Long Distance Moving

[OSUPeterson]

I know a few of you have moved long distance before so I wanted to ask for some advice. My family is probably going to be moving to the Seattle area in 1-2 years (maybe summer 2017, most likely summer 2018). Im trying to start getting a game plan on things and costs (such as getting updates to house finally done so we can sell it and getting a target amount of moving costs).

Is the most cost effective route to use a POD to have almost all our stuff shipped up to our new location and haul the rest ourselves when we drive? I got a rough quote of around $3k for one 16' POD which will probably hold most our stuff that we actually keep and take with us. I tried to contact a moving service to get a quote, but without really getting into the details they said a range of $3.5k to $12k. Are there any other services I should look at?

[Pete]

I used a POD to move from California to OKC.

What appealed to me most was that you have basically a month to pack it, have it moved, then unpack it. You could take more time and they'll even store it for you at additional cost.

So, I had it dropped on my driveway (still enough room to slide a car by and into the garage) about 3 weeks before my move, then needed all that time to go through my stuff, have a garage sale, then finish the packing.

Then when I got here, I unloaded some of the stuff for a temporary apartment and then the rest went on a truck and into a storage unit until I bought a house.

I liked the flexibility and control BUT I had a bad experience with the transport. They use these special lifts to get the POD on and off a truck and those things really sway and a lot of my stuff was scratched up from shifting around. I took great care to pack the unit but there is only so much you can do.

I don't think I would use them again for this reason.

Also, everyone gives you the advice to take less and just buy new stuff at your new place. I got rid of tons of stuff (Craigslist worked fantastic; garage sale more trouble than worth) and still took too many things with me. I ended up moving a lot of it around a few times THEN getting rid of it and starting with something that fit better, matched the new decor, etc.

Just some things to think about.

[OSUPeterson]

Yea, the one nice thing about movers is that they are somewhat accountable for what happens and they do a much better job wrapping and packing than I do. Do you happen to remember if their monthly storage costs were reasonable, say comparing it to a traditional storage facility? I mean, im totally willing to pay more not to have to move everything from a POD to a storage unit due to my laziness, just wondering. I forgot to have them quote a couple months of storage.

I assumed that this move would be a great time to finally get rid of all the cheap bachelor stuff I still have around. Ill keep it in mind that we really have to want to keep an item for us to pack it and take it with us.

[Pete]

As I recall, storage was about $200-$250 / month for their large POD. But then they aren't easy to get to... You have to schedule a time for them to pull it, etc. It's not like a regular storage unit where you can get in almost any time without contacting anyone.

By far the best thing about going with PODS is the flexibility. If you use movers, it has to come off their truck and they usually aren't super flexible once you agree to dates.

With PODS, I changed the drop-off and pick-up times and places several times with little fuss.


Here's what I did: Packed it myself, had it delivered to my apartment downtown, scheduled movers to move stuff out of POD and into apartment and also had them put the remainder on their truck and then met them at a storage unit I had already rented, where they unloaded the rest.

[BoulderSooner]

As I recall, storage was about $200-$250 / month for their large POD. But then they aren't easy to get to... You have to schedule a time for them to pull it, etc. It's not like a regular storage unit where you can get in almost any time without contacting anyone.

By far the best thing about going with PODS is the flexibility. If you use movers, it has to come off their truck and they usually aren't super flexible once you agree to dates.

With PODS, I changed the drop-off and pick-up times and places several times with little fuss.


Here's what I did: Packed it myself, had it delivered to my apartment downtown, scheduled movers to move stuff out of POD and into apartment and also had them put the remainder on their truck and then met them at a storage unit I had already rented, where they unloaded the rest.

uhaul has what they call the Ubox ... which is pretty much the same thing .. but smaller and easier to access if you have to store it for a longer period of time ..

[Pete]

^

Right but when I worked out the pricing, given I needed a bigger unit it was cheaper to go with PODS.

It really was the cheapest alternative after lots of research.

[tfvc.org]

When I moved from St Pete to Ok I used Upack which is a part of ABF, they drop a trailer in front of your house. You only pay for the square footage of what you use. This was the cost in 2011:

Trailer No:______________ Driver: Footage ____ Inits ____
Pricing Summary for: PERSONAL EFFECTS Customer: Footage ____ Inits ____
Price (based on 10 linear feet in a 28' trailer): $1690.00
Adjustment price per Foot: +/- $66.00
Absolute Minimum Charge: $1360.00
Standard Liability Coverage: $0.10/lb per piece $0.00

[TheTravellers]

We thought about using a POD or similar on our moves (from OKC to Milwaukee, then to Chicago, then to Seattle, then to back here), but it just wasn't convenient enough, we didn't have a driveway, or it was too expensive.

We got our moving expenses paid when moving from OKC to Milwaukee and used movers and packers while I drove up there and my wife flew with our cats, probably cost about $12K or so, can't remember exactly. Decided not to do that again because the packers were insane - throwing all kinds of things in with all kinds of other things, no organization, and using thousands of sheets of paper and bubble wrap.

Moving from Chicago to Seattle, we packed ourselves so we could label and wrap things appropriately and used movers/loaders/unloaders while we drove with the cats. Cost about $10K, I think. Problems arose when the moving semi-truck couldn't fit into the apt complex, so they had to offload all our stuff to a smaller truck and then unload at our apt.

Moving from Seattle to OKC, we rented a 26' U-Haul, hired an out-of-work project manager my dad knew to drive it from Seattle to OKC, paid his airfare to Seattle, expenses, and per-hour cost. We drove with the cats, packed and loaded ourselves, but had to hire unloaders because the truck got to OKC before we did due to snowstorms. Probably cost about $10K all told, but not totally sure.

So glad when we moved within OKC - soooooooooooooooo much cheaper and easier, although we kind of over-wrapped stuff because we were used to traveling cross-country with our stuff, not just across the city.

Not sure if that helps, but it's how we did it multiple times, learning each time.