Did you use U-haul, U-box, (other) box containers for moving?

[geekette]

I’d like to know the cost of pods or uhaul movIng also.esp with load/unload service but Where I packed myself. Several neighbors used pods but they loaded themselves.

I think Pack Rat had this service, optional on both ends.

 

[geekette]

I thought moving my mother's furniture and stuff would be expensive but it was less than we estimated

3 bedrooms, living room and dining room, kitchen stuff and 40 boxes -- Northern Va. to a town west of Chicago - 4,000 lbs. - $3,100 United Van lines

I honestly did not look around a lot, picked a few and they were all past $5k. I wondered if there might be a 'mountain fuel surcharge' built in.

 

[geekette]

Also with Pods, if you are having them store the pod container and you think you may need access to your stuff, they will store it where they don't have to move too many other pods to get access to yours. If I remember, they still charged a little to allow me access, but at least I did have access. You retain the lock, so no one else will be able to mess with your items.

You can rent the moving blankets, or buy them pretty cheap at Harbor Freight is you think you will store for a while. I think the pod people will also rent them and drop them off with the pod

Some of the pod type services include the moving blankets in each cube. It might have been UPack?

 

[geekette]

Does a 1000+ mile move change what any of YOU think/factor in?

I work in a Grocery Store, and can get some quite Good Boxes.
(I know some companies want you to use THEIR boxes)

If we end up having 200 of 'my grocery' boxes, plus 30 medium/Large pieces of furniture/things----
Who do I use to bring THAT 1000+ miles?

Thanks

Mileage matters. I would book unlimited miles 5 day one way truck from Penske.

 

[geekette]

I see if I can find the name of the company that did our cross state move. We moved from a 4600 sq ft home, only half the furniture as we left the rest for whoever was going to buy our home and some for my son, the estimate was like $8.5K. After the move, we got a $3K refund. They went by weight and apparently they over estimated the weight in the initial quote.

Sort of found it. The connection was through our ex-company and a service offered to retirees and we got a 10% discount. We worked with customer services in MSS (mss1.com) in conjunction with Suddath (Suddath.com).

Yeah, I like that! I recall weight mattered, no appliances going with me. Thanks!

 

[sue1947]

When I moved a couple years ago, I looked into all of these. I decided that I was no longer willing to the heavy lifting of loading the pods myself. Between hiring somebody to do the lifting, plus storage costs, the Pods wasn't any cheaper than the local company. And I just didn't have much confidence in the experience level of the people I would have to hire to move the furniture into the pod. The local company has been around forever and has a good reputation, which they want to keep, and they know what they are doing. They also are connected with a national company for longer moves. I also needed it stored for an unknown amount of time while I looked for a new place. I packed up the fragile stuff myself and moved it to my mother's garage and then let the movers do everything else. I was happy with the job they did. They were professional and did a good job of protecting things. I packed boxes myself to cut costs and got rid of a bunch of stuff, but not enough.
Check for referrals from friends for the local companies that have been around a long time. Ask about storage; is it heated, is there a minimum fee/time?

Sue

 

[WinniWoman]

One other thing- we did move some things in our 2 cars ourselves. Obviously things like important documents that were in our small home safe, money, jewelry, laptops, some clothes and toiletries, cleaning items to have on hand until the rest was delivered. Stuff like that that you would not want to be lost or stolen.

To move from NY to N.H. it was just under $4000. United Van Lines affiliated company.

( the local move so think was something like $2500+. Can’t remember. Local company.

 

[bogey21]

We do not DIY and instead we use services like Two Men and a Truck for local moves and other services for cross state moves. We think it is worth the cost as they breakdown furniture and put them back together and it saves our backs!

For local used Two Men and a Truck; for short distance but not local rented from Penske and did our own packing loading and unloading; and for a multi state move used Mayflower, a big time moving company. In all cases we we satisfied with choices we made...

Loved Two Men and a Truck but if you use them be careful to work with their facility closest to your beginning or ending location as their charges were partially based on distance from their location to ours...

George

 

[Beachclubmum]

We used U-Box for moving my dd across country last year. It was the cheapest solution by nearly half ($1250). The entire move was seamless. I did pay extra to have movers at the other end unload for her into her second story apartment. I packed the U-box myself and there was no wasted space ( Tetris skill packing is my specialty!).

