Moving across states

So I just found out we are in for an out of state move in the next 6 months or so. Has anyone here had to move across states?? Can you share your thoughts on the pros and cons of hiring an amateur mover vs professional moving company vs self moving? I'm of course trying to do this the most cost effective way possible.

Thanks!

No specific advice other than to be careful with who you choose to move your belongings. There have been reports of dirt bag movers who will run off with your belongings and refuse to bring it to you unless you pay a ransom far beyond the agreed to transportation costs.

Now is a good time to get rid of things you don't need.

You'll have to do a cost and hassle analysis, and weigh that against how tight you are for cash, and how much stuff you have to move.

When my daughter moved from NJ to Florida, she drove her car, and I, our minivan, loaded to the gills, pulling a 4x8 foot trailer open trailer. IIRC, one of the tarps was pretty shreaded by time we got there... it was fortunate for us that it didn't rain on the way down. We were able to unload most of it, and a new neighbor of her's helped me with a couple of items.

When she moved back home, she had accumulated more stuff, and she rented a U-haul, and a trailer for her mid-sized SUV. I flew down. We loaded the truck, again a neighbor helped with a couple of pieces. It was nice having two drivers in one vehicle, and although we stopped for the night there was some piece of mind that the truck (with her stuff) was securely locked.

When I moved from my first house, to my second, it was within the same town, and I made a number of trips with my minivan, the day before the big move. This way I didn't have to pack everything in boxes, and be particularly neat about it. But I hired a professional (but local) moving company to move the furniture and other big stuff, and that which I had boxed up. They moved all of the stuff to the second and third floor. It was worth EVERY PENNY!

When I moved from my second to my third house. I hired the same moving company. They moved all the crap into a huge truck, and when they arrived at the new house. They saw a two car attached garage. The owner offered to save me a hundred, maybe two hundred dollars, (I don't recall) by letting the guys unload the truck into the garage instead of carrying it into the different rooms that it should go into. I laughed out loud... "what do you think? I am out of my mind?"

Three guys on a truck who move stuff for a living can move an incredible amount of stuff in a short period of time. I don't recall, but maybe it took them an hour.

If you plan to do it yourself, who will help you to move the big stuff? Are you capable?

When I moved home from college, I moved a lot of my stuff all the way to the dumpster.

@JohnR66 and that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I've heard many horror stories about both kinds of movers (professional and amateur). That's why I'm trying to start my research on companies now. I need to get consumer reviews, etc. from movers so I can know the good the bad and the ugly about them. My friend told me about movingguru so I have to check them out but my other friend reminded me that she used PODS but her mom handled the business portion of it so I'd have to check out how that all works. @Poppy your daughter is very lucky you were available to help her. Sounds like quite the move. Guess I have some research to do to try and figure out which route we are going to take.

Thank you both for your responses.

PODS? Yes, there's a possible alternative with companies that do "container" rentals. Some will drop off standard shipping containers at your location for a fee, while others offer smaller customized storage boxes. You can then either store it at your site or their site (for a fee). Some will store them inside and climate controlled, while others will store them outside. When you're ready, you can have it delivered back to you for another fee. The interesting part is that you can have the container delivered to a different site.

One problem with this is that you'll need to supply your own bodies to load/unload the container. The other is that you'll have to have space to drop and store the container while you load and unload it.

The advantage would be that you can take a few days or weeks to load/unload it. Also, you can load the container and then store it for a few weeks or months before you finally have it delivered to your new home. Since this merely involves the movement of a container, there should be less chance of the company inventing new "fees" upon delivery.

I'm in Canada, so you'll have to check into specific companies yourself, but I do know that some of the ones here will pick up/deliver to different parts of the country (depending on the distance, there may be a fee to cover fuel, etc), so it should be possible for you too. Also, there IS a company called PODS here. They may actually be American.

Knotgoofy,

If you decide to move via some sort of U-Haul rental, take precautions against someone being able to drive away with your truck. I've read of families on the move stopping at Disneyland, .......leaving all their worldly possessions in a mobile container...........only to return to......an empty space.
The eight stages of returning to an empty parking space; :eeksign: :hairpull: :mecry::help:

~ Chance

Honestly, depending on how much (more precisely how little) stuff you have; you'd be better off renting a moving van or truck and doing it yourself. Hell, hire a day-labourer or two when you decide to pack up the van or truck.