Which of the following is better when moving?

[Rabrrita]

CD has a forum just on Moving. There are hundreds of post related to which is best, why, good experiences, bad experiences, etc. They even have some posters who are in the industry that give info on what to look for in contracts, insurances, state regulations and so on.

[MortonR]

I've used UPack for several cross country moves and always been pleased with the results. We also hired professional loaders to load and unload, money well spent. Very little in the way of damage any time we've done it, and having professionals do the loading and unloading not only saves backs, it makes it go a lot faster and they can typically get far more into the available space than you ever would. There's always one person on the crew who has the "tetris" skills - ask who it is as soon as they arrive and make sure they're the one supervising the load-in.

RM

[marianneb77]

Originally Posted by GotHereQuickAsICould

The crew that loaded us acted more like people fulfilling terms of their probation rather than actual movers.

Thanks for the laugh, that cracked me up! But also sorry for your experience and appreciate the warning.

Thanks everyone for your responses! This forum is so helpful and has given me a lot to consider. I love the thought of people packing everything for us, but don't love the cost, so doing a good chunk of it ourselves is probably the better route. We do have stuff in a small storage unit too that complicates things, but I guess we'll have to bring it all home so everything is in one place at least. I thought PODs would be a good move, but that may end up being the most expensive, and we can't really move all the furniture ourselves...plus I don't think there's a single POD big enough for a large house so we'd probably need 2. Too complicated.

[johngolf]

If you have ever watched professional movers pack a truck you will realize an amateur has no idea how to properly pack a truck/POD.

The major (nation wide) moving companies will not raise fees in the middle of a move. A lot of the lesser companies will. Stick with the big 3-4 nation wide moving companies. In my last major move I used Allied Van Lines. There were two brothers that packed us up, drove to our destination, and unpacked us 2 days later (Boston to SC).

A few years back I did use a local company to move me from Charleston SC to Columbia SC but I had asked around about them and got good recommendations.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by marianneb77

Thanks for the laugh, that cracked me up! But also sorry for your experience and appreciate the warning.

Thanks everyone for your responses! This forum is so helpful and has given me a lot to consider. I love the thought of people packing everything for us, but don't love the cost, so doing a good chunk of it ourselves is probably the better route. We do have stuff in a small storage unit too that complicates things, but I guess we'll have to bring it all home so everything is in one place at least. I thought PODs would be a good move, but that may end up being the most expensive, and we can't really move all the furniture ourselves...plus I don't think there's a single POD big enough for a large house so we'd probably need 2. Too complicated.

In my previous post I might not have been clear - we always packed our own stuff but employed professional loaders to load the truck. That's because we usually had a month or two before the move to do it, so we can do it leisurely and take our time. A good source for reasonably priced boxes is Lowe's. They offer "regular" and "heavy duty" versions of all sizes, so you can be selective about what you're getting a box for.

Moving companies have people like this on staff, or contract them. If you have time to plan, call some local movers and ask them if they hire out their crews for loading. These are the folks with the "Tetris" skills that can make stuff fit like you or I could never imagine. Realize that they're rarely moving every day, so if you can coordinate with them to load on an "off" day they'll be glad to have the work.

We did a 28' UPack trailer for one move, and the loaders we used got the contents of a 4,000 square foot house into the trailer - barely. There is no way we could have done this, and would likely have ended up leaving things behind.

RM

[ChiGuy2.5]

Originally Posted by goldensky

In the case of moving out of state(long distance, between states), moving goods are moved and stored in a warehouse for about a month, and then unpacked at the house to be moved into.

1) In case of using PODs: After calculating the price, it seems to be about $1,500 cheaper than a moving company.

2) In the case of using a moving company : The moving company has a truck come, load the luggage, store it in its own warehouse, and then release it to the house on the move-in date. Wouldn't moving furniture or something like that go bad during unloading and re-loading at warehouse? Another thing I'm worried about is, if the moving company goes wrong, won't they charge more in the middle or make a mess?

Which of the two above is better?

In regards to #2, I don't think they unload the trailer. They drop the trailer on location. So instead of being stored in a POD, your stuff is being stored in a truck trailer. We used this method once and some stuff went missing during that time (including my N64 system and accesssories which was fairly valuable). It's possible it was stolen some other time during the move though.

I would choose movers over moving stuff myself every time, especially for an extra $1,500.

[Beachbum808]

Proper packing AND loading is critical. Properly packed and secured, movement will be very minor throughout the load, which, in addition to reasonable padding, is what will prevent damage during transit. You do not want empty space to allow boxes and large items to shift within the container/truck.


Depending on distance/cost of the move, consider lightening the load of heavier but easily replaced items, especially with no sentimental value.


Check your documentation to see if there are storage charges and time restrictions at the receiving end, particularly if shipped to a major terminal/port.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by Beachbum808

Proper packing AND loading is critical. Properly packed and secured, movement will be very minor throughout the load, which, in addition to reasonable padding, is what will prevent damage during transit. You do not want empty space to allow boxes and large items to shift within the container/truck.

Depending on distance/cost of the move, consider lightening the load of heavier but easily replaced items, especially with no sentimental value.

Exactly. Boxes, packing peanuts and bubble pack are cheap. Buy lots of it and be generous in it's use. It's money well spent.

We had a large library at one time, so in an effort to cut down on moving costs, we did a part of the move ourselves and moved most of our books in our own vehicle.

RM