixed up.

Offer Your Friends Incentives

You are obviously using friends because you can’t afford or simply do not want to use professional movers. Therefore, if your pals are going to help, think up some incentives along the way to keep them working at a professional pace, while possibly looking forward to something later on. For example:

1. Have coffee, bagels, donuts, etc. ready before everyone begins
2. Pack or buy a lunch for everyone (pizza, subs, etc.)
3. Drinks for all, on you, at the end of the day