Pinball Preparedness
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Moving advice wanted
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Moving advice wanted
Since y’all tend to be some of the most helpful folks I’ve ever encountered on the interwebz, I thought I’d ask for help here.
If anyone has recently (as in the last 2-3 years) moved from one state to another, I’d like to know how you did it. A Uhaul or two? A full-blown moving company? Load and unload yourself or hire someone else to do all the lifting?
I’ve had a few people tell me to just leave it all behind. Sell it off and/or donate it and start over. I’m sorry but I just CANNOT justify doing that. Financially, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. And unless the house burns down or gets blown away or something, I see no good reason to go out and rebuy all our preps. Especially the way things are right now, that’s just idiotic advice imo. At least for us. For others, it might really be their best option. No judging here. Do what works for you. I’m just saying it would be stupid for US to do that.
And yes, we are downsizing significantly, but we do still have quite a bit that needs to get transported 800+ miles. For reference, we have a king-sized bed (the only brand new mattress we’ve ever had…ew, I know lol with a metal frame cuz we’re cheap), 3 twin mattresses (2 metal frames, the 3rd has a wooden headboard and a metal frame), a small solid wood dresser, a rather large solid wood dresser with mirror, a substantial sectional (which, like our bed, is the only brand new couch we’ve ever bought), a crappy kitchen table with 6 chairs, 12 wooden shelving units of various sizes (we have a LOT of books that I am NOT willing to part with. You can pry them from my cold dead hands!), and my gramma’s hope chest. All the rest of our furniture has gone/is going buh-bye. But the boxes. Lordy, the boxes! And plastic storage drawers. I can break down all the plastic and some of the metal shelving for easy transport but the rest of this stuff? Not so much. I’m HOPING it’ll fit on a 26′ Uhaul (their biggest option) but idk…Anyway, if y’all have any input on how it went using a Uhaul or rental company OR if you had a good or bad experience with a moving company (Two Men and a Truck, Mayflower, etc), and how far you moved, I’d sure appreciate it! Any helpful tips are also welcome.
PS- I’ve never used movers before. We’ve always just loaded and unloaded cars and/or Uhauls ourselves. If we opt to use movers this time, how much should we tip them? I don’t believe in not tipping so don’t even go there…
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51 Replies
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If you and your helpers are in good shape, I would go with renting the U-Haul truck. Ditch the crappy table and chairs, but the rest sounds like it would fit a 26′ truck just fine. They hold more than you would think they do. Movers are expensive, so unless you have a lot of valuable antiques and/or things that need very special handling doing it yourself will save quite a bit. Marketplace will have a very nice table and chairs to look at when you get to where you are going.
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Our last move, a 26′ truck BARELY fit everything and that was without the giant sectional. Since then, I’ve gotten rid of SO MUCH STUFF. I’m going to be watching a couple episodes of Hoarders to get me in the mood to go though and ditch even more. I’m also trying to get as much of it out into the garage as possible, in one big lump, so that I can more accurately estimate just how much we have. *sigh* I suck at estimating stuff.
As for helpers, it’s just myself, my husband, and our children. Our neighbors are all older, have jobs, are busy, etc. No family or friends around either. Sounds lonely, but we like it this way. Thinking of possibly hiring a couple guys from the local branch of the state college to help load. As far as unloading, however, we have friends there who would be able to help. I just don’t want to impose and I loathe asking for help. It’s not a pride thing, it’s an I don’t want to be a burden and I don’t want it lorded over my head thing. Which has happened several times in the past. Unfortunately.
Thanks for your input 😊
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Shop around I read recently that you could go through the Home Depot website and rent a Penske truck for a discount. Also if someone is a vet there was an additional discount. There are things to know never use a broker there are serious scammers out there read “Chris loves Julia” blog about how bad they got scammed! If your leaving CA it’s stupid expensive. So people are going to their destinations renting a truck there driving back to CA getting their stuff then driving to destination and saving bank!
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I don’t even know where the closest Home Depot is to us…We’re Menards people LOL But my husband is a veteran so hmmmm that’s something to think about.
