Local Moving company with storage option (Boston: apartment, movers, house)

[Sainexile]

Need to make a local move within Boston. Looking for a reliable and inexpensive mover who could also store our stuff for a month between places. Any tips or leads?

[kmann-sherborn]

What about PODS?

[SoFresh99]

We used ABF pods and they are $125 a month each to store. We hired a guy from Craigslist who had a listing labelled "green jobs for veterans" or something like that. He was Stephen Cho. He showed up when he said he would with another guy and charged us $50/hr for two guys. We had a huge house and they loaded 2 pods with tetris-like precision for $250. It was awesome. We had them come back a month later and load our other two pods. My husband supervised and decided when to tie down what but Stephen and his friend did the lifting and loading. You put your own locks on and keep the key.


We are finally unpacking the pods in Ohio that we packed in November in Mass and since we packed them to the gills and used lots of tie-downs not a single thing has been broken. ABF has also been amazing to work with. We have had a very complicated moving scenario (staging the house into pods, storing them, moving into two more pods, storing them, then shipping the whole she-bang and storing them here, then partially unpacking only two pods, putting them back in storage, etc.) and every time we call ABF no matter who we talk to they know exactly what is going on. Plus they are in a later time zone so we can do all of our calls and logistics after work which really helped.

It was also really cheap in the end, compared to long distance movers. Make sure your order more pods than you need since you only pay for those you use and they deliver and pick them all up once included in the base price.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

We used ABF pods and they are $125 a month each to store. We hired a guy from Craigslist who had a listing labelled "green jobs for veterans" or something like that. He was Stephen Cho. He showed up when he said he would with another guy and charged us $50/hr for two guys. We had a huge house and they loaded 2 pods with tetris-like precision for $250. It was awesome. We had them come back a month later and load our other two pods. My husband supervised and decided when to tie down what but Stephen and his friend did the lifting and loading. You put your own locks on and keep the key.

This is a really economical way to move which is definitely growing in popularity. Just keep in mind that it costs less partly because you're taking on more risk. If some guy from Craig's List drops your 60" TV or it breaks because it wasn't packed correctly then you're SOL.

One thing I do really like about the POD method of moving is that you can take your time loading up the POD. You don't have to feel like the move needs to be done in a single day. After my last move though, I swore I would never be involved in moving myself again. Next time I move, I'm hiring a full service mover and they're going to do everything. The time before I did everything and this time I only packed myself but moving is so time consuming and I did break a few items unfortunately.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Do you need a permit for the pods?

[SoFresh99]

I had a driveway so I don't know. You'd have to call your town. ABF lets you have 2 business days I think, so we always went with friday drop off pick up tuesday.

[mcj79]

I used ABF for my move from the Midwest to SoCal a number of years back. (Our move from SoCal to NH was full service covered by my wife's company. So, I don't have experience with the local offices here.) I will say that ABF was super easy to work with and helpful. I actually loaded all my stuff into the box at there distribution center near my town. (Some of the smaller offices don't deliver, but I had friends willing to work for pizza & beer. Plus it was only a 1 bedroom apartment worth of stuff.) I had cross country transportation & home delivery + up to 30 days of storage for about $1000. On the SoCal end they delivered it to my driveway and I had 3 days to unload with out paying any extra fees.

We may be moving again soon and it will likely be on our own bill. I am totally planning on using ABF again. Though this time we might be using a full truck instead of one box. Also, ABF and a number of the other 'self moving' companies will contract out with other companies for packing and/or loading & unloading. I am planning on doing all my own packing, and loading boxes/smaller items and then adding a few hours with of professional loaders & un-loaders via ABFs referral services.

Best of luck to you!