When moving to Atlanta, my girlfriend's company had arranged for our stuff (okay, most of it was her's if I'm going to keep it real) to be moved down from Maine. We had nothing to worry about. The second time around was a different story. We had to figure out the move ourselves.
I contacted one place (first mistake) and realized we probably would need to shell out over a thousand dollars to for them to come in, pack everything, and drive it to Raleigh. My next thought was "can we do this ourselves for cheaper?" The answer to that was yes, but then I realized that I had no way of knowing the best way to get everything, and we have to do it all again over the next couple weekends.
In short, we should have just shelled out the cost and hoped for the best. Nicole, you were right, as usual.
Where is this going? As humans, we tend to want to do whatever we can to make our lives that much easier. Also, we tend to try to reap financial benefit from the work that others don't want to do.
Look at blue-collar jobs, like plumbing or HVAC technicians. They put in the time and effort to learn about systems that most people would take for granted on a day-to-day basis. They make a good living out of fixing pipes or maintaining ventilation ducts.
Okay, but what about other services? Unfortunately, these days, the schools don't teach you how to do your taxes or write a resume that doesn't blow chunks, or how to make adjustments to clothing. So we take those services to accountants, professional writers, or tailors. Don't even get me started on wedding planners. Some couples NEED to talk to them to make their big day go smoothly for one reason or another.
There are a lot of things that we don't do frequently enough to know what the heck we are doing. Some things are just best left to the professionals so that you don't have that headache down the road.
If you need to hire a professional to help with anything, do it. Is it the cheapest way to do things? Hell no, but what is a fair price for your sanity?
