Introduction
We’ve moved three times within the UAE so far. That is if you don’t count the numerous moves between different hotels, while we were homeless, but that’s a different story…
The first move from the hotel room to a one-bedroom apartment only involved the two backpacks we flew to the UAE with. Easy. Unfortunately, UAE rentals here are generally unfurnished and even lack a cooker, fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine, so we had to accumulate quite a few things in the first year.
So the second move to a two-bedroom villa involved a lot more stuff, but we still decided to do the move alone. We rented a van and lugged everything ourselves. Seriously. Only consider this if you’ve got the time and lots of excess energy. It was not an easy ride in the summer heat. Note: Don’t forget to get yourself a trolley to move the heavy stuff!
The third move involved moving everything we had accumulated in a two bedroom villa to a two bedroom apartment on the first floor. No elevator. One thing was for sure: we had no time, and absolutely no energy, to move all of that stuff this summer. Instead of hiring an expensive moving company, you do have the option of hiring workers and a truck – if you consider this option, I’d recommend that you ask people for reviews, and meet with these guys to see if they have any experience and if you can communicate. A serious language barrier and complete misunderstanding of what you want them to do can make the whole situation even more difficult on your part. I looked but didn’t get any reliable recommendations, so I got moving companies to quote.
We got recommendations for two moving companies: E-Home Moving Company and E-Office. If you do some reading online, you’ll see that they are really the favorites here. I called both and had them visit to give a quote. When they come to quote, make them aware of any handyman work you need them to do, e.g. removing curtain rails, disconnecting the washing machine, etc., as this may cost extra. They both offer to disassemble and pack everything, and unpack and reassemble everything at the new location; they also provide all packing materials. Delight quoted a lot more than E-Home Moving Company for the same job, with no explanation for why, so we went with Emovers.
I can honestly recommend Emovers:
- They came for the inspection out of hours, as I couldn’t make it during the day.
- They always responded to emails and phone calls asap, to answer any queries.
- They came out of hours to collect credit card payment.
- They advised on all documents I required to facilitate the move and allow their truck to enter the communities we were moving out of, and into, without any issues.
- They arrived on time, disassembled and packed up the house in approx two hours, drove to the new location, and unpacked and assembled everything in approx. 2 hours. The 7 men worked as a perfect team. I had to do nothing.
- Turned out the TV didn’t fit in the truck, without the risk of it being damaged. No problem. Another small vehicle was there within 15 minutes to transport the flatscreen telly, VIP. No extra cost.
- I arrived home to a set up apartment with nothing to unpack. Amazing.
I seriously hope that our next move will involve only our two backpacks. But if we have more than that, I’d go with these guys again. It saved me a lot of stress, time, sweat and tears.
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