Money Saving Tips for your upcoming move

Keep more cash in your pockets by cutting down on time!

Bust a Move moving is here with valuable tips on how you can keep your moving bill down by properly preparing.  Being prepared for your movers arrival can knock upwards of 25% off your total bill.

RESERVE PARKING
The closer your movers can place their loading ramp to your front door or staircase the better.

SAME SIZED BOXES
Regular sized boxes can be quickly stacked in the truck without having to play Tetris.  Think you're saving money by scoring free boxes? Think again! Trying to stack all of your odd shaped boxes will actually add a significant amount of time to your move.

CLEAR THE WAY
Keep porches, stairwells, hallways and entrances free of items and junk.  The faster your movers can maneuver around your home, the quicker the job will get done. 

DISASSEMBLE FURNITURE
Only if you're feeling up to it of course. Taking apart an IKEA bed and rebuilding will add about 20 minutes to your move. Removing legs from a table could take 10 minutes. The difference between taking apart your own furniture could easily save you one-hour of billed moving time.

ORGANIZE THE ODDS AND ENDS
Fans, brooms, mops, vacuums, house plants, sporting equipment,  wooden slabs, rolled posters and other awkward items can not be loaded in the truck as is. Try to bundle like-shaped items together and place all smaller items inside of boxes.

SHOW YOUR MOVERS ALL ITEMS AT THE BEGINNING
Your movers will load the truck with a strategy in mind. If near the end of the loading process you say, "Oh! and I have two air conditioners, a snow blower and a patio set in the shed", they may have to spend time rearranging the truck to accommodate the extra items.

RESERVE THE ELEVATOR
Your movers will be able to lock the elevator which simplifies and quickens the process. It isn't easy to load an elevator that is constantly attempting to crush you. 

CHECK OUT OUR PACKING TIPS
Save on time and frustration by checking out our PACKING TIPS

The $3,588 Ikea bar stool

Years back one of our clients had to suddenly move to Vancouver. Everything happened so quickly and she was forced to squeeze out of her lease early and place the contents of her 1-bedroom apartment into a storage facility.

And off she went to begin her journey. New school, new job, friends to make, parties to go to, studying and exams to write. Fast forward 3 + years and she lands back in Montreal just like the good old days and she is ready to move into her new apartment. 

Moving day arrives and  Bust a Move moving arrive on time as expected and begin to empty her locker. She mentions that her boyfriends apartment is already furnished and she will be throwing out most of her things and just keeping personal items. In the end the movers delivered the  bar stool (see above) and around 6 boxes of personal items to the apartment. They brought the remaining contents of the locker to renaissance to be donated.

So let's do the math. The storage was $92/month and she used it for 39 months. That's $3,588!!! And all she kept was 1 stool that sells for $49 at Ikea. She could have bought 73 stools for that price!

Sometimes it's better to cut ties with your furniture/possessions. Instead of spending that money she could have liquidated her stuff at a garage/moving sale and maybe made $500-$1,000.   Value your items with a dollar amount and estimate the length of storage needed to determine whether it's worth the cost of storage. Your furniture will not get more fashionable or comfortable over time so it's better to make that call early on!

As for our client, well she's probably just living her life, going about her day, sitting on Montreals most expensive bar stool.

The Garbage Bag grumbles

Garbage Bags are great for moving.... Said no one, ever.

We've traveled through the vast lands of Nepal to converse with wise Buddhists about a question that we can not understand; "Why do people use garbage bags instead of moving boxes"
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Have you ever seen a golfer strolling down the fairway with their clubs in a garbage bag?
No!  Yet on moving day,  your golf clubs are jammed into garbage bags.

Do the products in grocery stores come in garbage bags?
No!  Yet on moving day you empty the contents of your fridge in 1 garbage bag.

When you buy a set of dishes does the cashier carefully place them into garbage bags?
No!  Yet on moving day you place your dishes into garbage bags to ensure ultimate protection.

When Dell ships your laptop does FedEx ring your doorbell and hand you a garbage bag?
No, Yet on moving day you cram every electronic in your home into one large garbage bag.
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Even garbage bags come in boxes when you buy them. Can you imagine buying a garbage bag filled with garbage bags from the store?

The best is when people cover their glass lamp shades with a garbage bag for protection. The only good thing about this is when (I'm saying 'when' because it's inevitable) the lamp shatters, the pieces will already be in the garbage. 

Garbage bags should not be used for moving because;
1) The can't be stacked
2) They are awkward to carry
3) The chance of them ripping apart is 100%
4) The chance of them protecting your things is 0%

Things Garbage bags are great for;
1) Garbage
2) A cape for a Batman costume

Plan ahead, Pack early

Like the trees and flowers, moving season is in full bloom in Montreal. After the prank mother nature pulled last week with the hope-crushing 15 cm of random snow the cold winter has passed and the longer days are filled with promise of a summer soon to come.

Summer time is also moving season in Montreal. Whether moving out of your parents house, moving in with a loved one, upgrading, downgrading, moving for work, etc there's no avoiding the fact that you'll have to move (despite your best efforts to ignore it). All of your stuff is going to have to get packed up and moved to a new place whether it be at the other end of the city or across the street.

Due to Quebec's famous 'Moving Day" over 80,000 Quebecers' spend Canada Day packing boxes. Also, lease patterns tend to end between May and August resulting in a large number of people having to move at that time. Companies therefor experience a huge amount of over demand during those peak times and charge higher rates.