 

[Monykalyn]

For family/work moves the company has always paid for the move (packing/transport/unpacking) so it has been a while

My bff recommended we use a company to specifically pack up our art work. Since we needed to strip the walls to show the house we did this early o

Definitely worth professionals packing things like this! We once moved a 55gallon fish tank-had a professional come and build a crate onsite. Survived a move from Missouri to Texas (we left it there when we moved back).
My oldest is moving bedroom furniture and accumulated stuff to Seattle (from MO) next month. Looked into all the options here, including packing myself and freight shipping. Still well over a $1500 and that was just for some of it. Moving that far is just not cheap. So we are driving her loaded SUV and renting a van for $600 to go all at once. She has a $1000 moving reimbursement so trying to stay under that.

 

[DaveNV]

Using a POD-type company wasn't an option for us for the move to Nevada. When I inquired about hiring commercial moving companies to come in and do the move, the prices were just out of range for what we wanted to accomplish. So we invested our own sweat equity, and did it all ourselves. Probably not the best method, but it worked, for what we wanted to get done, in the timeframe we had to do it.

We had used a POD-type container company a few years ago, when we were redoing the flooring in our home. The company dropped a storage container in our driveway. We loaded it, locked it, and it stayed on the driveway for a month or so. After the flooring work was done, we unloaded the storage unit, and the company came and hauled it away. Easy breezy. I'd do that again anytime I needed the convenience of having our stuff nearby, on a short-term rental basis.

Dave

 

[clifffaith]

I'll chime in and say I made the mistake of getting three quotes for a 25 minute move in 1998 without taking into account we'd move "some" of it ourselves. So I way overpaid because quotes were based on them looking around at all we had. But I am very organized, and was running a business from home, so by the time the movers came the closets, kitchen, office files, knickknacks etc had already been moved by us and only the furniture remained. As we get ready to move a little over 100 miles in the next year or so, the 20 boxes I've already packed, and my Christmas boxes except maybe the trees (will try to get that to be tree singular) will be moved by us because other than books they are not packed to withstand being manhandled. Pretty immediately after signing with the old folks home we'll have access to our small storage area so Xmas will go on the bottom and boxes of knickknacks on top. As soon as the remodeling is complete we'll start bringing down other breakables and small boxes. I do have the goal of tenting our house before we remove boxes and will try to make that happen. Don't want to move silverfish to Carlsbad if we can avoid it, even if cats need to be boarded two nights and we stay in a hotel (unless we tent only the main house and stay in the casita which is what they did when we moved here).

 

[Big Matt]

You need to answer two simple questions:
1) How much packing and moving do you, Panina want to do?
2) How much does price matter?

If the answer to 2 is "not much" then pick the full service moving and storage company in your area and have them do everything for you or almost everything. Maybe you pack up some breakable/valuables.

If the answer to 2 is "a lot" then you start having to ask yourself question 1. Just remember that the boxes are shaped and sized to fit optimally into whatever unit is going to be moved (moving van, pod, etc.). Stuff gets broken from shifting either in the boxes or the boxes themselves moving around. So if you are going to pack all of the small stuff yourself, don't skimp on the packaging, and buy from the company doing the move.

Get insurance regardless of what people tell you.

I personally would have the mover do everything except for some things I literally couldn't replace. I'm probably going to move after 25 years plus in my house and I am dreading it.

 

[pedro47]

Third question are you going to drive the U Haul truck to your next destination liked DaveNV. ?

 

[nomoretslt]

Panini, we just did exactly what you are asking about. We just sold our house and are still living in the area temporarily in much smaller quarters. In a few months we will then relocate temporarily to coastal Carolinas...again in smaller quarters, while our home is being built. We lived in our home for 36 years and had quite an accumulation of “stuff”. We ended up with 3 pods. Hubby was not willing to part with a lot of tools and clothing. We did whittle down quite a bit. Our new home will be a good size but not the same storage space. You will only be moving your own belongings so it will be easier. We opted for PODS instead of Pack Rat, as they were a bit cheaper. Over two months they dropped off one pod at a time and would pick up and replace. They will store the pods in their climate controlled facility (very important when dealing with heat and humidity) and we can visit our pods too.

It was not cheap to transport from New York metro area to their facility in the Carolinas. Plus there is the monthly fee for storage. We were extremely happy with their service. However, if you are thinking of doing this, call now to get a price. They have three sizes, but some facilities will only store the two larger sizes. Also they are extremely busy with people moving out of this area and pods are in short supply. It does not hurt to call for a price, but you will be on hold a long time. The reps have told me how crazy busy they are. Also find out where their nearest storage facility is in comparison to where you are moving to. Pack rat could be a better option. I would call both and get an idea. Pods also has a chat feature which is helpful, but also very slow due to demand.

If you purge your stuff and pack efficiently you should be able to get by with one unless you are taking a massive amount of furniture.

Hope this helped.