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Hi... We are moving from a house to an apartment for 4 months (and then to a house again 4 months after).
Our apartment won't be big enough for our house belongings, so we are investigating self-storage for the stuff that won't fit in our apartment (but that we will want to eventually ship to our new home). [We'll be donating/selling as much as possible, but will still have too much leftover for the apartment.]
We could even just store everything and rent furniture for the apartment (though I bet cost would be prohibitive).
I will be using movers to actually move the stuff between house-apartment and house-storage.
Has anyone had to do something similar between houses?
What might be the most cost-effective approach?
What questions should I ask self-storage places?
Are there major differences between the traditional storage and mobile storage options? (I have been reading in other threads about things like "PODs" but maybe they wouldn't be applicable here since I can't do the heavy lifting)
[Has anyone had good experiences with self-storage options within a 20-mile radius (or so) of Blue Bell, PA? I don't know the first thing about these places, so I'd prefer to have references (or know where to find them).]
HUGE thanks to anyone who can give guidance. I'm struggling with what's most cost-effective while still being "effective".
PODS would work even though you can't do heavy lifting. The company will deliver the PODS to your location for them to be filled. You can negotiate with many moving companies a lower rate if all they have to do is move the stuff from the house to the PODS. I actually know someone that did this.
POD rental was cheaper than other storage facilites and I believe the moving company sent 2 guys over and charged like $200 for like 4 hours needed to put the stuff in the PODS.
Once everything is in there the company will pick up the PODS and store them for you for as long as needed. You can have access to your stuff by calling them and letting them know you will be going over and they will bring your PODS down if stored high to make them accessible to you. Then, when you are ready to move to the new home, the PODS company will deliver them to the house and again you can work out a deal with movers to unpack the PODS and settle the items in the house and then have the PODS picked up.
Your best bet is to price it out. Contact some PODS places and get quotes, then contact moving companies and get quotes from them for just loading and unloading without transporting explaining you will be using PODS.
PODS would work even though you can't do heavy lifting. The company will deliver the PODS to your location for them to be filled. You can negotiate with many moving companies a lower rate if all they have to do is move the stuff from the house to the PODS. I actually know someone that did this.
POD rental was cheaper than other storage facilites and I believe the moving company sent 2 guys over and charged like $200 for like 4 hours needed to put the stuff in the PODS.
Once everything is in there the company will pick up the PODS and store them for you for as long as needed. You can have access to your stuff by calling them and letting them know you will be going over and they will bring your PODS down if stored high to make them accessible to you. Then, when you are ready to move to the new home, the PODS company will deliver them to the house and again you can work out a deal with movers to unpack the PODS and settle the items in the house and then have the PODS picked up.
Your best bet is to price it out. Contact some PODS places and get quotes, then contact moving companies and get quotes from them for just loading and unloading without transporting explaining you will be using PODS.
Great ideas. Thanks a lot... gotta price this stuff. So many options!
Some moving companies will work with you, either recommending or storing items for you, and doing the second move. They'll give you a quote for everything up front, so that all you have to do is call when you have your dates finalized, and they'll send out a crew to help you move from apt. to house and bring in the stored items as well. My parents moved their items into the basement of the home they were buying, and then hired movers to come and move the items upstairs once they were able to live in the house. (The people they bought from were building, rainy summer and were a few weeks behind. My parents closed on the house, put their stuff in the basement and the people rented back from my parents for 6 weeks). Moving company was very flexible and easy to work with.
We are awaiting job transfers to Raleigh and so moved from a rental house here (we sold in 2005, thankfully) into an apt-no garage. So, we rented a 8x10 storage unit from 'Extra Space Storage' which costs us $71 per month. We have used and like PODS, but found that it was more expensive for storage than the one we got. The advantage of PODS is that you will only have to move your stuff once-vs the storage unit, where you'd have to move it to and from the unit.
Thanks, wanderintonc. Our latest scenario has us having movers move our stuff to a local self-storage unit on the same day they move stuff to our temporary (and smaller) apartment.
In getting quotes, I didn't realize moving (the moving day part) was quite so expensive, whether local or long-distance. Then again, the last time I did it as years ago.
And I'm seeing self-storage is ridiculously cheaper than storage in-transit (when movers hold on to it for 4 months). A little more work/hassle, but so much cheaper.
Probably won't go for the PODs at this point (though your points are well taken). I'm running out of energy to look at options.
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