DIY Removals

If you're moving house, you may decide that rather than use a professional removals firm, you'd rather do the move yourself by hiring a self-drive van and asking a few willing and able friends to help you. Although you can save money by doing it yourself, it's usually inadvisable unless it's a simple job, and you have only a have a few possessions or no big items of furniture.

You will need to think carefully also about the sites that you will be moving to and from - will they be easy to access? For example, moving furniture from a bungalow with wide hallways and doors will be much easier than from a sixth floor apartment in a block with no lift.

If you don't have many things to move, or are moving to or from an apartment with lifts rather than stairs, the removal work may be a straightforward job that you can do yourself. However, you will need to work out the cost of hiring the van (including petrol and insurance), and take into account the time involved, which may involve the loss of a day's earnings. It's backbreaking work, and not much fun spending your day dragging heavy sofas, beds and wardrobes up stairs and trying to squeeze them through impossibly small spaces. It may be better idea just to move selected fragile and valuable items yourself and leave everything else to the professionals.

Van Hire

However, if you do decide to tackle the job yourself, you will probably need to hire a van or a truck. Here are some points you should check with the van hire company:

• What capacity van do I need, given the size of the property?
• How much fuel will at the van have? Must it be returned with the same amount?
• What are the insurance terms?
• Are vans cleaned between rentals? How regularly are they serviced?
• Does it have a hydraulic loading lift?
• Are there side straps to secure upright items?
• Are blankets provided?