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Thanks JanND, I posted back a few pages why that won't work:
cost to replace twin bed/new $500 Dyson vacuum, aprox $800. Can't buy mattress/boxspring used, potential bedbugs. Vacuum just a few months old, bulky, can't fit in car which will be full of electronics and clothes.
books have to go somehow. Cannot ship, too valuable. I've mailed 14lb pkags that have arrived torn open, re-taped by the p.o. so cannot risk shipping. Some of these books are long out of print, very hard to find you get the picture.
Driving truck or pulling trailer myself, recipe for disaster, can barely drive Corolla due to visual-spatial issues and concomitant neuroses
Waiting until Jan to go will be slow torture. I have a lease until JAN 31 also daughter in VA is due to deliver Baby no 2 Jan 9 and I promised to be there for delivery and take care of 2y/o while she's laboring etc.
FLA place will be cash purchase so won't be like paying a mortgage plus rent.
Hey, I'm back....I moved in October and as part of that, priced Pods and other such methods. they are expensive! Also, I realize that the suggestion to have your stuff delivered to Tallahassee and go get it is not really any better.
The stuff you listed would easily fit in a 12-foot trailer, if you can round up the good ol' boys with the truck and trailer.
1. most of these are rare, old expensive books (only possessions I have that I care about) that I'm kind of scared to ship, damage etc if box breaks. Also all hardcover and heavy, won't be cheap to ship.
Pack them better. They might be cheaper to ship than you think. Use the right kind of packaging material, thick cardboard shipping boxes, lots of tape on the outside of the box. You should pack it so well that it won't be damaged if the worker drops it 6 feet to concrete.
The USPS used to have a book rate. Don't know if they still do. But if you packed them well enough, and if they still have that rate, it might be a good way to go.
Also get insurance on the contents, from the USPS, or whatever shipping company you use.
If you ship them in a private small truck, what's to guarantee the truck won't be in a wreck? You can get better odds by simply packing them better and shipping them. There are all kinds of options, such as shipping them to someone nearby so you don't have to worry about being there to sign for them, shipping them to a storage locker, if the storage company allows that, shipping them with whatever kind of insurance makes the most sense, etc.
I once moved from New York to California, and shipped all my stuff to a friend there. The only problem was that I didn't pack them well enough, and some got broken. But if I had packed them better, it wouldn't have been a problem, and was much cheaper than I expected. But that was a long time ago. I don't know if things are different now.
Yes USPS still has book rate - it's called media mail. You can check online how much it'll cost (put zip codes, box weigh and dimensions, and it'll tell you exactly how much it is) - MUSH cheaper than any other stuff, but it has to be books only, you can't ship other stuff using this rate. Postage Price Calculator
I would still sell as much as I could and buy on the spot. As others mentioned, you can buy through Amazon and have your mattress shipped. Dressers and lamps can be bought on the spot - there are people living there, after all, they do have stuff they no longer use! there must be a local paper, put an ad - "single old lady looking to buy few basic pieces of furniture / lamps, decor", maybe you even meet a new husband... Kidding apart, stuff is replaceable, and with little money, if you are willing to wait a bit.
I haven't read all the pages yet, but if you're used to shopping at thrift stores, are you really going to be happy living 50 miles from any thrift stores? It would drive me nuts.
Do you have a relative who would be comfortable driving the Uhaul truck for you, even if you have to pay to fly them to where you are now, and then pay to fly them home from your new place? Maybe your son-in-law, a nephew, the grandson of a friend?
I couldn't tell if you meant your old place was upstairs or the new place would be. If the new place is downstairs, buy a flat furniture dolly (looks like a wood square on wheels) to move your couch and your beds. I had to move everything out of my house last summer and that dolly was a huge help. I'm still getting use out of it...put my dog's crate on it when we went to the vet, so I didn't have to try to lug around 50lbs of dog who was too sick to walk, for example. You can use Craigslist to hire helpers to load the truck for you, but it may be a lot more difficult to hire help unloading in the new, much smaller city, and that's where the furniture dolly would come in handy, because one person (the person you find to drive the truck for you) can move big things with it, as long as they don't have to go up more than one step.
ABF from NC to CARRABELLE $1300
from NC to their terminal in TALLAHASSEE $850
Terminal open M-F 8-5
Old Dominion from NC to CARRABELLE $2300
to closest terminal SYLVESTER GA $2018
The "good ol boys" (assuming I can find some to hire) driving a pickup w/trailer attached, round trip, is the way I'm going to have to go it seems. dlking58 like you say I think it'll all fit in a truck w/trailer.
