Do IT Yourself - DITY moves are not worth your time!
If you are not familiar with the military moving system, I will explain what I know.
There is a special office that the military member contacts when it is close to moving time, the TMO, that helps coordinate movers to ship your household goods to your next assignment. Then, the TMO office pays commercial movers for the expense of moving based upon the weight and mileage of what is moved where. This is a very expensive process, but is necessary for the military members who move because moving an entire house takes a lot of time and money.
However, if the military member opts to do the move themselves, the TMO is supposed to pay the military member what they would pay a commercial service. This is especially helpful if the member would like some extra money for whatever reason - at least it sounds helpful.
My husband and I tried this because I was staying home and thought to myself, "Here's a chance to earn some money without getting a job, and I can stay at home with my daughter and son." I will forever curse those thoughts because they caused me a lot of trouble.
Here are some of the advantages movers have over military people who are not movers:
Advantage 1: 18wheelers
Movers have giant trucks with lots of room for your stuff. They also can move multiple households at once. This helps with profitability. Also, planning a move with stuff that can barely fit in the largest truck you can rent is tough. Think of solving the worlds heaviest 100 piece puzzle, and you've got the idea.
Advantage 2: 5 guys to pack 5 guys to load
Movers have more people to help pack your goods. Also, they don't bring their kids along that like to unpack boxes. I think I would finish 2 boxes while my kids unpacked 1. Two steps forward and one step back was the game they liked to play. I didn't like that game so much. My husband and I are strong, but a day of packing ( and then unpacking) a truck in only a few hours on our own was like running a marathon. You pay for every day you have the truck, so time is of the essence. We were hot and tired. Maybe it was the 120 weather and the fact that we both had a severe stomach virus during unpacking that made it seem really bad. I don't know.
Advantage 3: Professional estimator
Guessing how much truck space is needed for your household goods is like guessing how many stars fill the sky. (Ok, it's not really that bad, but it's close. ) The people who come to estimate the number of boxes and space needed are pretty good at what they do, and we stink.
Advantage 4: Movers get a good deal on boxes
Apparently, the people who make boxes fill them with gold. When you see how much you are charged for what is basically stiff paper, you may think boxes have gold hidden inside, but alas, they do not. Sticker shock hit me when I went to buy boxes, and instead of buying them, I went dumpster diving in the base recycling bins whenever I could. Trust me, this is not easy, but it does save money.
I think you get the point. You know, we moved at the same time as our friends, to the same place, and we had the same total weight to ship. Our total pay was less than $1800. I don't know how it worked-out, but they saw how much the movers were paid, and they said it totaled around $9000. We essentially profited $800 for a month of planning, and dumpster diving, and living out of boxes, and working in extreme heat and losing our minds with our kids unpacking, and spending all of our free time working on that one project. I would say, unless you are desperate for the dough, DITY moves are not worth it! A DITY move with kids is highly stressful.
Granted, we made a move that was only a 12 hour drive from where we lived. If you were, say, moving across country, maybe you would profit more. But, if you actually spent money on all of your boxes, and bought all of the supplies that a mover does, you might profit very little, if anything at all.
It is probably worth looking into if you are considering it. You can try it, and then maybe some day you can give some sage advice to another military family considering a DITY move: DITY moves are not worth it!
