Moving to Portland - Advice please! - Oregon (OR) - Page 3 - City-Data Forum

sergeim105 · 03-28-2011, 04:59 PM

Thanks for the posts, just to reiterate I will be living without a car and already have a job.

Also, I switched to a 12' Penske truck which was cheaper than Budget. Penske is also also the only place that actually reserves you a vehicle, not just a price!

I'll update more later, actually driving in early next week, and will then go apartment shopping around town! See you soon Portland!

Nell Plotts · 03-28-2011, 05:14 PM

Penske is a good company, their vehicles are much more reliable than U-Haul.

You might ask if they have a fenced area where you could park the truck for a couple days while you search for an apartment. I don't think the St. Helen's Road facility is entirely fenced, but the one on Canyon Road might be. Then you rent a car for your apartment search. Another option would be to park it in one of the fenced u-store it places but then you would be paying both for truck days and storage days.

Oh, the city charges for reserved moving van space on the street in the city center. Getting that permit is a PITA.

sergeim105 · 03-28-2011, 06:30 PM

Nell, That's a good idea, I've been worrying about having a truck in town for a few days with nothing but a lock.

Any other experiences or thoughts on where to park the van legally and safely would be appreciated.

philwithbeard · 03-28-2011, 09:13 PM

On craigslist dot com, for the Portland area, across the top is abbreviations for counties around Portland. Multnomah County is basically the City of Portland.

Look under Services and click on Labor & Moving.
You should be able to find a helper mover for around $20.00 (USD) per hour, but you may have to accept a $40.00 (USD) minimum charge.

Get rid of the Truck. Use the Helper to unload the truck at a self-storage place.

There are a few storage facilities that offer a cheap intro offer, but discount kicks in on 2nd month rent. U-Store near I-84 and NE 28th street is an old warehouse converted to U-Store Lockers indoors. Local moving helpers all know the ropes to get around in that place and the elevators (or other places you can find.)

When you find your place, and are ready to move in, rent another truck and move in as needed. At YOUR convenience, not with truck rental ticking.

The point of all this extra effort is the size of truck you're going to move your stuff from storage locker to new apartment. Once in the city of Portland, driving a truck through the streets is PITA; not the least, you will be new in town and will not know the streets. Get the smallest truck you can drive and make several trips over one trip in a big truck.

Be aware there are a couple of franchise public storage places all over town that charge a lot of money to store your stuff, ignore them. Use Google to find cheaper places.

this may not fit your needs, but I offer it as an option to consider.

Nell Plotts · 03-28-2011, 09:29 PM

The first thing is to ask Pensky if they have a fenced area you can park the truck in for a couple days. They may be able to recommend a place if they can't provide a fenced area. Pensky is primarilly interested in preventing theft of their vehicles, not their contents. I wouldn't leave it in a hotel parking lot anywhere. If nothing else back up the truck to a wall or other fixed object where a thief would be discouraged.

If unloading to a storage unit then moving your stuff into an apartment isn't a big hassle for you that could be an option too. I stored my Mothers things at Downtown Self Storage at NW 13th & Johnson, their place is like a vault; that same operation has a place at 13th & Davis. I notice that there is also self storage at Pearl Self Storage on NW 16th & Overton. Willamette Valley Moving also seems to have storage at 3055 NW Yeon. We used that firm to move some of our stuff last year and I couldn't speak more highly of their service. The nearby U-Store Self Storage on NW 29th is also an option. None of these offer fenced parking for your truck.

Enterprise rental car usually has decent rates, try them first. Once you have a place Zipcar offers short term rentals, they do have trucks. Based on our experience with Willamette Valley Moving I would give them an opportunity to provide a quote.

Drive safe.

sergeim105 · 04-08-2011, 07:11 AM

The move is complete, we stayed in a hostel in the NW area on 18th, the moving van fit (very tightly) in their parking lot. The next day we had pre scheduled 6 apartment viewing. The next morning we signed the lease of the one we.liked the best (tough decision) and moved in the same day. They had an adjoining garage that we parked the van in while we unloaded, so there was no hassle. Everything went great, so no complaints!

philwithbeard · 04-08-2011, 08:19 AM

Gee, with good luck like that, do you give out lottery numbers?

Welcome to Portland. Just don't mind the cool wet spring so far. Weather will get better.

Nell Plotts · 04-08-2011, 09:07 AM

Congratulations on a smooth move. I know that hostel, it is quite close to several large churches. Share our opinion of their facilities for others who may consider the same approach.

A NW apartment with a garage that can accomodate a moving truck (even a small one), THAT was a find!

sergeim105 · 05-08-2011, 11:09 PM

PDX has been everything I was hoping for, my girlfriend got a job starting a week after mine did, the NW International Hostel was very nice and accommodating, been living without a car no problem, MAX or biking to work, plenty to learn, do, see. No bad experiences, good times. The worse thing so far is the street kid / bum population, but I do my best to ignore it.