Point A: severe, invalidating mental health issue, currently living in a crappy council flat, broke
Point B: moving to a slightly less crappy council flat.
Basically, all I have to move is: a single bed + mattress, a mini fridge, a mini oven, 2 large suitcases, around 4 or 5 large cardboard boxes full of stuff.
The Council said I might be entitled to all or part of the relocation costs but basically it's a lottery.
I've never done this before. I moved into my current flat with basically a suitcase.
I also must get rid of the existing stuff, or the Council will charge me.
Am I better off hiring a var and driving it myself or hire a team of people and do the job for me? The other flat is 25 mins drive away.
I only have a week's time to do that. Selling everything on Ebay is an option but in a week?
I literally don't even know where to start and my brain is f***ed up.
If you can manhandle everything by yourself, then I would have thought that renting a van is the best and cheapest option. If any item is too awkward to move by yourself, get a mate to assist, or, failing that, man with van (with you then as his assistant).
I've managed the equivalent of that by myself in a Citroen Berlingo - you could probably do it in one run. If you hire a van check the maximum load length for the bed - in my Berlingo car the passenger front seat folds flat giving the extra length.
He (she?) probably needs a hand given the amount - especially the bed - and there a probably stairs involved.
Therefore, a man with a van is probably the best solution. The move isn’t unlike a student move - some involve furniture - and they often use a man with a van if a parent isn’t available.
If the vehicle is too small, you can see how the bed takes up the space. Beds come in different sizes. Moving a big mattress, it helps to have two people to wrangle the load (you and the driver). For a small-enough (youth bed), you can load the bed yourself.
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"Make sure to load the box spring into the equipment you rented first. The box spring should be placed along the wall of the truck, van or trailer you are using. Load the mattress on top or against the box spring. This will provide the mattress more stability and help it maintain its shape."
When you look at the final load in the cube van, you'll wonder whether you needed all that extra space.
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But the extra space is to make it really simple to get the bed into the van. With a roomy van, this should take only one trip.
When you put the mini-fridge in the van, store it upright. Do not rotate the fridge, because the condenser tray could have water in it.
For a microwave oven, remove the glass tray and "ring" under the tray. Store those items in one of your cardboard boxes. Wrap and protect the items properly. This way, when the microwave oven is getting tossed around, there's no glass tray to get damaged. The "ring" with the wheels, must be treated with care, as they are easily damaged.
Any items with wheels on the bottom, could shift while the van is driving. You must arrange the items in the van, so stuff cannot move around. Normally, if you have enough boxes of heavy books, this isn't a problem. If you have very few personal items, it's harder to keep the load stable.
The man driving the van, should know how to secure a load. But you can remind him. If items roll around inside the truck, they could get damaged. And you don't want that.
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And don't do it this way. You say the trip is 25 minutes, so you are on a highway, and the wind gets underneath the mattress and bends it. Roof racks have relatively low weight ratings and cannot take heavy loads.
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Don't forget to tell the management at both the departure location and the arrival location, what day and hour you are moving. Sometimes the driveway is not available for deliveries and so on, and the correct time must be arranged at both ends. The van driver does not check this, and the van driver expects you to phone the people and prepare them for your move. For example, in apartment buildings, you have to "book an elevator" for your move, and these are arranged by hour-of-the-day.
That much stuff sounds self movable in one day, but only you know if you could do that or not. We don't. Keep the fridge upright all the way if it's a compressor type. If it's ammonia or peltier it won't care. Freegle, freecycle, facebook groups are all good ways to give stuff away beforehand.
If you can afford it use a storage unit and a team of people. Any kind of move is stressful, and hence anything that can be delegated or made to last a bit longer is probably worth the money, of course unless you are broke.
It depends on how fit you are. I can't see anything in your list that looks onerous to move depending on which floor you're going to and from. If you can garner some help then a van for a few hours is the most affordable way. If not there are men with vans for hire and if you're willing to help it should work out fine.
You might find the requisite answers on a local Facebook group.
Those places often have men and vans lurking around, eg as 'rubbish collection' services. It sounds like it would be a straightforward job for them. Some of them can be somewhat dodgy characters but hopefully not a problem if you ride in the van with them (it sounds like the stuff isn't valuable anyway).
A couple of other tips. If you're forced to move things single handed, a good trolley can make a big difference - eg a 'sack barrow' for moving heavy things. I've moved washing machines and similar by myself with one of those.
Also, what I used to do for end of term moves as a student was put everything in a box and post it to myself at the other address. eg a 30kg box with Parcelforce collection is now about £15 for 48 hour delivery (as long as it's not 'oversize'). At the time they didn't collect, so I would take it to the post office and then head for the station. When I got to the other end the box would show up a few days later.
It's beds that are a fucker. Even singles. And wardrobes and large bookcases, though if they are the flatpack type you might as well pull them apart and chuck them as they will fall apart anyway.
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