And ewwwwww Commiefornia. I went there during my senior year of high school. It’s gorgeous but too many have pooped in the pool. What a damn shame. Thanks for the tip, though!-
“Gorgeous but too many people have pooped in the pool.” Exactly my sentiments about California, New York, Minnesota, Vermont, Hawaii and so many other places. California and NY are by far the worst though. I feel bad for the people there though, I know so many good people from these states who aren’t the problem, and while not all of them are conservative most of them aren’t nutcases either, not deep into any Democratic party ideology. They see the problem but feel powerless to do anything about it because of the insane amount of retaliation against anyone who does anything and how blatantly rigged the electoral process is, and that it’s too expensive to uproot and leave. God help them.
It takes courage to decide the benefit outweighs the cost in terms of getting the hell out.
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This ☝️ Well said. Penske is a decent option, and if you can compare prices between your destination and departing places, whether it’s California or any other expensive place, rent from the destination place if they’re cheaper.
How much space you need depends on your necessities, medical or work equipment etc., but I agree with people saying one long standard u-haul should fit most of your stuff.
The last time I did an interstate move was before the pandemic. Before that, even moving countries was easier than moving states in some ways now (with lockdowns and whatnot). And it’s more expensive and more red tape. Places that are less regulated aren’t necessarily always better because some of those places are targets for the next “natural disaster” and the lack of regulation isn’t for the people’s benefit but for the benefit of developers and wealthy people looking to take advantage of a crisis.
I’m wishing you luck, you have my prayers 🙏 Hopefully you can move soon and the place you go is a lot safer and better for hunkering down than where you are now. Believe me, I’m in the same boat as you now with my husband and I looking to move
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We rented a u-haul. We had quite a few friends willing to help with loading. It took us two days to load, we started packing about a month before the move. Hired a piano moving guy to load and secure the piano. Another friend’s husband attached the tow dolly and loaded my car onto it and secured everything and my car was loaded!
Advice: There is barely any room in the cab, everything you want or need access to needs to be readily available in your car if you’re towing it. My son (with a broken ankle) my dog and myself had quite a tight squeeze in the cab. I was so thankful the dog dishes and food, the walker and luggage were all so readily available in my car. (You do not want to open the back end of your rig until you are at your destination because things do shift.)
We were 4 1/2 days on the road. Had a couple of glitches. If you tow your car on a tow dolly DO NOT REVERSE THAT RIG!!! No matter what the damn gas station security guard tells you!! We came from North central Ohio and moved to central Fla. Eastern side. West Virginia was tough on the truck, had to stop a purchase a gallon of oil.
I would do it all again! Start stocking on bungee cords and tie down straps. Keep lots of blankets and big towels out to cushion around things you want to protect. U-haul has some nice insulated blankets that were well worth the investment. Also we had packed a lot of our things in plastic tubs, softer things we packed in doubled trash bags which also added cushion.
I hope this helps! You’ve got this …. I am so excited for you all. All the best!!
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Yes their cabs are TINY. And why is the seat so gulldurn HARD?? Good tips on the towing, which very well could be what we wind up doing. I’m going to write it down and stick it in my Moving Binder so I remember. Thanks!!
EDIT: Oh, and I had started packing dishes and casserole dishes and whatnot in sheets, towels, etc. It’s what I’ve always done. I need to keep the bigger, squishier blankets out to use as padding. Thank you for the reminder!
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I can offer you some suggestions from my time of primitive camping. I drove a Subaru Justy, tinyest 4 wheel drive ever. I packed everything needed for a 10 day camp in or on that car including a 10 ft tipi and its poles. First rule was nothing gets packed empty. The kettle was packed full of smaller things like plates and cooking gear all cushioned by dish cloths and towels. Second, everything was gathered prior to packing. Make a list so “last minute” things don’t have to find space. 3rd, last in is first off/out. Consider not only weight distrbution to make driving more stable but what you will need first upon arrival. Do you have small children? Make sure that blanket/ teddy did not windup in a drawer way up front.
I guess that you can tell I favor the u-haul as opposed to movers. Have seen too many horror stories about how that can go. Unless your family is physically unable to handle the packing I don’t think movers will be as careful of your things as you will be.
And I would not leave my books either…
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Much appreciated. Thanks!
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I moved everything myself and had family/friends help with some of it. I would weed through some stuff (clothes and other items) if there is something that can be donated or sold. However, I did donate some preps and I wish I never did that!
