I will be moving cross-country from Houston to the East Coast later on this month. I was wondering what was the best way to move my belongings? I do not have much furniture/belongings aside from my Queen size bed. I don't plan on bringing any furniture except my bed(I'll be leaving my desk/tables/couch/etc, But I don't know if its even worth shipping my bed . It costed me $900 and I bought it only a few months ago. Aside from the bed I have many misc items, personal/sedimental objects + clothes, etc etc. should be about a dozen or so boxes. I will be driving my car up there, but will only have room for valueables in the car. How much would it cost to move my belongings about the size of a studio or small one bedroom apt? I am not sure if I want to hire someone to drive my stuff up there, or if I should use something like "PODs". Either way please help if you have any experience moving cross country.
Check out ABF's website. They'll drop off a trailor at your location, you pack it yourself and only pay for the amount of the trailor you use. ABF U-Pack Or go with someone like Suddath, a United Van Lines agent. Right now because it isn't peak season the minimum is down to 1,000 pounds. Suddath Houston Or you could do the old UHaul or Budget truck rental across the country. Personally I would rather just drive my own car. My other advice is get rid of as much as possible.
For that little bit of crap, I'd sell it all and re buy when I get to where I'm getting (if it is long term, do corporate housing or furnished if short term). Renting a truck is a huge pain in the ass and expensive and having someone move you is even more expensive. That is what I would do and I've moved across the country several times (Houston, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Houston, St. Louis, Houston).
Thanks St. Louis, I'll definitely look into those. Hopefully it'll only cost me $500~1000 to move all my stuff.. if its more, it might be better to buy new stuff .. i dunno. Master Baiter, I agree with what you said. It's alot easier to just buy new stuff when I get there I guess.. But some stuff I have to bring with me.. At the very minimum I'm going to have 8~10 boxes full of random personal belongings. Atleast 1 or 2 of them with things I can't just replace.. So I don't know man. If I have to ship SOMETHING, I might as well ship EVERYTHING, you know what I mean? Or I might just UPS the very essential stuff.. I'm still not sure yet
The main rule to moving is get rid of stuff BEFORE you move, not after. I can't tell you how many times I have helped someone move and they start sorting their crap and throwing it away while they are un-packing. This is specially important for you as you are paying for the move.
When I had a moving service move me it was always more than $5000 but I also had a lot more crap than you. To rent a truck will be $500 - $1000 plus gas. You could probably get quotes online.
Note too that the pack yourself places do NOT have suspension on the trailers. They will tell you that you should not pack electronics in the trailer since there is a very good chance it will not be the same. My parents did this and packed a TV that was a giant paper weight by the time it got there. However, everthing else arrived safely.
About 6 years back, I moved from Chicago to Houston. I rented a U-Haul truck and drove it all down -- I had some ****ty furniture I wanted to keep. For truck, gas, and everything it was about $900 for the trip. I'm sure prices have gone up since, but you'd also have a smaller truck (or trailer?). But, that's the order of magnitude for something like that.
That's definitely how I move. Even though I already employ that tactic, I've never put it into words before. So thanks, that'll be my new first rule the next time I move somebody.
When I moved from STL to AZ, I did a little inventory. Two of the things I found out, my wife owned 38 pairs of black pants, not counting pants of some other shade, and had 35 pairs of shoes.
Yeah, I don't have much furniture except my bed. And I will be driving my own car up there (a small two door) so I can't drive a U Haul up there .. So I may have to "ship" it. Would you think its more cost effective to "UPS" several large boxes of belongings, excluding the big mattress? That might be better IMO but then again not sure
