Stacked moving boxes and a dismantled bed frame against an empty room wall

What we do

Packing and assembly

The two weeks of work sitting either side of moving day.

In short

People rarely underestimate moving day. What they underestimate are the two weeks around it: filling fifty to seventy boxes, emptying wardrobes, taking beds apart, and the same again in reverse at the other end. For a family home that is eight to sixteen hours of work, done in the evenings alongside everything else.

Packing costs 25 to 45 euro per hour per packer; dismantling and rebuilding wardrobes, beds and tables costs 30 to 50 euro per hour. That makes the packing option the dearest in the table, and the difference is almost entirely hours you could put in yourself. If you have the weeks, do it yourself; if you do not, you are buying them.

There is a second argument that is rarely made and weighs more than the first: whoever packs is liable for what happens inside the box. A box that is wrong on the inside cannot be judged from the outside. Pack yourself and breakage inside that box stays yours, with every mover in the Netherlands.

Want to hold someone else’s quote against this?

Send it along. What we take from it is which items are missing, and you get to hear that even if you hire them.

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Where it gets stuck

What we pack, and what you should not

Crockery, glassware, framed pictures and books go fastest and safest with us. What to keep yourself: papers, jewellery, medicines and everything you need on the first evening. Those boxes belong in your own car, not in the van.

Buying boxes or hiring crates

A bought box costs 1 to 3 euro; plastic crates are hired by the week and go back afterwards. For a family home of fifty to seventy boxes, hiring saves money and an attic full of cardboard afterwards. Ask every company which of the two is in the price.

Assembly at the new address

Beds, wardrobes and dining tables go back together the same day. Flat-pack wardrobes that have already been moved once are the exception: their fittings often will not survive a third dismantling, and we say so beforehand rather than discovering it on the day.

Amounts per type of home

What it costs

The rates for this part of the work, VAT included.

Four types of home, with the band two published sources give for each. All amounts include VAT, without a ladder lift and without packing.
Type of home	Amount, VAT included	Where the spread comes from
Studio or small flat	€ 350 to € 750	Half a day with one or two movers. This is the one line where the two sources part company: one starts at 350 euro, the other puts the smallest self-contained move at 650.
Two or three room flat	€ 500 to € 900	Add the ladder lift as soon as the flat is above the second floor or the building lift is small. In the blocks of northern Hoofddorp that is nearly always the case.
Terraced house	€ 700 to € 1.200	The housing type most quotes in this municipality rest on. A full attic or a shed of garden furniture pushes the outcome to the top of the band.
Detached house	€ 1.200 to € 2.500	Two vans or two runs, and almost always dismantling wardrobes and beds. Above two thousand euro a survey should have happened first, not a phone call.

On a wide screen the note per row sits in the third column. In short: the low end is half a day with two movers, the high end a full day with dismantling and a second run.

What is not included

Ladder lift, packing, dismantling and reassembly, boxes and storage. They stand with their rate in the item list above, and they are why two quotes with the same total promise different things.

What the survey changes

Half an hour, free of charge, and it produces the cubic-metre list. With that figure you can check any quote, ours included, and the list is and remains your property, whoever ends up doing the move.

Background

An average Dutch family home runs to fifty or seventy moving boxes, a flat to twenty or thirty, and a large house to eighty or a hundred. Those numbers come from published rules of thumb, and they match a volume calculation surprisingly well: roughly a tenth of a household actually goes into boxes, the rest is furniture.

That is also why a packing service works out relatively expensive for a small flat and rather well for a family home. Twenty boxes is two evenings; seventy is ten, and at that point the question is no longer what it costs but whether it will actually get done.

Date already fixed?

Then the survey is the fastest next step. It takes half an hour and produces the cubic-metre list any quote can be checked against.

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Questions

Questions about packing and assembly

Question not here? Call or send a message.

How far ahead should I start packing?

Three weeks, if you are doing it yourself and live in a family home. Start with what you do not use daily: books, guest crockery, out-of-season clothes. The last two days are for the kitchen and the bathroom, and together those take longer than the whole living room.

What does packing a family home cost?

Eight to sixteen hours of work at 25 to 45 euro per hour per packer. Two packers usually do a family home in a day. Ask for a maximum number of hours, or this is the item on which a fixed price still runs over.

Do you also take down curtains and light fittings?

Yes, and it is one of the things most often left until the day itself. It falls under dismantling and runs at the same hourly rate. Have it noted at the survey: a rented home that must be handed back empty is only empty once the ceiling light is out too.