Get an early idea of your moving costs

Knowing roughly what your move is likely to cost — before you start calling movers — makes the whole process easier. You'll budget more accurately, and you'll be able to tell a genuinely good quote from an inflated one once you start comparing.

How to do it

1. Get a rough sense of typical pricing for your situation. Local moves are usually quoted hourly, long-distance and inter-island moves by volume and distance — see our removalist costs guide for realistic ranges by house size and move type, or calculate your own moving costs for a range based on your own details.
2. Start deciding what's actually coming with you. Volume drives price more than almost anything else — a smaller, decluttered load can genuinely cost less to move, even over the same distance.
3. Set a rough budget now, before quotes start coming in. It's much easier to judge whether a quote is reasonable against a number you set calmly in advance than to work it out on the spot.
4. Bookmark a shortlist of movers to actually get quotes from once you're ready — see the mover task for what to check before confirming a booking.
5. Budget for more than just the removalist. Packing materials, a possible storage or accommodation gap, and connection fees for utilities all add up alongside the move itself — worth setting a wider moving budget, not just a removalist one.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until you're comparing real quotes to think about budget at all — by then it's harder to tell a fair price from an inflated one.
• Assuming cost scales only with distance — volume, access, and timing all move the price as much as distance does.
• Not decluttering before getting quotes, then paying to move things you were going to get rid of anyway.