The more you prepare, the luckier you get.
We relocated from a five-bedroom, double-storey home in Witbank, Mpumalanga, to a similar house in Leisure Bay, KZN. Our requirement was described as a "large move" by a couple of suppliers of the six that we approached. Our goods filled a "Super link" (articulated double-trailer train) entirely. A lot of our stuff was heavy (pool table, metal-turning lathe/mill combo, steel trunks full of tools and machinery, etc.) with the inevitable fragile or precious items as well (laser cutter, fragile and very heavy, large glass display cabinet, large oak dining table, etc).
We researched what we could on the suppliers' own sites and then scoured the web for reviews. We drew up a short-list of six suppliers and sent them our inventory. We finally settled on Optimum Removals (responsible person was Marius Halgryn), based on their website, the reviews, and their visit to reconnoiter the job. It turned out that Optimum was an excellent choice. Not the cheapest (R37k), but not a single problem. A company director/manager (Vincent White) was on site during the last third of loading. The crew (8 + driver) were careful and diligent and well supervised. They arrived in Witbank, from Pretoria, at 12h00 and left at 19h00, time which included shunting the trailers individually to the loading point, due to the restrictive turning area in our cul-de-sac.
They arrived in Leisure Bay at 18h00 the next day and slept in the truck, on the side of the main road into our suburb. The next morning, they brought in the trailers, again one at a time, due to the constrictions of our narrow gravel lane. They started unloading at 06h00 and were finished by 13h00. We were happy to feed and tip them generously for their 7 hours at each location. We definitely got our money's worth from them. We would recommend them without hesitation.
I think it's important to mention that something that impressed their management as well as the crew was the standard of our packaging. As a result, they took us seriously and were willing to treat our stuff very considerately. Moving is hugely expensive - and skimping on the packaging is false economy. Buy decent-sized new boxes (forget about the Simba chip boxes from the insect-rich dump behind Pick-n-Pay, or using garbage bags, as some have done to contain expense). Bubble-wrap your furniture and appliances and cling-wrap these as well as the trunks, boxes, crates, suitcases, generator, compressor, welder and big drill press, as well as the bundles of garden tools, wood, steel and plastic stock from the workshop and garage. Buy a roll of plastic strapping and a bag of buckles to strap the heavy stuff securely, to strap the doors and drawers of cabinets and dressers closed, as well as to strap heavy trunks and flexible crates. Then cover in two to three layers of cling-wrap. It's tamper-resistant, rain-resistant and spill-resistant as well as being deceptively strong. We consumed about 32 rolls of packaging tape. At that rate it was worth buying two tape dispensers. An unusual bonus is to have a wife that can Pack Like A Boss - a Tetris Boss. A matter of luck or good genes, I suppose!
Over two hundred and twenty boxes, crates and bundles. Two lounge suites. Two dining suites. Lots of furniture with mirrors or glass panels or good wood. Fragile porcelain. Expensive machinery. ZERO breakage, ZERO loss - because all the stress is in doing the packing, nowhere else.
Proper packaging remains cheaper than arguments, claims, replacement or outright loss. Read the reviews and you'll determine that packaging is a huge factor in most of the arguments. Did I mention that It's A Huge Effort To Pack? If you aren't prepared to make the effort, then pay the moving company (handsomely!) to pack for you and then go sailing, golfing, micro-lighting or whatever else it is that wealthy people do with their free time. You finance your own luck.
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