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I've done it both way and can honestly say that it depends on your situation on whether the additional cost of hiring a moving company is worth it to you, but I can say that doing it yourself will always be cheaper. If you're older or don't get around particularly well, you don't want to be moving boxes, furniture, and other things out into a moving van. Maybe the thought of driving a U-Haul-sized van makes you nervous. That could be another reason to hire a company. If these apply to you, then you may think that hiring a moving company is worth the extra money even for a short distance move, such as across town or to a neighboring city that may only be 15-20 miles away.
Even though doing it yourself is already cheaper, there are some ways to make it even less expensive. If you have multiple dealers in your area for U-Haul, Penske, or Budget, check out the other ones that might be a little farther away. Often, you'll get better deals by just shopping around, even if you only look at multiple U-Haul dealers for example. If you can play the companies against each other, they will often match or even beat the other's quote. Personally, I would prefer Penske over U-Haul or Budget. I've never actually used Budget though so I can't actually say anything about them. I prefer Penske because they offer a AAA discount and a military discount. They also of offer unlimited miles so if you have to make multiple trips, it's not a big deal as long as you return the truck on time. Last time I moved, I used Penske and got a van and a car hauler for 4 days for less than just a truck at U-Haul. The only downside for my most recent move for Penske was that I had to drive about 35 miles to pick up the truck and car hauler and then once I got to my new place, I had to drive about 25 miles more, while U-Haul had dealers in the immediate area in both places. If you aren't able to move everything on your own, U-Haul and Penske usually have moving services where you hire a couple people or however many you need and they can load the truck for you. Depending on how far you move, you might be able to use the same people to unload also, but you can just get more if you move farther away. In my area, Penske actually didn't have any available when I loaded my stuff, but a lot of home improvement stores will often have people there wanting to do work for a few hours.
Exactly! We are moving from the Chicago suburbs to the Las Vegas area and I will be getting quotes to have a moving company do it. We have gotten rid of a lot of things but still have furniture we want to bring with us, about a 2 BR home's worth.
With that stuff, two cars, and a dog I just want the movers to take the furniture and I will ship one of the cars. We will then drive the other car with the dog and make a little trip out of it.
I've done some rough estimating and the costs for the movers and the auto transport should be in the $6K range, which is fine. Well worth it to me to not have to do any of the heavy lifting.
Do you have any family friends that you trust enough to let drive your other car for you instead of shipping it? Then you'd just pay for gas, hopefully buy them food along the way, and a plane ticket back home, which will be cheaper than shipping the car. I don't know if you have any experience shipping cars or not, but a lot of them will have you deliver your car to them, or they'll pick it up, but they won't move the car until they have a full truckload going to your area so the wait can be somewhat lengthy for your car to arrive. If you have a friend, or perhaps another relative, drive it, then you can also use that car to transport some more of the smaller things, which will cut down some on the cost of the movers since most of them charge by weight. That is assuming the car is in good enough shape for the drive of course.
is shipping all my belongings in a shipping container cheaper? Some things can fit in my car since I'd be driving. Perhaps it's cheaper to just sell furniture off and buy new ones instead of holding on to these? I live in a studio apartment so that would mean all my stuff could fit in a van or a Uhaul hauler that could be attached to my car with a hitch. Not sure if this would be a strain to my car.
Well since this thread is open I have a question..
I'm moving from WI to Goodyear AZ. I have about 2 flat screens 2 queens size beds no frame just mattresses a stove and some clothes.. should I hire movers? I've heard of having our things shipped but I'm all new to this.
If you're renting a truck, ask the person to help you with the return destination. I saved a few hundred bucks returning a truck to DC instead of Arlington. It was crazy. I think this may work with rental cars as well.
is shipping all my belongings in a shipping container cheaper? Some things can fit in my car since I'd be driving. Perhaps it's cheaper to just sell furniture off and buy new ones instead of holding on to these? I live in a studio apartment so that would mean all my stuff could fit in a van or a Uhaul hauler that could be attached to my car with a hitch. Not sure if this would be a strain to my car.
Look into it. It depends on distance but my friend used it to store her stuff for a few months before finding another house to buy and it worked out cheaper and better than renting a storage unit and a truck to load it into the truck unload to storage unit then rent a truck again and load it into truck and unload into house.
Another thing is instead of attaching a uhaul to your car consider also renting a car dolly to tow your car from a small uhaul truck. We did that with several vehicles.
After moving myself over several weeks using uhaul's I would reconsider getting rid of most of my furniture and buying new as after about 6 months that is what we ended up doing anyway.
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