Packing & Unpacking

Packing on its own, if that is all you need

Not everybody wants the whole move handled. Plenty of people have the transport sorted already, a friend with a tempo or a company-paid truck, and what they actually want is somebody who will pack the house properly so nothing arrives in three pieces. You can book that on its own here, the packing does not have to come attached to the moving.

The crew arrives with all the material, works through the house room by room, and leaves you a labelled set of cartons standing ready to load. If you want us to load them too we will, but it is not a condition of taking the packing.

How a room actually gets packed

We start on the rooms you are least likely to need before moving day. Spare bedroom and the store room go first, kitchen and bathroom go last, which means you are still living normally in the flat while three quarters of it is already boxed. Every carton carries the room it came from and a short note of what is inside, and that one habit is what makes the unpacking quick instead of a treasure hunt.

Crockery gets wrapped piece by piece and packed standing upright rather than stacked flat. A plate on its edge takes a knock that a stack of eight will not.

Kitchens take the longest and they always will. There is more in them than anyone expects and a good part of it is either breakable or half full of something, so we book proper hours for that room instead of squeezing it in at the end of a long day. Wardrobes go faster than they look — hanging clothes travel in tall cartons still on their hangers, so they come out the other end ready to go straight back on a rail.

Unpacking is the half most people leave off

Unpacking is the bit that gets dropped from the booking to save a little money, and then regretted around day four when the living room still has fourteen cartons in it and nobody can find the mixer. If you do take it, the crew comes back, opens up room by room, puts things onto the shelves and into the cupboards where you actually want them, and carries every empty carton away when they leave.

That last part is worth more than it sounds. A three-bedroom flat produces an awkward mountain of cardboard and stretch film, and most societies in Bangalore will not let you park it next to the bins for the housekeeping staff to sort out. It goes out on the same visit, which keeps you on good terms with the association in your first week there.

What the price depends on

Packing is quoted on volume and on how much of the volume is fragile, not on a flat figure per room, because two flats of identical size can be very different days of work. A house heavy on crockery, glassware, framed art and electronics takes longer and eats more material than one that is mostly furniture and clothes.

So we survey first, free, on video or in person, and the written quote comes after that. Material is inside the number, the cartons and the bubble wrap are not going to reappear as extras on moving day, and you get a GST invoice for it. If you are taking only the packing and handling your own transport, tell us at the survey and we will price only that.