It’s often fun and exciting to move to a new location, even if the moving process isn’t the highlight of your day. Aside from hiring someone to pack and unpack your stuff or do it yourself, the cost of hiring a moving company and equipment isn’t cheap. And if you’re moving far away, you’ll need a lot more help than having a neighbor with a pickup truck help you out.

If you want to ensure that everything will happen safely, you’ll want to do it yourself. This way, you can carefully pack and unpack everything. Of course it is very slow.

An alternative is to find a reputable professional moving company with whom you can sign a contract that clearly states that your things are guaranteed to arrive safely or will be replaced by the company.

Even if you pack your own house, you’ll probably find it nearly impossible to move on your own, especially if you’re moving across state or cross country. Even if you hold a yard sale to get rid of things, you’ll probably find it less expensive to move most of your possessions into your new home than to furnish it from scratch.

With that in mind, the process of hiring a moving company requires a bit of planning. This is because some companies may offer you a free moving truck upgrade and charge you by the mile, while others may offer unlimited mileage but charge you based on the size of the truck you need.

So to save the most money, you’ll have to shop around for potential prices. The best thing to do is to get quotes from several moving companies. How far in advance you contact them and the day of the week you move will affect your cost.

If you know you’ll be moving well in advance of the actual move, don’t delay in calling moving companies. Then, when you find one you want to hire, sign a contract to guarantee the price. Don’t wait because prices may change.

And when getting quotes, keep in mind that demand for moving equipment is typically lower midweek. If you can schedule your move between Tuesday and Thursday you can save a lot of money.

When getting quotes, find out if boxes, packing materials, and packing tape are included in the price or if you will be charged an additional fee. Also find out if you have to rent dollies and other lifting and moving equipment or if that is included in the price as well.

Once you’ve narrowed down your choice of movers, ask for the contact information of three of their most recent clients and give them a call to find out what their experiences were.

Before you move, take a written inventory of everything. Then, once you’ve moved, check each item on your list to see if it arrived safely. If it is damaged, know that the sooner you file a complaint, the more likely you are to get compensation for it.

Since moving companies may not be qualified to disassemble and assemble complex equipment and/or electronics, you must either do it yourself or hire other professionals to do it.

And finally, if you decide to hire a moving company to pack your things for you, make sure they charge you by weight rather than volume. If they charge by volume, you are opening the door for them to intentionally underpack your boxes in order to charge you more.