Moving Advice Here!!!

moving here too....

We are moving in just under 4 weeks. We have been packing for three weekends now and so far it has gone really well. We made a schedule of what part of the house needs to be packed every weekend. I got rid of half my clothes yesterday and it felt great! I'm really dreading moving though We are putting most of our stuff in storage and moving in with my in laws. DH leaves for med school at the end of April. I'm so nervous about living with my in laws, my husband leaving, my husband going to med school, and renting our home.

Thanks for the lists. I agree about the candles and stuff, pitch it or donate it. Salvation Army is our first stop every weekend. I really hope that my husband can get a residency around here so that we can one day move back into our house and stop renting!

Lacy

[MarissaNicole]

We are moving in just under 4 weeks. We have been packing for three weekends now and so far it has gone really well. We made a schedule of what part of the house needs to be packed every weekend. I got rid of half my clothes yesterday and it felt great! I'm really dreading moving though We are putting most of our stuff in storage and moving in with my in laws. DH leaves for med school at the end of April. I'm so nervous about living with my in laws, my husband leaving, my husband going to med school, and renting our home.

Thanks for the lists. I agree about the candles and stuff, pitch it or donate it. Salvation Army is our first stop every weekend. I really hope that my husband can get a residency around here so that we can one day move back into our house and stop renting!

Lacy

The only good thing about moving is that it forces you to go through all your all your stuff and clean out!
I'm sure it is going to be quite an adjustment, but try and look at it as starting a new part of your lives. Good luck! (And we are here for support, when you need to vent!)

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Does anyone have recommendations for moving companies? We are packing ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the actual move (Chicago to Iowa). I thought there was a thread, but I can't find it!

[alison]

Does anyone have recommendations for moving companies? We are packing ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the actual move (Chicago to Iowa). I thought there was a thread, but I can't find it!

We went with Allied (the contract with Reebie in the Chicago area). Their estimate for packing and for the door to door move came in at the lowest (I also got estimates from United and North American). It was an easy move.

[HouseofWool]

Oh good god Jen - you have it backwards. Hire someone to load the truck and then you drive it. I can give a recommendation for someone to unload in IC if you want it. We used them and they were pretty good.

[Chrisada]

I have not packed one thing. We still have boxes in the basement packed from our move here four year ago. And now we have two children's stuff in addition. I don't know if I am in denial about moving or what.

[HouseofWool]

Chrisada - that is the way I was when we moved to Iowa. I made E go on a massive cleaning out crap spree. We got rid of so much stuff!

[oceanchild]

Does anyone have recommendations for moving companies? We are packing ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the actual move (Chicago to Iowa). I thought there was a thread, but I can't find it!

Don't use Bekins.

(For our last move, we packed boxes ourselves, paid a local company to pack the boxes in a truck - necessary because we were on the 4th floor with no elevator - and drove the truck ourselves. We used Penske for the truck, and they were great.)

[Ravenclaw]

Does anyone have recommendations for moving companies? We are packing ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the actual move (Chicago to Iowa). I thought there was a thread, but I can't find it!

Check out movingscam.com. I think I mentioned it on here before but their forum is very helpful. They have a section of reviews of moving companies by state.

[HouseofWool]

If you are looking for a local company to offload in IC - we used Spine Moving. They are on Heinz Rd.

[NYCHoosier]

Does anyone have recommendations for moving companies? We are packing ourselves, but are hiring a company to do the actual move (Chicago to Iowa). I thought there was a thread, but I can't find it!

OrionGrad told me about ABF U-Pack's ReloCube. They have good reviews on movingscam. I got a quote from them, and it looks like it'll be roughly $500 for two relocubes from NYC to Columbus terminal to terminal (not door to door since we have no door / driveway on the NY end!). We may only need one since we're moving from a studio, but I think I'll reserve 2 to be on the safe side (I'll check to make sure that if we reserve two but only use one, we'll only pay for one... the movingscam message board leads me to believe this is so). Since you're moving to a bordering state, I imagine it will be less for you.
We will have additional expenses, of course. We'll need to rent a truck to bring the stuff to the terminal in NY, and I imagine we'll get movers to get the stuff and move it into our new place in OH. But, it's looking like we might be able to do this for $1k or less.
Obviously we'll be moving at the same time, but I'll be sure to post my experience after for those who need to move in the future.

For those looking for full service movers, I had a decent experience with Flat Rate Movers when I did my intra-city move when DH and I got married. My furniture was in great shape, nothing broke, they were (just barely) on time, and I paid what they quoted.


ETA Update: Just made the reservation. They confirmed that we won't have to pay for the 2nd cube if we don't use it. Also used MOVE50 coupon code to get $50 off.
My rate seems cheaper than those in the review thread on movingscams, but maybe that's because our move is shorter / terminal-to-terminal / starts on a Tuesday? So, maybe it'll be a tad more instead of a tad less for Chicago to Iowa for whatever reason. Also note that, like NY, Chicago has special rules for the move. (City living is always so complicated!)
Anyway, happy moving, all!

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Oh good god Jen - you have it backwards. Hire someone to load the truck and then you drive it. I can give a recommendation for someone to unload in IC if you want it. We used them and they were pretty good.

When I said that we are packing ourselves - I meant putting all of our crap in boxes - not the actual loading of the truck - that's the part that DH hates! The company that moved us last year was great - fast, efficient, nothing broken! Sadly, they are a local company with no ties to bigger companies. The other issue is that we need both of our cars to go out there, and don't really want to tow either of them. I'm just glad that come May 21st, we are not moving again for 5 years!!

[lirio]

When I said that we are packing ourselves - I meant putting all of our crap in boxes - not the actual loading of the truck - that's the part that DH hates! The company that moved us last year was great - fast, efficient, nothing broken! Sadly, they are a local company with no ties to bigger companies. The other issue is that we need both of our cars to go out there, and don't really want to tow either of them. I'm just glad that come May 21st, we are not moving again for 5 years!!

Do you mean towing on the back of the moving van? Another option is to ship one of your cars, hire people on both ends to load and unload, and drive the truck yourself. We did this and it was much cheaper than hiring movers to drive.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

That's a possibility - however, I won't be going out there with DH and the truck, so if the car was shipped, where would it be dropped off, when would it arrive, and how would he be able to return the moving truck...

This whole moving thing sucks I just wish we had possession of our house now - cuz we could make some trips out with stuff

[Ravenclaw]

Some helpful websites when moving to a totally new place:

www.spotcrime.com and www.padmapper.com

We've been plugging addresses of the places we're considering into spotcrime. It helps quickly weed out unsafe areas. Padmapper is a great site that aggregates listings from several sites. They'll be mashing spotcrime onto their maps at some point which will be a great timesaver.