Moving Help Needed (to rent, movers, how much)

[pamptrecy]

We can't afford to hire one of the big moving companies. Our plan was to rent a Budget truck and hire movers to load and unload us. Problem is the biggest truck we can rent is 24 foot. We have a car to pull behind it so we can't rent an additional trailer. I just don't think we can fit all our stuff in a 24 foot truck. We have 3 bedrooms, computer room, upright piano, 3 sofas, outdoor furniture, garage and shed to move. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe we should rent space in an ABF truck and then see if we could rent a car carrier and my in-laws could pull that down with their Suburban. The car does not run...it's my husband's project car so it can't be driven down. Also, does anyone know of a place we can hire some guys to come and unload us? Thanks!

[Cheri89]

Hi,

We just moved and rented a Uhaul truck. We rented the 26 foot truck. Uhaul, in my opinion, is much better than Budget. The trucks are much lower to the ground so the ramp is not as steep and they use regular gas, not Diesel. We have rented both, and prefer Uhaul over budget...plus you get the extra 2 feet and the space over the cab. We packed that truck from floor to ceiling (appx 9,000lbs). On Uhauls web site, there are options when you make your reservation to hire movers for both loading and unloading, and they list their hourly charges. We never used that service, so I cannot attest to it, but it's there as an option and i am sure if you call Uhaul, they can tell you more about it.

Cheri

[pamptrecy]

How much stuff did you move? Do youthink we'd be able to move everything in a 26 foot truck? Thanks!

[Theresejenkins]

When I moved I used Budget and asked the clerk if he knew anyone who wanted to work for $10/hour to help unload and there were two guys there that jumped at the chance. The next morning they met me there and it worked out great!

[Cheri89]

Originally Posted by pamptrecy

How much stuff did you move? Do youthink we'd be able to move everything in a 26 foot truck? Thanks!

We moved 2 full bedrooms (1king set/1 full set), dining room set, office, outdoor furniture, contents from a 10 x 15 storage unit (full), washer/dryer, a great deal of kitchen/crystal stuff....about 15 dishpacks worth and a lot of military stuff. All our furniture is large. To make more room, the things we could take apart we did, to include dining room chairs and table. Our set is huge, so we needed to take it apart, except the hutch. We used the really large items like armoires (3 of them), dining hutch, box springs, etc to make walls within the truck and packed the truck in sections, so how you pack the truck makes all the difference. Without knowing how much stuff you have I couldn't tell you if it would all fit.....I can just go on our estimate of about 9,000-10,000 pounds, but there was not any room left when we were done, and it was packed from top to bottom. Having most of your smaller things in boxes helps too with being able to use the space more efficiently. Hope this helps some.

Cheri

[OleTomCat]

The last big move I did I use U-haul, rented their 24' and a 12' trailer behind it, had three bedrooms and computer room, and all the amenities along with a couple of motorcycles.

[devilsdcb]

try upack.com

[emilybh]

Originally Posted by pamptrecy

We can't afford to hire one of the big moving companies. Our plan was to rent a Budget truck and hire movers to load and unload us. Problem is the biggest truck we can rent is 24 foot. We have a car to pull behind it so we can't rent an additional trailer. I just don't think we can fit all our stuff in a 24 foot truck. We have 3 bedrooms, computer room, upright piano, 3 sofas, outdoor furniture, garage and shed to move. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe we should rent space in an ABF truck and then see if we could rent a car carrier and my in-laws could pull that down with their Suburban. The car does not run...it's my husband's project car so it can't be driven down. Also, does anyone know of a place we can hire some guys to come and unload us? Thanks!

I used ABF for my move down here. They are great! You can hire movers at either end to load and unload and still save a bundle as compared to hiring a national moving company. The only thing I'd do differently is either rent or buy some of the quilted furniture blankets to put around your good furniture. I noticed Home Depot sells them. The movers i hired to load just used some cheap thin paper that only had about an 1/8 inch insulation and some of my furniture got scratched in the move which could have been avoided, had they been better protected. There are SO MANY movers down here. I ended up calling Best Moving Company to unload when another local mover (I think Allegience) with whom I'd arranged ahead of time to unload the truck kept putting me off for days(for more profitable moves i guess). Best was great! They wanted cash upfront but only charged about 1/3 of what the rip-off people who loaded me charged and there were four (not three of them). They came on-time (and this was over the Christmas Holidays) and they unloaded everything in just a few hours (where it took all day to load).