Packing and Unpacking Services in Dubai

The half of the move most companies skip

Unpacking is not a small tail end of the work. In most homes it takes longer than the loading and the driving put together, because every item has to be handled again, decided about and put somewhere. A moving crew can empty a three bedroom in Mirdif into a truck in a morning. One tired couple doing the same volume in reverse, in the evenings after work, will still be at it three weeks later.

In Dubai the timing makes it worse. Moves cluster into the last few days of the month because that is when tenancy contracts end. So the same week you are unpacking, you are also cleaning the old place, sitting through a handover inspection, chasing the refundable deposit your building held, closing DEWA at one address and opening it at the other, and sorting the new Ejari. Boxes lose that competition every time.

So we treat the unpack as part of the same booking, with the same crew and the same supervisor, either on the day of the move or the day after. It is the easiest hour to justify in the whole move, because it is an hour you were going to spend yourself.

Useful links: DEWA move in and move out and Dubai Land Department.

Why we unpack the kitchen first

There is a right order to unpacking and it starts in the kitchen. A kitchen is what turns an address into somewhere you can live. Once the kettle, the plates, the pans, the cutlery and the bin are in place, you can eat and make tea in your own home that night rather than eating takeaway off a box.

Beds come next, because a made bed at the end of a moving day is worth more than a tidy living room. The crew rebuilds the frames with the fixings taped to them, the mattress covers go in the bin, and the bedding goes on. Then bathrooms, so towels, soap and toothbrushes are out and the shower is usable. Wardrobes follow, with hanging clothes lifted out of the wardrobe cartons on their own hangers and hung straight up.

Living areas and studies come last, because those are the rooms where you will want to make the decisions yourself. Books go onto shelves, screens onto stands, and anything you would rather place personally is left unwrapped and stacked neatly in one spot. Children's rooms we usually do just after the bedrooms, because a child with their own toys out settles into a new building far faster.

Full unpack, partial unpack, and the handover walk through

A full unpack means every carton is emptied, every item is put away and we leave with all the cardboard. It suits families, anyone with a deadline at work the next morning, and anyone who has just landed in Dubai and wants the apartment finished rather than started.

A partial unpack is the more common booking. You pick the rooms that matter, usually the kitchen, the bedrooms and the bathrooms, and everything else is placed in the correct room, unwrapped and stacked low for you to work through. It costs less and it still removes the part people dread.

Either way we finish with a walk through. The supervisor goes room by room with you before the crew leaves, so anything in the wrong cupboard gets moved while the crew is still in the flat. That is also the moment to note any damage on the delivery sheet. A mark reported on the day is straightforward to sort out. One reported a fortnight later is very hard for anyone to verify.

Cartons, recycling, and what a pack and unpack costs

Empty cartons are the part nobody plans for. A three bedroom home produces a stack of flattened cardboard taller than the person carrying it, and in a tower you cannot leave it in the corridor or beside the basement bins without hearing from building management. We take ours away, either at the end of the unpack or on a return visit a few days later. Cartons still in good condition are kept for reuse.

The price is built from the volume of your home and from how much of the unpacking you want done, which is why we survey first. These are the things that change it: