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Some people have mentioned "pods". What are those? How do they differ from a moving company? Does anyone have experience with pods?
A friend of mine just moved in Feb of this year from Wisconsin to Florida. She rented a "Pod" and they delivered it to her apartment. She filled it up. Once she was done, they came and picked it up and drove it to her place in Florida. Once there, she unpacked it and they they came and picked it up. She said it was allot cheaper than hiring a moving company.
As someone mentioned up thread, when movers unload your stuff they do it at an unreal speed.
Many times when I've moved no matter how well I labeled boxes for whatever room, things went too fast and confusing with so many people moving stuff, and boxes got misplaced in wrong rooms and made it hard to find stuff later on.
So my last move, I bought cheap tape of various colors from the craft store or the dollar store, and each room got a different color tape on those boxes, then I gave a sheet of paper to each worker with the color key and taped the color key to the door they all entered, so they could easily tell where a purple taped box should go.
I still wrote what was in the box for my own knowledge, but the colored tape made it simple for the movers, and all the reds ended up in the kitchen, blues in master bath, yellow in garage, etc etc. made it much much easier and everything ended up exactly where I needed it. I didn't spend weeks looking for hidden boxes.
Also, after six different moves with major moving companies, we decided to use "Two Guys And A Truck" after hearing such good reviews. They were fantastic -- the best thing being that the same guys who load you are the same guys
who drive and unload you. They were calm, relaxed, and very helpful and thoughtful -- not like thugs in the mafia which some movers have felt like.
Everyone I know that used pods took more stuff than they needed " because there was room in the pod." Old brooms, yard tools when they were moving into a condo, and clothes for the old climate not the new one, etc.
My mother moved from a 3500 sf farmhouse to a 1500 sf villa. She did an estate sale and emptied the old house before moving. The villa was turnkey. This is the way to do it, if possible.
I moved 1250 miles on a 20ft rental truck last year. I did all the packing and moving. We purged quite a bit, but still too much stuff. I stuck it in storage and over a few months, I would go load up a few dozen boxes and unpack and place the stuff. I did not want to spend too much on storage, so I cleared it in 60 days.
Pods were too expensive for me. Rental truck was cheapest by several hundred. Pods are convenient and you don't have to worry about transit--but you pay more for that convenience. It comes down to how much you are willing to work. The more work you do yourself the cheaper it is....I had the strength and health (and grateful for it) to do it.
I bought a $170 COSCO aluminum, multi-position hand cart and 2 $20 roller carts--moved dressers, cabinets, desks by myself. Never again.
I had a moving company transport my stuff 1000 miles from Missouri to New Mexico. I drove with a carload of stuff. I stopped overnight at a motel and arrived at my new house 20 minutes before the truck-- which had made three stops in Texas to load and unload other people's stuff in Houston, Austin and San Antonio along the way. It cost about $5,000. I moved myself once and then had back surgery but saved a little on the move.
Pack and unpack yourself but let pros do the lifting and moving.
Just to expound on my previous post about how the Movers will pack your stuff....
My DW put all our Family Photos in a sturdy packing box. Framed Photos of our Wedding, Honeymoon, Birthdays and Anniversaries. all in a clearly labeled box. I know this because I personally handed it off to the Log Sheet Guy and watched him put a numbered sticker on it.
After the load-out in South Carolina, it took a few days for the dust to settle. It was then that we realized....the Photo Box was missing. We looked everywhere. Could not find it. My DW was devastated by the thought of some new Family somewhere gazing at our Life Story.
A few months go by, and on a warm February day, I decided to cook some Steaks on the Grill. I go outside to fire it up......and there was the Photo Box under the hood of the Grill. The Movers had saved space on their truck by putting the box inside the BBQ Grill. Those photos spent our first winter outdoors !!
Good thing it was a mild winter.
That's a funny story.....well....looking back on it...
DH asked one of his contacts in a moving company he uses in his project management for advice on moving. We were moving from NY to FL as snowbirds, knowing FL would be our permanent residence.
