Moving cross country

[KCwife]

So with match day looming a few short days away, I have been thinking of all the "what-ifs". One thing that I have never done is a cross country move (one of the what-ifs). Dh has, but that was pre-family (And we all know that I will be solely responsible for the logistics of pulling this off). So, what kind of additional costs are involved? What were some good money saving things you did? How did you do it?

[rainbabies]

[KCwife]

Thanks Mom2Three! Not so much worried about the kids as they are older and pretty much can entertain themselves, just the financial aspects. Do interstate moves cost more, U-Haul, movers, etc? How is that calculated? Any interstate movers to stay clear of, etc?

[rainbabies]

[Sheherezade]

We had a lousy experience with professional movers. The company was Mayflower. It was sooooo dissapointing because we had moved ourselves many, many times and were thrilled to have the move paid for when we went to the final job. In the future, I'd probably move myself and use the money to hire cleaning and babysitting during the process. JMO.

When you use the professional movers, you can opt to pack yourself. You can also opt to have a partial pack -- only the breakable items. The movers will only pay for things broken that they have packed or that they have inspected before the box was closed. If you are going to save money by packing yourself, ask if you can leave the boxes open and have them inventory and seal. You can also pack yourself and then use one of the companies that drops a storage unit at your home and moves it when you have finished packing. (I think some others here have done this....Nellie?) There are a few companies you can try. If you do the whole thing yourself, the UHaul or Ryder truck doesn't cost more to drop at another location in a different state. You can get the cost of the rental off the websites usually before you make any payment. (Just go throught the reservation process.)

On our "best" move, we packed the truck and drove ourselves. We had lined up friends to help on the final day and a babysitter to keep the kids out from underfoot. They helped a little and enjoyed being part of the process. We dropped the kids off with grandma/grandpa en route and went on to our destination the next day alone. We spent a day onloading and arranging. We went back to grandma's to get the kids the next day - after we'd set up their rooms and returned the truck. Grandma's was about 4 hours away, so that made it relatively convenient. If we didn't have this option, I would have tried to set up some help on the other side with babysitting or unloading (more likely).

I have many moving tips after so much moving. I'm sure we all do! Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Edit to add: Cheapest - rent your own truck and get your own boxes. Sometimes you can find boxes used in the paper or online. You can get good boxes for breakables at UHaul and bad boxes from grocery stores for free. This will usually run you a few thousand +/- Next cheapest: PODS or some U-Pack-It place with the driving done for you (I've never done this) Most expensive: Professional (cheaper without full pack) Our prof move from Bost-Ohio was 15K.

We moved from coast to coast after residency and hired professional movers. The professionals ended up costing about the same as what we would have paid to move ourselves since we would have been hit with a big one-way truck rental fee. We did the packing ourselves, though, because I felt weird about having other people go through our things. We paid the moving company about $3000 to move a 2 bed/2bath apartment. We got a good deal because we moved in the middle of the month. Had we moved at the beginning or end of the month when business is at its peak for moving companies, we would have paid around $10,000.

If you hire movers, definitely check their ratings with the BBB first. I think we used North American Van Lines and were very happy with them. Since moving companies are mostly franchises, you should be sure to check the ratings for the particular franchise that you will be working with. There were three North American franchises in our area. Two of them had poor ratings, but one had excellent ratings....and they actually had the cheapest rates of the three.

Since your move probably won't be reimbursed by your residency program, you'll have to foot the bill yourselves. The good thing is that you'll be able to deduct moving expenses from your taxes and moving expenses are an above the line deduction.

Good memory, Angie! We used ABF (http://www.upack.com I *think*). They dropped off a trailer in front of our house and we were responsible for packing it and calling them to pick it up. They dropped it off in front of our new house -- on time and very courteous. It cost only slightly more than renting our own U-Haul and when gas is figured in, the difference was in the low $100s. Not to mention that we probably saved one night in a hotel because we could take turns driving one car and make the trip faster. Given the absolute headache that U-Haul was about the *$&#ing moving blankets, I can't imagine what they would be like about the truck.

We did hire movers on both ends to pack and unpack the trailer. Absolute disaster one one end (damaged furniture my diamond earrings haven't been seen since, I didn't realize I had left them in a box ). Fantastic on the other. Based on that, I would do it again but would oversee the movers more and feel free to make comments.

We shipped one car. Also very worthwhile, IMO. We had a great experience with: http://www.autotrans1.com/ . We were going to ship a car from the midwest about a year ago and got a quote from them -- best price then, too.

Good tip on the boxes. Start collecting them now. Have a friend that gets a new stereo? See if they will give you the box! We bought a "moving pack" from Costco that had boxes, tape, etc and was a steal.

I think some advance planning helps. You're on your way!

[Gwendolyn]

We just moved from AZ to WI and money was a huge concern for us as well. We used Penske...they were the least expensive and very helpful. Obviously it required a lot of work on our part. We enlisted a whole group of friends to help load up the truck the day before while my mom watched DS. Early the next morning we had my brother, MIL and SIL drive across country with us. That way we both had company (Dh in truck me in car) and a lot of help unloading. We used AAA triptix to lay out the best route and book hotel rooms along the way.