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I read a comment somewhere from someone saying they moved from one part of the US to another and got rid of all their food beforehand and started over. *glances over at food shelves* I ain’t doin’ that! Especially not in this economy! No food and SHTF a month after we get there?? Nope. Not this family!
Yeah, sure, a fire could happen or we could get run off the road by some loony driver and lose the food too buuuuuuuuut at least then it’s not because of us lol
Clothes we don’t need, extra furniture, gizmos and gadgets we don’t use…that’s all been going at rummages and donations. As much as I keep trying to downsize there’s just still so much stuff. Gotta keep plugging along.
Thanks!
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We’ve moved out of state 3 times since 2015 due to my husband’s job. Each time we were given some moving money from his company to do so.
With that said, we get three estimates for top rated companies each time. (I really take time reading reviews.) The price can be significantly different from company to company, but we’ve always had good service going with the lowest quote. It does not seem to be a “get what you pay for” situation. As for a tip, I’ve always googled the current going rate to make sure I’m being fair.
Hope all goes well for you!
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Interesting that it’s not always “get what you pay for.” You’d think it would be with something like that. Well alrighty then. Thanks!!
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I have friends that had moved many many times and always used movers without any problem. The mover scams are more sophisticated and they got took Big Time. Beware!
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I have used movers once and the rest of the times, I have moved by shipping boxes or shoving everything in and on the car, including the kids and a pet bird. I have moved across country more times than I thought I would and out-of-country and back. I have lived in 43 different houses in my 64 years so I don’t tend to own much, but when the kids, husband, and I moved to a new state once, we did hire movers and it was awesome to just have everything delivered to us and not have to completely start over again. Do what’s best for you.
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Wow, that’s a lot of moving!! One of the biggest reasons why we are debating hiring people for this move is because we’ve already moved ourselves so many times. It’d be nice to have someone else do the work, especially since we aren’t as young as we used to be. In the grand scheme of things, we ARE younger, but we ain’t spring chickens. All it takes is one wrong move and you’re out! And unlike every other move, this one will be long distance. We might be able to find help loading and should have no problem finding help unloading but it sure would be nice for once to just sit back and pay someone else to do it LOL
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It sure was nice when we had movers. My back isn’t want it used to be so if I did it again, I’d hire movers.
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I moved from Indiana to Florida.
My choice was Pods. 2 pods arrived at my door and I took 3 weeks time to sell items I had and took what was too expensive to move to good will or donated to friends.
The main advantage of Pods was once they were loaded, I made a phone call and they went into storage, I then paid a monthly rent fee for the pods so I had time to goto the area in Florida I wanted to live, and I rented a trailer month to month basis so that I could canvus the area I wanted to live for the home I wanted to live in. I had saved cash for years, for this time and I found my ideal home on craigslist, neg with the owner and bought the place. I then made a phone call and the pods were then delivered to my new home’s door. That was MUCH MUCH better trying to drive a moving van hundreds of miles trying to not get into an accident, and stressed about trying to get there in a short amount of time, the stress of loading the pods was about nill because I had weeks of time to load them, and the shipping and delivery was their problem.
Most moving companies are a scam….. before you go with any company research them, check the BBB history on them. I researched my pod company and they had a solid history of delivery, and service.
Another suggestion, before you choose a location, talk with the neighbors ask them what they think of the neighborhood, some neighbors are not worth living by.
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Good fences make good neighbors but no neighbors make the best neighbors. In my experience anyway LOL
We currently live near “Karens.” The old hag (idec about respecting my elders when it comes to this one) across the street has threatened to call the police as well as sue us because our children were outside just being children. I’ve also had people call CPS on me because oh no, there are unsupervised kids outside! Oh, the humanity!
I don’t know how many pod companies there are but PODS isn’t available here. It’s actually the first thing I looked at after Uhaul, which is our usual go-to. It’s a bummer.
We are planning to rent for a year to get to know the people better (have visited several times) and get a good lay of the land. We don’t want to jump in feet first with our eyes closed. Finding a place to rent there, however, is proving very difficult. There really aren’t a whole lot and the few there are get swooped up right away by locals. Which is more than fair…I’m not whining. They absolutely should get first dibs. It’s just frustrating, that’s all.There’s one that won’t be available until Oct 15 but our current lease (where we are now) is up Sept 30th. Sure, we COULD throw all our stuff in storage until then. We COULD stay in a hotel or something until then. But if we can avoid it, we’d like to. MIL was at a rummage yesterday and the house was for rent. It’ll be available Sept 15th, so I’m hoping and praying we can get in there. It’s nice. She sent us pictures. We know the area from visiting. I just hope no one else snags it before we can even get in touch with the lady who owns it. We have cold hard cash and are willing to drive all that way to hand it over and sign papers if it means not dealing with storage and hotels again. (Yes, again. We’ve been homeless before. (Cancer) I’m SO GLAD we didn’t get rid of it all. It took a year to get out of and once we weren’t homeless anymore it still took another half a year to get our stuff back. Ugh.)
But I’m rambling. Thanks for your two cents. I’ll look to see if there are any other pod companies around here.
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We moved about 2000 miles southeast of Oregon. We used a moving service because we were going so far, and it was hideously expensive and stressful. Our friends who moved to Texas the year before actually rented part of a tractor trailer – it was dropped off at their house, they loaded it themselves with the help of friends to the place where the trucking company marked inside the trailer as the amount of space they had contracted for (actually with COVID being in effect they ended up getting the whole trailer rather than mix their stuff with another family’s). A truck picked up the trailer at their house and drove it leg by leg to their new house where they hired local people to help unload it. It did take a few weeks for them to get their stuff, but it took a few weeks for us to get ours too – so I don’t see much difference there. I’d look into that, in retrospect I wish that’s what we had done.
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Wow that’s more than twice as far as we’re going! I didn’t know you could do that! How nifty! I’ll look into it, though I don’t think we need a whole 52′ trailer…my husband is an OTR trucker so we have load bars to keep stuff from shifting too much but then you have to worry about weight distribution. Hmmmmm
It’s food for thought. Thanks!
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I bought a used semi trailer loaded all my stuff in it and then had it transported from Michigan to my offgrid homestead in Illinois. It cost me $1000 for the semi trailer $1300 for the move and I now have a storage container
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Excellent
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Dang, that’s awesome! My husband is OTR. I should ask him about that…Thanks!
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I think it depends on your budget and your physical ability.
I moved from one side of Oklahoma to the other which was about 250 miles. Since I was making trips each week to find/purchase a new house and other reasons, I never made a trip that my SUV wasn’t packed to the roof with my stuff. I’d empty the vehicle into a rented garage on the destination side. Since I was limited by finances, physical ability (I’m 70), and no help, this worked pretty well for me. The final move was with the furniture. and was made with a U-Haul truck and rented help on both sides. By far, this was the most doable and affordable option for me.
If you’re making trips in your vehicle, a handy trick I learned is to use grocery bags more than boxes. With the bags, you can really use every square inch of space. EXTRA HINT: Always get a larger truck than you think you’ll need.
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We moved from a major metropolitan area (over a million) 3 hours north. Had all our stuff in storage. Once we got out of being homeless (long story short, cancer) we took a vanload (we have a minivan) of stuff out of storage back with us. Figured if we had to go back to that hellhole for various reasons, we’d make good use out of it every time. And yes! Grocery bags, garbage bags, even pillowcases!
Thanks!
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We have done several cross country moves using u-hauls. I would suggest checking into loading and unloading using a temp service. They carry liability insurance and workers comp so if someone does get injured loading or unloading you are covered unless you have plenty of help from family and friends.
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I didn’t know that about the insurance. Good to know. Thanks!!
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I moved last year and rented 4 u-haul boxes. I was shocked when for the final fees. I had to pack everything all on my own, No Help from anyone! Made sure everything was packed nice and tight. When the boxes arrived, a couple of them were a jumbled mess! Looked like they were shaken! For what I paid I could of hired a moving crew! Be aware what your getting, and check pricing and hidden fees!!! Needless to say I was very disgruntled!
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I’d be mad too!!!!
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We used pods. I packed it with wife. Had 4 kids worth of stuff and ours. One standard size pod. Went from NY to NC. Best was they warehouse the pod because we ran into problems with new house until we were ready. There was a charge for that.
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You fit all that in one pod? Wow! Like I said to someone else, PODs doesn’t exist here but maybe some other pod company does? I’m going to look into it. Thanks!
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We did have a garage sale 1st and got rid of stuff we didn’t remember we had 😂
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LOL ikr!!
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