I Paid $4,000 to Move 15 Minutes Down the Road. Here's Why

I sold my home recently and I'm in the process of finding another property. I don't have my new house yet because I haven't found a place I like. I also wanted the proceeds from the sale of my current home to serve as my down payment when I get a mortgage. As a result, I had to move my stuff temporarily into storage.

I chose a storage facility that was just 15 minutes down the road. But while the storage facility was close, I still had to pay around $4,000 to move my possessions out of my current home and into the storage area.

This seems like a fortune, but there are some very good reasons why I opted to make this financial choice despite taking a hit to my bank account.

Paying movers made sense given my situation

There are a few reasons why I felt like paying professional movers was the right course of action for me.

First and foremost, moving would have taken me a tremendous amount of time. I have a lot of stuff and much of it is breakable and heavy. If I wanted to move it on my own, I would have spent many hours wrapping and packing it, and I would have struggled to carry the heavier items.

By the time I spent the hours necessary to move, I would have missed out on a ton of work time. And, since I am an independent contractor and only earn money when I actually produce work, I would have lost a lot of money. The amount of lost time and funds I would have incurred had I moved myself was far more than the amount I paid to the movers. So it would have cost me more money to DIY than hiring a professional.

I also have two young kids and don't really have help to move besides my husband since this is a vacation home in an area where I don't know many people. I would not have been able to ask friends to assist, and my family members had helped me move into the house only 18 months prior so I didn't feel right imposing on them again.

Finally, I have a lot of stuff, much of which is delicate and expensive. If I tried to move everything myself or brought in people who weren't professional movers, there was a big risk I would have ended up breaking valuable items that cost more to replace than the expense of hiring the movers in the first place.

Good movers are expensive

Once I made the decision that I had no choice but to move on my own, I shopped around quite a bit to try to find the best price. But the reality is, good movers are expensive.

I wanted to find movers who were licensed and insured, so I used the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website to confirm the companies I was considering had a moving license. I also made sure they offered replacement coverage if they damaged my possessions (some movers will pay by the pound for losses, rather than actually replace your items). And I checked references.

After getting multiple quotes, the cheapest movers I could find who I trusted ended up costing me $4,000. This was a lot of money, but it was well worth it to make sure my stuff got safely delivered to my destination and to avoid missing so many hours of work and losing even more in pay.

Ultimately, when you decide whether to move yourself or hire professionals, you need to think about the opportunity cost and potential risk of doing it yourself and weigh that against the price of hiring professional movers. You may find hiring help works for you as it did for me, or you may find DIY is the way to go. A lot depends on your finances, preferences, and abilities, so the decision is personal.