Look, we get it. Moving yourself seems like the ultimate money-saving hack. You just hire a truck, buy your mates a few pizzas and some beers, and knock the whole thing out in a Saturday afternoon, right?
Well… maybe.
The reality is that a DIY move can quickly turn into a massive headache. Without the right gear or experience, it’s incredibly easy to damage your furniture, scratch the rental truck, or completely throw out your back. But if you’re fully committed to the DIY route, we want to help you do it right.
As local removalists, we’ve seen it all. Here are our most honest, real-world moving yourself tips to help you pull this off without a hitch.
1. That Rental Truck Isn’t As Big As You Think
Most people head straight to places like Hertz or snag a free van deal from a place like Storage King. But before you grab the keys, you need to know the limits.
- The Size Trap: The biggest truck you can legally drive on a standard car licence is usually an up to 20m³ vehicle. That sounds huge, but it fills up fast. It’s perfect for a 1-bedroom apartment, but it’ll be a very tight squeeze for a 2-bedder. If you have a 3-bedroom house, just accept right now that you’ll be making multiple trips.
- Want Bigger? If you want a massive truck so you only have to do one trip, you’ll need a mate with an MR (Medium Rigid) or HR (Heavy Rigid) licence – and those trucks cost a lot more to rent.
- The Fuel Bill: Fully loaded moving trucks swallow diesel. Budget for about 20-25L per 100km, especially sitting in Sydney traffic.
2. Check the Floor (Seriously, Do This)
Here is one of the insider secret moving yourself tips most first-timers don’t know: check the floor of the truck before you drive away.
A lot of rental trucks have checker-plate steel floors. They are great for hauling bricks, but they will absolutely chew up your furniture. Sliding a wooden cabinet or your nice couch even a few inches across steel checker-plate can leave deep gouges or rip the fabric.
Professional removalist trucks (like our Ultimove fleet) use smooth, polished (ideally wooden) floors so heavy items can slide safely. If you’re stuck with a checker-plate steel floor, you’re going to have to physically lift and place every single item perfectly.
3. The Gear They Don’t Give You
A rental truck is literally just a metal box on wheels. It comes with zero moving gear. If you want to move safely, you have to shell out for the equipment yourself.
- Moving Blankets: You will need way more of these than you think to protect your stuff. (You can price them out at places like Packstore).
- Dollies & Trollies: Do not try to carry everything by hand. Rent or buy heavy-duty trollies or your back will hate you tomorrow.
- Tie-Down Rails (Crucial): When you inspect the truck, look at the inside walls. If they don’t have built-in rails to hook your straps onto, do not take the truck. Without rails, your load will slide around every time you hit the brakes, and things will get smashed.
- Furniture Straps: Skip the bungee cords and ropes. To keep things from shifting, you need proper straps – aim for at least 10 for a standard move to cover any stacking gaps. You can check some out here or hit up Bunnings. Pro-tip: Make sure the heavy metal buckles aren’t resting directly against your furniture, or they will scratch the wood!
4. Packing: You Need More Boxes Than You Think
- The Math: A standard 1-to-2-bedroom place takes about 25 to 50 boxes. A 3-bedroom place? easily 50+.
- The Plastic Tub Trap: Let’s talk about those cheap plastic storage tubs from places like Bunnings or Kmart. They seem like a great idea, but the plastic is brittle. If you stack four of them in a bouncing moving truck, the bottom one will almost always shatter under the weight. Flimsy supermarket cardboard boxes do the exact same thing – they just crush.
- The Solution: If you are buying boxes, spend the extra cash on heavy-duty, twin-cushion cardboard. Even better? You can actually hire our crush-proof reusable plastic moving boxes. They are commercial-grade, stack perfectly without breaking, and yes – we rent them out even if you are doing the actual moving yourself!
- Protect the Bed: Buy a heavy-duty mattress protector or shrink-wrap your beds. The inside of a rental truck is filthy, and you don’t want that dirt on your mattress.
(Need help getting organized? Snag our free Sydney Moving Checklist here).
5. Winning the Sydney Parking Game
Sydney parking rangers do not care that you are moving. Double parking is a massive fine waiting to happen.
- The “Two-Car” Trick: If you have street parking, park two of your own cars nose-to-tail in the spot you want the truck to go, ideally a day or two early. When the truck rolls up, move the cars.
- Talk to Strata: If you’re in an apartment, you usually have to pre-book the loading dock or other designated area and get the service lift locked off if possible. Sort this out weeks in advance.
(For similar advice check our Moving within Sydney Guide).
6. Playing Truck Tetris: How to Actually Stack It
Stacking a truck safely takes us years to master. For a beginner, it’s a giant, frustrating puzzle. Without an introduction into this game a moving yourself tips guide would not be completed.
Pro-Tip: If you have mates helping, assign one person to stay in the truck as the dedicated “Stacker” while everyone else acts as the runners.
- Work in Walls: Don’t just throw things in randomly. Build “tiers” (or walls) from side to side.
- The Heavy Base: Put heavy, square items (like chest of drawers or washing machines) on the bottom to form a solid base. Blanket every single item.
- Box it Up: Stack your boxes on top of that solid base, and shove soft things (like bags of clothes) into the gaps at the very top.
- Strap It: You have to strap every single wall tightly before you start building the next one.
- The Fridge: Wrap it in a blanket and strap it flat against the truck wall. Make sure absolutely nothing sharp (like the leg of a dining chair) is pointing at it, because fridges dent incredibly easily.
- Tvs & Art: Wrap them thick, and strap them with the screen/glass facing flat against the wall of the truck.
- Outdoor Gear: Keep your BBQ, dirty pots, and outdoor furniture right at the back doors. Don’t mix dirty garden stuff with your clean living room furniture.
7. Tailgate Lifts Are Your Best Friend
Professional removalist trucks usually have custom “walk-up” ramps so we can run trollies straight up into the back saving lots of time.
Rental trucks almost never have ramps. Instead, you have to deadlift everything from the street up to your waist. To save yourself a trip to the chiropractor, make sure you hire a truck with a hydraulic tailgate lift. It takes a bit longer to operate, but using a machine to lift your washing machine or fridge into the truck is a lifesaver.
The Final Verdict: Is DIY Actually Worth It?
After reading those moving yourself tips, you probably see that in theory it is a doable job if you have the patience, the physical strength, and a couple of really good mates.
But once you add up the cost of the truck hire, the diesel fuel, buying moving blankets, renting trollies, and the sheer exhaustion of carrying a fridge up a flight of stairs… a lot of people realize DIY isn’t the bargain they thought it was.
If you read through these moving yourself tips and thought, “Yeah, absolutely not,” we’ve got your back. Get a free quote from Ultimove right here, and let our crew handle the heavy lifting, the truck Tetris, and the Sydney traffic for you.