On the KejaMove blog
Heha Movers Has Kenya Talking About Moving — Here’s What You Actually Need When Hiring Movers
Heha Movers made “tuachie keys” a national joke. Here’s what a real professional move actually needs from you — and what you should never hand over.
If you’ve been on Kenyan social media lately, you’ve probably met Heha Movers.
The Kibera-based creators have turned a simple moving-company skit into one of the funniest trends online. Their proposition is refreshingly straightforward: you’re moving house, so just give them the keys and let them handle everything.
Actually, perhaps don’t stop at the keys.
They may need your laptop password.
And your safe combination.
Basically, don’t ask too many questions. Heha Movers already know where you’re going.
It’s obviously comedy, but somewhere underneath the joke is something almost every person moving house actually wants:
To hand over the problem to someone else and have everything taken care of.
At KejaMove, we can relate.
We just won’t ask for your passwords.
Why Heha Movers is so funny
Moving is one of those things that looks simple until you actually have to do it.
You have a house here.
You need everything in that house over there.
How difficult can it be?
Then moving day gets closer.
Someone has to find boxes. The TV needs packing. The bed needs dismantling. The fridge has to come down three flights of stairs. The sofa doesn’t seem to fit through the door it somehow entered through.
You need a truck, people to carry everything, someone who knows how to wrap fragile items, and a plan for getting it all to the new house without turning your dining table into firewood.
That is what makes the Heha Movers joke work so well.
They’ve taken all that complexity and reduced it to:
“Tuachie keys.”
If only moving were actually that easy.
The good news is that with a professional moving company, it should feel surprisingly close.
What should you actually give your movers?
Not your passwords.
Not your M-Pesa PIN.
Definitely not your safe combination.
A professional mover mainly needs information about what you’re moving, where you’re moving from, where you’re going and when you’d like to move.
For example, when preparing a home-moving quotation, we may need to know:
- Your current location and destination
- Your preferred moving date
- The approximate size of your home
- The furniture, appliances and other items being moved
- Whether either property has stairs, lifts or difficult access
- Whether you need packing and unpacking
- Whether furniture needs to be dismantled and reassembled
- Any unusually heavy, fragile or valuable items
From that information, a mover can determine the crew, packing materials, truck capacity, time and other resources required for the job.
That’s also why two people moving between the same neighbourhoods can receive different quotations. One might be moving a lightly furnished one-bedroom apartment while the other has enough furniture to make the truck reconsider its career choices.
What should a moving company handle?
This is where Heha Movers accidentally gets something very right.
You shouldn’t have to manage every detail yourself.
A good full-service moving company should be able to take responsibility for most of the physical work involved in relocating.
At KejaMove, depending on the service selected, that can include packing and wrapping household items, protecting furniture, dismantling items that cannot be transported safely while assembled, loading the truck, transporting everything to the new property, unloading, reassembling furniture and helping set up the new home.
Your job should increasingly become supervision rather than carrying boxes.
Ideally, by the time the truck arrives, there is already a plan.
The cheapest quotation isn’t always the cheapest move
Moving quotations can vary considerably between companies, and it is tempting to compare only the final number.
But ask what that number actually includes.
Does it include packing materials?
How many movers are coming?
Is furniture dismantling included?
What happens when you reach the destination?
Will the team reassemble the beds?
Are there additional charges for stairs or difficult access?
Is the truck suitable for the volume being transported?
And what happens if something goes wrong?
A KSh 15,000 quotation and a KSh 25,000 quotation may not necessarily be quotations for the same service.
Compare scope, not just price.
Please don’t pack your entire house into supermarket boxes the night before
You know who you are.
Moving always seems comfortably far away until suddenly it is tomorrow.
Proper packing makes an enormous difference to both the speed and safety of a move.
Fragile items need protection. Electronics need appropriate packaging. Furniture surfaces need to be protected from scratches. Boxes should be packed to weights that humans can reasonably carry.
And everything should be organised well enough that arriving at the destination doesn’t create a second problem:
Where on earth is everything?
Labelling boxes by room or category makes unpacking considerably easier.
If you’ve hired a full packing service, much of this can be handled for you.
Keep certain things with you
Even when using a full-service mover, there are some things we recommend keeping personally accessible.
Important identification documents, medication, phones, chargers, wallets, cash, jewellery and other small high-value personal items are generally better kept with you.
And yes:
Keep your passwords too.
Heha will understand.
Before handing over the keys, check who you’re hiring
A moving crew will potentially have access to almost everything you own.
Trust therefore matters.
Before hiring a mover, look beyond the social-media page.
Check whether the business has a real operating history. Look at customer reviews. Ask questions about the moving process. Make sure the quotation clearly explains what you’re paying for.
Be cautious about unusually cheap quotations where the scope of work is unclear.
You should know who is arriving at your home and what they have agreed to do before moving day.
So, can you really just hand over the keys?
Almost.
That is actually the standard professional movers should be working toward.
Moving house will always require some involvement from the customer. You need to decide what is moving, provide accurate information, arrange access and make decisions about your belongings.
But you shouldn’t spend moving day wondering where to find a truck, who is dismantling the bed or how six people are going to carry a refrigerator down the stairs.
Those are moving-company problems.
The goal is simple:
You make the decision to move. We handle the move.
Perhaps Heha Movers were onto something after all.
Just keep the passwords.
Actually moving?
Heha Know Everything. KejaMove Handles Everything.
If all the Heha Movers videos have reminded you that your own moving day is getting suspiciously close, KejaMove can help. Tell us where you’re moving from, where you’re going and what you’re taking with you, and we’ll help you plan the rest.
