Need some advice on how to do a low-budget move. (50+, state)

[M3 Mitch]

Originally Posted by NYgal1542

Great questions. I am 75 and after reading some posts, I realize I need to sell all and start over in the new place. My stuff is good but older and truthfully I don't really want to pay what it would cost to move it. I moved to TX from NY in 1993 and price was $1500. Coming back a year later even tho I had given away some things it cost $2000. So I have a really good idea that taking my stuff with me is not a good idea.

I do lift but pay a price later. Carrying a distance would not be good.

I've been looking online at apartments near Spartanburg, SC and see some that are appealing and within my price range. But am realizing my two cats wouldn't be able to come with me which is not a happy thought. Most apartments in SC ask $300 deposit for each cat and monthly rent ($20). No, I don't want that extra cost. But I might get lucky and find an apartment that doesn't charge that much.

This may seem foolish to some but having to leave my cats might keep me here where I am now.

It does not seem foolish to me at all.

You may find a house to rent that might be more cat-friendly.

[bigdogmom13]

Originally Posted by NYgal1542

This may seem foolish to some but having to leave my cats might keep me here where I am now.

Not to me!! My animals will ALWAYS come with me. (I'd love to retire to Mexico but the logistics of bringing 3 cats is too overwhelming so I'll just have to vacation there.)

I'm planning to use PODS (or the U-Haul equivalent) when I move/retire. We will get rid of most of the furniture but there are some pieces I'd like to keep. I will also hire a couple of workers to do some of the loading/unloading.

[ansible90]

I second the idea of reading the General Moving forum. I read that a lot before I moved 3.5 years ago.

As to all the suggestions of schlepping boxes yourself, please let's remember this is the retirement forum. OP is not 35 anymore, and neither are most of the people who post here. How you did it cheaply 20 or 30 years ago is not relevant.

But it is possible to hire movers for a couple hundred dollars at each end to pack/unpack a POD or small rental moving truck. When I was getting ready to sell my house and move, I hired a company for an hour to move some items to a storage unit -- they sent 5 guys, cost me $95 and they were done in less than an hour. What looks like a major job at our age is like nothing to a team of strong young men. So you are not paying for that many hours of their time.

I did pack all my boxes when I moved, but I wasn't the one who moved them.

[matisse12]

5 moving guys for one hour for $95 is amazing!

Often only two guys are allotted, and some outfits have a minimum of two hours.

[evening sun]

Call around, if you are moving any kind of distance, movers might be cheaper than u haul. We moved about a year & a half ago, the rental truck mileage charges made them too expensive. We found a moving company who moved our few bits of furniture that we were taking, for less than the price of uhaul. We dumped a lot of old furniture. Moved some boxes in our car. PODs were also very expensive.

[ansible90]

Originally Posted by matisse12

5 moving guys for one hour for $95 is amazing!

Often only two guys are allotted, and some outfits have a minimum of two hours.

They were in the phone book.

[gunslinger256]

depending on how much stuff you've got, it can be expensive. If you're willing to leave your extra stuff and live a minimalist life style, throw all of your most prized possessions into whatever you have and hit the road.

When we were planning to relocate, our initial thought was to just leave in the car with the clothes on our backs and whatever fit into the car and buy what we needed when we finally settled. While this can be expensive, it might work out if you choose to live minimalist.

In the end, my wife's new job paid for relocation expenses and I believe the cost for pro movers packing all of our junk into a moving truck and going across the country from NY was around $10k. We ended up throwing out or donating more than 50% of what we moved even though there was 2 dumpsters of trash and mountains of donations prior to moving.

Planning the move would be much better. I had 3 months to clean up our house, redo 2 bathrooms and list it for sale so not as much planning as I would have preferred.

[Clemencia53]

good luck NYGal!

I agree with getting rid of everything! Check out the buy/sell pages of your future home town and see what they have. Give you an idea of how much it will cost to replenish furnishings. You can find brand new inexpensive beds and mattresses for example.

Just fill up the car and take off.

[pikabike]

What distance, what size of apartment or house moving from and to, what vehicle do you own, how much work are you willing to do yourself, etcetc.

I was a “have-not” who moved as a young adult from east coast to CO, apartment to apartment. I packed my stuff and had it freighted to my new place. The truckers picked up from the old residence and delivered to the new place. Took about a week, I think. I might have had to carry all boxes down from my 3rd-floor apt to the front of the building, and then carry them up the 3 floors to my new apartment, but I didn’t care. It was affordable. Of course, I had packed and taped everything myself, too.

I had already driven my small truck west, found an apartment, and flown back east to pack and arrange everything. Then flew back, timing my arrival to be a little before the boxes were estimated to arrive.

Later moves were local, so I rented a cube van to move most stuff, then hauled the rest in my own pickup truck. Or I made repeated hauls with just my truck. CHEAP either way; short distance moves are easy.

Still later, when I was more of a “have,” my husband and I still packed all our own boxes, loaded and unloaded them, AND drove the U-haul trucks ourselves. This was MORE work than freighting had been. However, I actually enjoyed driving the U-Haul truck so much that on the first big move (CO to WA) I drove the U-Haul for both the first and third cross-state drives, plus I drove my own pickup pulling a light trailer for the second cross-state drive. My husband drove his two vehicles on separate occasions for the rest of our move.

When we moved back from WA to CO, we each drove the U-Haul truck on separate cross-state drives, accompanied by the other driving his or her own truck, plus a final trip on which we actually both were in the same car! As before, we did all packing, loading, unloading, and driving ourselves, and we are 60-ish years old.

So really it boils down to how much work are you willing to shoulder yourself? If you don’t have a partner, you can still pack everything and drive, and just hire a strong person to load and unload at each end.

A long-distance move is going to be expensive no matter what, assuming you have more than one carload of belongings.

[parentologist]

I did a move cross country cheaply when I was a student. I found a moving company that would do partial loads. I had to wait a couple of weeks for my stuff, and they lost a table, but it was cheap.