Her first piece of advice was not to take large furniture and buy it on the other end. Usually furniture in old, charming Northern homes won't look right in a modern, contemporary FL house. She was spot on with that: I see a lot of furniture down here in consignment/thrift shops that has been jettisoned after moving here. If your furniture styling is contemporary or antiques this may not apply. I liked buying pieces to fit the spaces here, not finding space for pieces I already had.
We were looking at Pods and she advised ABF UPack for our needs; they were cheaper and smaller units than Pods. ABF unloaded the unit in our drive, we loaded it over several days, they picked it up and delivered it to their FL storage area and then delivered it to our home when we called. Five years ago it cost $1800.
It worked well for us, the companies on both ends handling our unit were good. Check reviews.
We were in our late 50's and it was easy to pack it, but DH also has experience with packing and loading, so nothing was damaged. ABF will load these for a fee if that is wanted/needed.
We thought we would use another unit when we sell the NY house after snowbirding, but as time has gone by and our attachment to things are even less, we realized we won't need it. We've had the advantage of what I call a slow move. It's given us time to let go, something I wouldn't have been able to do in a short time.
We moved from California to North Carolina about 12 years ago. We took a lot of our stuff but did give some to neighbors and some to family. It cost us $17K to move all of our crap. That did not include the cost to ship both of our cars. Probably 80% of the stuff has not been used in our new home and sat for a long time in our garage (we could not even park in there because it was crammed with stuff) and was (and still is) packed away in our attic.
So like others said, get rid of it and start fresh in your new home :-)
We've moved cross country a few times and learned some lessons, just like NRaleigh Mom.
1) Keep only the furniture you are REALLY attached to and sell off the rest and buy new when you get there. First of all, furniture that looks good in Vermont will not look good in a California style house. Secondly, you will pay dearly to move that furniture across country and you could spend that money on buying new stuff.
2) Have a nice financial buffer built up because you will encounter a lot of unexpected expenses in the new place.
3) If you have one very good car, keep it and either ship it or drive it there, do not keep one that is not in great shape, the money can be put toward buying a better one when you get settled.
The only people who ever made out from our moves were the movers. We paid dearly to ship heavy stuff that we never ended up using again. If you haven't used it in a year, toss it or sell it off before you move.
I live in an apt complex and watched as someone was having their stuff loaded into a
"brand" truck. My impression is that a lot of moving companies....contract? hire? laborers to pack and load.
I approached the person who seemed the team boss and asked if she could/would take work on the side.
She said yes and gave me her number. If you want to hire a company to do it all incl one of their trucks fine,
but if you want help with the heavy work of packing and loading a pod or uhaul this may be an option, cuts out the middle man.
I bet 2 men and truck might hire out a team w/out a truck too since they only move local.
Or craigslist. Craigslist can apparently be a crap shoot but I've had some decent luck.
I am one of those stupid people with junk in storage I've paid a fortune for over the years.
The large unit was a mess and the only way I knew of to downsize is to first straighten it out.
I found 2 women on craigslist that spent an afternoon helping me organize. More money down the tubes and it
didn't really help (so the downsizing is really on point) but still they were reliable hard workers and nice to boot so craigslist can work. Its been awhile but if I can contact these women again when I move I will surely use them for packing and cleaning the apt. They were just two women looking to make some extra cash. I suppose liability is a concern for some. Depends on what you are asking them to do. I would use someone bonded for anything truly heavy (piano's) or expensive.
Boxes can be expensive! Around military installations you sometimes see boxes after someones move being sold for cheap or given away. Some of them are nice like the ones for hanging clothes, pictures and artwork. Not sure how you can tap into that without trolling neighborhoods looking for moving trucks, or again putting a request out on craiglist or freecycle or something. Be wary of bed bugs though (something that worries me just about the uhauls and moving trucks and just moving through stores and movie theaters!).
If moving furniture, appliances yourself you will need pad blankets and tons of tape. The dollar store for tape maybe?
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