Here are a few tips on how to save time, effort and money when hiring movers during the summer rush.

BOOK EARLY - Save Money - Booking in advance ensures that you will get a decent rate from your moving company. If you wait until the day before you can expect to pay higher prices.

BOOK EARLY - Save Time - Early bookings mean that you will be able to reserve easily. If you wait until the last minute you may have to contact multiple companies before finding one with openings and may end up with a company that you would never hire otherwise.

AVOID THE LAST DAY/FIRST DAY- Of each month. This can sometimes be tricky due to lease patterns but if your moving date is flexible and your budget is tight then avoiding these days are your best choice. These dates have higher demand and higher prices.

MID MONTH MOVES - The middle of the month can a quieter time for movers. By reserving a date between the 10th and 20th of each month, you may be able to benefit from a lower rate

There you have it! A few friendly tips from the team at Bust a Move Moving regarding your upcoming move in Montreal this summer.

When life gives you lemons, fill them with furniture.

Bust a Move moving started off with a 1993 Toyota pickup that was composed of more putty than steel. After helping a friend move her mattress, she secretly put an ad on Craigslist titled, " Student Mover with Truck".

It's safe to say that 70% of our customers muttered  "Whaaat the Heeeeck" under their breath as they witnessed this truck roll up to their front door.


We upgraded to a covered truck.  This cool looking 1972 Grumman Kurbmaster was better suited to serve ice cream to screaming kids in the park but we made it work. When I bought it had an "Antique license plate" I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing at the time.

1984 Grumman Curbmaster

Check out those rims! We loved this truck. You could drive it with the doors wide open, and the horn was an air pressured device which sounded like a train.


We then progressed to something a little more modern. Nothing too interesting to say about this thing. It was a 14 foot cube truck that ran well and helped us secure larger scale moves.

14-foot Ford E-450

The next step was to invest in a reliable, large moving truck that would enable us to offer a better service and undertake larger moves once again.

20 foot - Ford LCF Truck

Stored inside of this guy are dozens of protective blankets for your furniture, dollies, tools, straps, mattress covers, packing tape, shrink wrap, floor mats and everything else needed to complete your move in an efficient manner. The truck is clean, reliable and great for inter city moves.


And then this happened;

And then this;

Et voila, there is a history of our fleet which is always modernizing and improving to best serve our customers. It only makes sense, they deserve it.

Until Next time!

www.bustamovemoving.com

What a Waste!

Going Green is no longer a trend; it’s the new way of life. Nowadays companies are dreaming up amazing solutions that benefit both society and the environment. Bamboo laptops, water-less washing machines and solar powered refrigerators are just a few inventions which are beyond impressive.  When thinking of the moving industry however, there is nothing spectacular to be found.

This past January we moved two customers from Montreal to Toronto and brought a load back to Montreal on our way home. Once all was done, we were bothered by the amount of waste that we produced in order to complete our moves.  The distance of the entire trip was approximately 1500 km’s (return) and took two days. Below is a list of our supplies used;

-500 Litres of Diesel fuel.

-10 queen size mattress bags – Plastic

-600 meters of packing tape – Plastic

-140 boxes, give or take – Cardboard

-800 feet of Shrink Wrap – Plastic

It was disappointing to see how 'un-environmentally' friendly our business was and had us thinking of what could be done to reduce our impact. We have a few ideas, but they require a lot of extra time and effort to implement, not to mention they are more costly for us.  

We would be interested to hear from anyone who may have ideas as to how we could reduce our impact on the environment.  All ideas are welcome (no matter how small, large, ridiculous or unlikely).

Feel free to reply to this post or send an e-mail to info@bustamovemoving.com

A World of Weird

If you're moving and think that some of your belongings are 'special', it's always best to notify your moving company in advance.  Even good movers are unable to work with certain objects. Below are some of the most unusual objects that Bust a Move Moving has encountered over the years in Montreal.

THE BARBER CHAIR -  Moving an old school barber chair that weighed roughly 400 pounds down three sets of stairs (and it couldn't be tilted because it had oil in the base) was not easy for the movers!  Our client mentioned that he needed a "Chair" to be moved. One heck of a chair!

TURD BUCKET- "Can you load my cat litter?"  Yes, we can load the cat litter box after you remove that towering pyramid of turds, the actual litter and then rinse it out, over and over again. While you do that we will go get our hazmat suits.

EMPTY BEER BOTTLES - A 5 1/2 apartment with one room designated to empty beer cases. They were all 24's and all Budweiser.  The money they got back from the returns covered the $467 move and some extra. You do the math!

SNAKE SKIN - A big clear container full of snake skin. That is all.

FISH TANK FULL OF FISH - The fish tank is heavy enough on its own and they wanted to move it with all the water and the fish still inside!  Even the fish were rolling their eyes.  

BAGS OF BRICKS - About 60 bricks, placed in garbage bags. Unfortunately the ultra thin plastic could not handle the weight, which was surprising.......?  Once transferred to boxes the process went smoothly.

SEX SWING MACHINE THING -  This 'Sex Swing'  took up an entire bedroom. This thing could replace a jungle gym at a school playground. Metal bars, bungees, ropes, hydraulic lifts, chains. We didn't know what to say about this one.  We did not disassemble or move it.  We'll leave that part up to her lover(s)