To the others with suggestions (appreciated!), shipping the books scares me so, they are the ONLY thing I own I care about, many are rare and would be very expensive to replace, not because they're valuable "per se", like a first edition of say Uncle Tom's Cabin or anything like that, but expensive to replace as many are obscure and hard to find as the demand for them is so low. The kind of book that sells for say $100 on ebay but will be for sale for like a year because almost no one wants it, but the one person who does will pay that for it since they can't get it any other way. Out of print anthro texts, social science stuff, very old novels that weren't popular so not many copies printed etc.
If not for the books, bed, and Dyson vacuum too big to fit in the car w/electronics/clothes, buying the little furniture I need, down there, would be the way to go for sure.
But replacing even a TWIN bed like I now have, would be say, $300 for mattress and boxspring, and the vacuum was $500 so.
The more I think (obsess) about it, if I leave the sofa too (but it was a crazy good deal, high end leather I paid $250 from Craigslist) I could fit it all in a rented work style VAN.
I know that truck rental companies have lists of packers and loaders who will take care of this, but I don't know who would drive the truck for you. If you find a driver, we used the recommended loaders and unloaders when we moved and they did a good job. I would be afraid of Craigslist, but the truck rental recommendations are presumably screened.
Have you looked into the cost of a POD or a UPack? You could pack it, a little at a time, and then have it delivered to the destination, where you could unload it a little at a time.
That's not unreasonable, in my opinion, given the fact that renting a truck and driving it yourself is not an option.
You don't have to deal with finding and paying a driver.
You could save some money on movers by finding someone via a church (or something) to only load several of the heavy items, and then you load the books, packed in small boxes, via a hand truck.
Let's say, for example, you can't move the couch and dresser. Offer someone $20 or $25 to load those.
I also like the suggestion about buying the furniture movers. I own two, which I got from Menard's for around $20. They aren't expensive and those and a good hand truck, around $45 used, will make the job tons easier, if you really need to save money.
That was my mistake, however. I really needed to hire someone for about two hours on each end. I did most of it myself, excluding two heavy items, and I paid for it in terms of back and knee pain for about three months.
Otherwise, I like your idea about giving up the sofa and going with a van, although I would check your measurements carefully. I once moved a small sofa and a ton of books for a friend in a huge rental cargo van.
If I move locally, that's probably what I'll do: cargo van for one day, plus borrow the rental truck from Lowe's or Home Depot for 1 hour for the appliances, and pay someone to help me load and unload those.
Does the ABF quote include carrying all the stuff from the truck into the house? I kinda thought that kind of service was just basic freight only.
Sylvester Georgia is nowhere near Carrabelle.
Watch out about buying a hand truck. They are very handy but when the tires go flat you have to pump them up, and the tires have inner tubes in them. Which are hard to replace. Easier to buy the whole new tire, not too awfully hard to put them on. The wooden furniture movers are fabulous.
Remember if you get a cargo van you still have to pay the gas for that big engine. I know I keep saying it, but the nice guys from the church with a truck and trailer is your best bet. Otherwise you could end up with your stuff shipped to you for whatever cost, and you left trying to move and place everything. It sounded like you aren't really able to do much of that.
Driving the truck yourself...I understand your reluctance. It's kinda scary, especially on a trip that long. I did it once...a big uhaul truck from Atlanta to New Orleans. It's scary changing lanes on the highway, the truck is loud, the seat is not comfortable and those trucks are gas guzzlers. If I remember right, I had to put gas in that monster 3 times, at a cost of over $200. Plus, driving the truck doesn't get your car to Carrabelle.
I'm a little bit surprised that you are going all this without ever going to Carrabelle. It's rural. I was surprised when you said there was something that qualified as a condo in the town.
NO Those quotes DO NOT include ANY loading/unloading! So add to them the cost of paying loaders/unloaders. Ack
I am up stairs here in NC, and the stairwell has a turn in it, very tricky to move stuff through it as it is a "closed" stairwell as well so Meemur the hand truck/moving boxes myself won't work on THIS end but would on the other.
dlking58 I'm going there to see and I hope purchase the condo this THURS the 25-27.
Yep there are condos there, VERY basic units, like Spartan basic. That I'm looking at, that is; there may also be fancy ones but my max price is 30K so I didn't search above that. The one I'm most interested in is 28K asking and NO HOA fees. Mind blowing, that.
Rural, I am getting that as I learn more. One grocery, NO fast food etc.
Your idea makes the most sense and seems the most do-able.
I did get a very kind offer via PM from an older couple to drive the UHaul (or whatever) down for me, with the wife following in her car, for the return. But that still leaves me with hiring loaders/unloaders as they are older and cannot help with that part.
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also daughter in VA is due to deliver Baby no 2 Jan 9 and I promised to be there for delivery and take care of 2y/o while she's laboring etc.
