Moving to Finland

We’d like to know the origin and destination of your move, and most importantly the reason of your move. How did you experience that?

The place of origin were I departed from was Liège in Belgium, in the Wallonic region, and the destination where I moved to was Turku in Finland. The reason for my move was due to my profession. My contract in Belgium was finally finished, I didn’t want to stay there and I accepted a job offer at the University of Turku, Finland. I was looking forward to finally leave Belgium and start a new project in Scandinavia. Therefore, the experience was very positive, but of course, I was also nervous as it means a new start at a new destination again.

Choosing a good moving company is painful, we know that. How did you manage to find the perfect one among the thousands of existing ones?

There were in fact not a lot of options. From Sirelo I only received one real offer and not as promised five. There was a second company contacted by Sirelo, but this Belgium mover never contacted me, nor did it have a website. Luckily the only real offer (MoveMaster) had very good critics and also made a very good offer. Searching for other companies, didn’t result in anything comparable to MoveMaster. The only other company I found that made me an offer was twice as expensive. Moreover, the contact person from MoveMaster was very professional and answered all my questions immediately. Thus, it was not a difficult decision.

Take us through the moving day – did everything go as planned?

In Belgium the staff arrived 15 minutes late, but since they come from Brussels and the traffic is often horrible, this was no problem. They were very friendly and quite efficient but also very chaotic. They wrongly numbered the boxes, skipping two times a number, which was very confusing when the boxes arrived in Turku, as I thought they lost part of my belongings. Only after opening all the boxes, I could be sure that they didn’t lose anything. Also, the labelling of the boxes didn’t match the content quite often. The furniture was also not disassembled but only wrapped in bubble wrap, resulting in the destruction of my wardrobe. Besides this, they worked quite efficiently.
At the destination in Finland everything was perfect (except for the stress due to the wrong labelling in Belgium, and the reveal that my wardrobe was completely destroyed due to poor packaging in Belgium). They came perfect on time (even a bit earlier) and worked in a fantastic way. Also, here the staff was very friendly and very efficient.

 What are 3 tips that you think could help others make their moving day less chaotic?

1. It was for sure helpful that I already packed a few things before. If you still have the original boxes of certain items, they are very useful. Thus, I could already place all my consoles, the TV and certain statues in their original boxes, saving the staff some time and also secure important items in the best way.
2. I already packed a suitcase the day before the movers came with all the things I needed myself. I also placed the most important documents in my backpack and didn’t send them with the company. Once the movers came, I had all the things I still needed myself already put aside.
3. Help of friends/ relatives. My family helped me to move already certain things (especially clothes) beforehand to have enough clothes in the time while the items are transported.