Has anyone ever made a long distance or cross-country move?
We are currently attempting to move our lives from California to the DC area and it is proving rather difficult. The cost for a U-haul truck or trailer is astronomical. On the move to CA we were able to rent a trailer because we didn’t have any furniture yet and all of our items were new in boxes or in storage here.
Many people suggested we just ship everything as freight but we soon learned that wasn’t going to work either. All of your goods have to be boxed, put in crates, and shrink-wrapped which is not very realistic.
The other option is to hire a moving company and we have received about 11 quotes so far. They want to know how many boxes we will have. How exactly do you know how many boxes you will have when you haven’t even started packing?
A co-worker suggested getting a Pod because they can be sent on a truck anywhere you want at your convenience. Of course, for a one bedroom apartment with only a few pieces of legitimate furniture the price was unreasonable as well.
Are we missing something? It seems like people move all the time so it shouldn’t be as difficult as it is proving to be.
Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated!
Sometimes I think maybe the Beverly Hillbillies took the best approach.
Keep pricing out moving trucks and get creative. Several years ago for a move from Boston to New Mexico, we ended up booking the rental truck out of North Carolina and flying down to get it – which saved us probably $1500 because of the high moving truck rental costs in Boston. It adds more time, but remember – unlimited mileage can be your friend!
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Growing up in a military family, and now being a military wife, moving has always been a part of my life. In fact, I am moving again in about two weeks!
Honestly, the key to a sucessful move is organization. Take this time to purge your household of all unused items. Trust me, this alone makes a huge difference when you are moving.
I can’t help you when it comes to the most cost effective ways to move. However, it seems that moving in general is expensive. It may be cheaper to move yourself, but you are then responsible for doing all of the packing, loading, driving, unloading and unpacking. A moving company can save you all of that trouble plus they become responsible for making sure your household goods arrive safely.
You will want to transport all of the goods you need to set up house until the movers arrive with your shipment. I pack these in Rubbermaid tubs that are numbered and use Excel to create an inventory. You may also want to create a household inventory and photograph your household items in case they are damaged in the move.
Like I said, the key to an easy successful move is organization. Good luck!
Twitter: @EthidiumBromide
Every time I have moved, or someone I know has moved, we’ve done one of two things:
1) Leave furniture behind and buy new at destination — sell it on Craiglist, give it away to friends, etc… but for most non-treasured, expensive furniture, it can be cheaper to buy replacements at your new location.
2) Move yourself. We’ve always had a group of our friends come over, help us load up the Budget truck with all our furniture, boxes, etc., and then one person drives the truck and the other drives the car… and then we unload at the new location on our own.
Moving yourself is by far the easiest and most economical option (I know you mentioned the cost was astronomical, but every time for us, it has been less than half the cost of any other option because you are doing the work yourself).
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I’m with MG in being a military bride. Organize and PURGE! Once you’ve cleaned out and purged, you may be surprised by the reduction in number of boxes needs (thus space, weight and cost). No point in paying extra to ship 2 boxes of old magazines etc. Also like MG, the military does a pro move for us, but if it was just us, we would POD it I think. Also, check into student movers and/or packers. The starving students might not be the way to go for the full move, but they might come pack up your stuff well for cheap. Then you know how many boxes and whether or not to get a uhaul or a moving company.
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Twitter: @sugarbellesouth
Camerin, I will find myself in the same situation this time next year. When I moved to CA, I literally brought my Civic packed to the brim. When the Mr. moved out, he brought a rental truck. We’ve talked extensively about the same options you’re debating. Granted we’re not sure where we’ll land (if NYC is the answer, the plan will definitely change), we’ll more than likely be renting a truck. The only difference this time is that we plan on taking our time getting back (maybe a week instead of 4 days) and making a little explore-America trip out of it!
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I didn’t do a cross country move but a 350 mile straight NORTH move was enough for me. We did the U-haul van and yes, it was stupidly expensive. I agree with pp and suggest purging as much junk as you can. We got rid of a few ugly pieces of furniture by selling on Craigslist before the move, then hunted around up here for newer/moving friendly pieces.
Good luck!
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waaa xD I am moving to Norway from Argentina in about 6 months. My solution is more like “leave the old behind”… I don’t think I will be taking too much with me… and what’s absolutely necessary, I fly there, but yeah, it’s hell expensive, so I guess I’ll have to get super picky @_@
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I moved from DC to Seattle last summer and paying for movers was by far the best option. It was cheaper than U-Haul and about the same as a Pod, but less work. It was under $3000 and totally worth it!
Twitter: @mrslimestone
I don’t have any experience of moving as an adult but we moved a bit when I was growing up. Moving it yourself is really the only way to do it affordably. As long as one of you can drive a stick shift, just rent a big truck and pack it tight.
Oh yea, throw out EVERYTHING you do’nt absolutely need. I did this when I moved 5 blocks so I’d definitely suggest you do it too. Packing and unpacking is the worst part – the less there is, the better.
Twitter: @amiatead
when we moved from south carolina to chicago, we did it on our own – rented a truck and off we went. i can’t remember how much it was but it can’t have been too awful or i WOULD remember!
i know you are in central california now, where are you moving to?
Purge first, but then I’d try calling around to some of the other pods moving companies. PODS is expensive and their pods are huge so they may not be necessary. Try a national company like Door to Door – http://www.doortodoor.com who offers smaller pods which makes them a bit more flexible (and cheaper.) They can also pack your stuff for you. We used a local pods company and they’ll be the first one to get a call if (when!) we move again as it saved a lot of time and effort.
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My husband and I recently moved from Chicago to AZ. We just got married in November so we kept everything that we got at our shower in the boxes they came in. We had the basics in our small one-bedroom apartment, but we held a garage sale to try and sell as much as we could and donated the rest before we moved. We only moved a few pieces of furniture. We priced out UHaul, movers, PODS and UPack relo cubes. UPack was the cheapest and most convenient option. Since we had to live in temporary housing for two months before we closed on our house, we filled up one cube with the items we needed right away, and the other cube was the rest that was able to stay in storage in AZ and then delivered to our new house. We loaded up a small UHaul truck to move the items we had in temporary housing to our new house which cost us about $50 including mileage. The relo cubes are smaller than a pod, and if you order 3 and only use two they will just pick up the empty one and only charge you for the cubes you use.
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