Our family stayed a few days to see the new city and help unpack or watch ds while we unpacked. It was a lot of work, but worth the $ savings. It went smoothly and I got to spend a few day with my brother in the car

[JaneDoe]

For those who hired movers, how far in advance of your move did you contact prospective movers?

We will be moving from PA to OR this summer. When we moved from OR to PA we used a U-Haul truck. We learned (the hard way) that when you're doing a one-way move using rental trucks, many times the local rental company will give you their worst truck so it's no longer a problem for them. The truck we used broke down four of the five days it took for us to move. We had to wait by the side of road while U-Haul contacted mechanics to service the truck. What a pain!

Since this move will be paid for by Dh's work, we will be hiring movers. But, I'm overwhelmed with the different types of movers out there. Also, we are not buying a house before the move, so we will need need to put our stuff in storage until we buy our new home. Ugh. Moving is no fun.

[KCwife]

Awesome, thanks for all the tips and advice ladies!

[Sheherezade]

Wow --we have never had a bad truck given to us OR an extra charge I noticed. Of course, I've only moved one-way across state lines, so what do I know? When we booked our professional mover, we had to do it in March for the end of June. He was already almost full. Boston has a huge college population, though, so that's probably the exception. As it was, the movers *lost* our move order and had to scramble to get us a truck in June. They ended up renting 2 trucks from another company. And packing at our house until 1 AM with grumbling staff they called in. Oh, the joy. And that was just the start of our wonderful 15 K paid-for-by- the- new-employer move experience.
Must....restrain.....self.....must...not...start.. .with.....story....

Isn't moving just such an *adventure*?

[JaneDoe]

And that was just the start of our wonderful 15 K paid-for-by- the- new-employer move experience.
Must....restrain.....self.....must...not...start.. .with.....story....

Isn't moving just such an *adventure*?

15K for a move from Boston to Ohio? Is this the price range that I should expect to pay, perhaps even more since we're moving to the west coast? I wasn't anticipating it to be that high.

BTW, with respect to the bad truck. Keep in mind that move I previously described, so far, is our only experience with moving across the country. So, perhaps we just had bad luck. During that move, when we would complain along the way to complete strangers about the truck breaking down again, we heard stories about other rental company trucks breaking down too. A couple of people mentioned that the local truck rental companies tend to give the worst trucks to the one-way movers. I would just keep it in mind and ask a lot of questions when renting a truck.

For what it's worth, we also learned during a local move that many times the truck you're given is the first available. I think this whole moving-thing is a matter of luck!

[Sheherezade]

We had horrid movers from Boston. I would imagine they padded the bill - but they were contracted by the university so we had no choice. (They paid - and chose.) We had a full pack and move. It was less with a partial pack. When we moved a small amount of furniture via a moving company from Balt - Boston the bill was $1100. No packing, just loading. It was small local company. They had the best price, but they did insist I pay them in *cash* when they arrived in Boston - and the original quote was $650. If I didn't pay them cash, they threatened to take my stuff back to Baltimore. So off to the cash machine I went with my two little kids. I wouldn't recommend going with the cheapest guy in town!! Clearly, I have bad luck with movers.

I think there are a lot of bad movers and bad truck rental places. I second the opinion that you should check out the companies with the BBB. We have a friend that runs a moving business in Philly, and as far as I know he's a great guy and it's a great company. I don't think they're *all* bad - just most of them.

Our paid-for move from Cleveland to Kansas City was about $12K - that is with packers included. I'm still up in the air on whether it was worthwhile to have the packers or not. It would have been nice to have more specific notes on boxes about what was what, but I'm pretty sure I would no longer feel that way after a day of packing.

As to the question, I know you're looking for a less expensive route as this is a move to residency for which you will not be compensated. 1st, make sure to save ALL receipts as a move of more than X number of miles for work is entirely tax deductible. Hit up places like Starbucks, PotteryBarn / Williams Sonoma for free boxes. They just break them down and toss them out. If you know anyone who does home sales, they are innudated w/boxes as well. Scrounging for free (good) boxes is worthwhile b/c they are stinking expensive!!! You can also use the more durable clothes as packing material - saves on bubble wrap, etc.

I would suggest the IPOD method. I did something similar when I moved to California, and it worked very nicely. It's better than having to deal w/the truck - I was always awful at manuevering something so big.

Good luck!

We did Richmond, VA to Madison, WI this past summer.
2 cats, drugged.
2 kids, split up.
24' moving truck driven by DH, 4 door Honda driven by moi.
3 days. 2 nights. Motel 8 takes pets.



Lucked out and got moving boxes from a friend who did a corporate move and hit up the liquor/package store for sturdy small boxes.

if you do it yourself, use Budget, not UHaul. UHaul sucks in our experience.

We hired a helper for loading and unloading and that helped.

Screaming kids, more later.