New research from Airtasker has found that Aussies can expect to spend around 720 hours, or 30 days, of their life moving house.
Surveying 1,000 recent movers, it was revealed how many moves Aussies will make in their lifetime and how long the process really takes.
The process of moving house when buying or selling a single property can drain up to 86 hours.
Packing and unpacking was the single biggest time drainer with Aussies spending an average of 14.8 hours on it per house move.
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New Airtasker research has found Aussies can expect to spend around 30 days of their life moving
Source: Airtasker
Removalist Rodrigo Navarro echoed that packing and unpacking was the lengthiest task.
“Most people underestimate how long it takes,” he said.
“Hiring a professional removalist is one of the biggest time savers.
“Sometimes with another team that are not professionals, they take two full days that can often be done in a few hours or maybe less than a day with the proper team or company.”
A 147.52 hours may be lost when looking at the total house moves in a lifetime.
House-hunting followed close, taking around 12 hours on average per move, while preparing the old home also takes up nearly half a day with cleaning and readying a property taking 11.4 hours.
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Packing and unpacking was the single biggest time drainer with Australians spending an average of 14.8 hours on it per house move
In a state by state breakdown the estimated lifetime cost of moving was the highest for WA $204.4K followed closely by SA at $204.0K and NSW at $194.0K.
In a breakdown of the total cost of moving house by state in a default buyer scenario, total cost was the greatest for VIC at $62,493 followed by SA at $56,115 then WA at $50,724.
“I would say in cities like Sydney with more high-rise apartments, strict loading times and parking restrictions which increases labour time and in regional areas, distances are much longer so fuel and travel become a bigger factor for sure,” Mr Navarro said.
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Source: Airtasker
The surveyalso factored the emotional cost of moving with challenges such as physical exhaustion, stress, emotional exhaustion, or feeling overwhelmed to loss of community and support network.
There were a couple of tips Mr Navarro said could help a seamless moving process such as preparing an essential box and labelling everything back room by room.
“Then when you go to the new place house or apartment whatever you’re moving to you have everything clear and it will save a lot of time for yourself as well,” he said.
“Have everything organised, packed, everything ready to go if they don’t want the packing to be done by the movers basically have everything organised so the team company can go straight in grab everything take it at once and that’s it.”
Nine out of 10 Australians handle at least part of their move themselves, without hiring extra help, and over a third (36.8 per cent) do the entire move without professional assistance.
Hiring a professional can reduce the average time spent moving by 80 to 90 per cent, equivalent to up to a day’s worth of time, according to the research.
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Source: Airtasker
In reality the entire moving process costs Australians an average of 4.45 days of leave from work.
Over half, or 54 per cent, of Aussies who went DIY on at least part of their house move wished they had paid for more help when moving.
Regret was highest among those who partially DIY’d their move, with two-thirds of Aussies surveyed paying for some services but later wishing they’d paid for more.
Airtasker allows Aussies access to help for every and any task before, during and after moving on just one platform, helping avoid burnout, delays and the regret of trying to do too much alone.
“Airtasker is a really good platform which connects a lot of clients with companies and creates a good environment of business,” Mr Navarro said.
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