Packing It Yourself vs Hiring the Crew: An Honest Comparison

Packing is usually 20–35% of a moving quote, so doing it yourself is the largest single saving available. Here is the honest accounting on both sides.

What you save

On a 2BHK local move, self-packing typically saves ₹3,000–₹6,000. On a long-distance 3BHK it can be ₹10,000–₹18,000. Real money.

What it costs you

• Time. A 2BHK takes a crew of three about six hours. It takes a couple working evenings and weekends around ten to fifteen hours, spread over a week or more.
• Materials. You still have to buy them, and buying retail is more expensive per unit than a mover's bulk rate. Budget ₹2,500–₹5,000 for a 2BHK, which eats into the saving.
• Risk. Most transit damage to fragile goods is a packing failure. Crews pack badly rarely; first-timers pack badly often, mostly by overfilling large cartons and leaving voids.

The insurance consequence

This is the part people find out too late. Goods packed by the owner are excluded from most transit policies, because the mover could not inspect what went into the carton or how. If you pack your own crockery and it arrives broken, the claim will generally fail — not as a technicality, but because the policy never covered it.

So the real question is not "can I pack this?" but "would I accept losing this with no compensation?"

The split that usually makes sense

Most people should not choose one or the other.

Pack yourself: clothes, books, linen, shoes, toys, kitchen utensils, non-fragile miscellany. Low risk, high volume, and this is where most of the saving is anyway.

Let the crew pack: crockery, glassware, electronics, mirrors, artwork, lamps, anything you would be upset to lose. It is a small proportion of the volume and almost all of the risk.

Ask for a partial-packing quote. Most movers, including us, will price it that way, and it usually captures 70% of the saving with 20% of the risk.

If you do pack yourself

• Small cartons for heavy things; large cartons for light things
• Fill every void — nothing should move when shaken
• Tape the base in an H pattern, not a single strip
• Label two sides and the top, with the destination room
• Do not exceed what you can comfortably lift
• Tell the mover which cartons you packed, and expect them noted as owner-packed on the inventory. That notation is honest, not hostile.