Moving Cross-Country: Need Advice

[Harry]

When you come to pick up those crazy-ass dogs, be sure to let me know and we can have some beers for a final goodbye. You better be wearing your "I Skied With Harry" tshirt !

[GeezerSteve]

Thanks for the update. Have a good trip

[skaredshtles]

Jeezus. I had no idea you were moving to TX from Big Sky.

I'm sorry.

[Mazderati]

^ Hah

[skinipenem]

Bumping thread for post covid moves? Or start a new one?

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[skinipenem]

What's the collectives moving company recommendations and pearls of wisdom these days?

The Mission:
Moving a family of four (two little kids) from the east coast to pnw.
I plan to drive our car to Glacier while towing our bikes/motos. The family meets me in ?Kalispell? via aeroplane.
Working full time to almost the bitter end so we will need packing help.

We plan to purge a lot of our stuff including some furniture.

Is there a way to determine cost benefit of dumpster/ donation vs moving for each item? Obviously, the duct taped couch and ottoman will not be joining us.
What's the best and most economical way to proceed these days?

The kicker: moving end of July.

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[dan_pdx]

What's the collectives moving company recommendations and pearls of wisdom these days?

The Mission:
Moving a family of four (two little kids) from the east coast to pnw.
I plan to drive our car to Glacier while towing our bikes/motos. The family meets me in ?Kalispell? via aeroplane.
Working full time to almost the bitter end so we will need packing help.

We plan to purge a lot of our stuff including some furniture.

Is there a way to determine cost benefit of dumpster/ donation vs moving for each item? Obviously, the duct taped couch and ottoman will not be joining us.
What's the best and most economical way to proceed these days?

The kicker: moving end of July.

Sent from my SM-S908U1 using Tapatalk

I had a good experience with Youpack two years ago. They bring a whole trailer to your house and you pay based on how much of it you fill (you install a bulkhead when you're done and the remaining space is sold to other shippers). We hired some movers for a few hours on both ends for a few hours to help with bigger pieces of furniture etc. We're moving again this summer (glutton for punishment) and we'll use Youpack again.

We didn't do a good job lightening the load when we moved before, we'll be more ruthless this time. It doesn't usually pay for us to itemize, so up to you whether donation is a financial win, we're working on selling stuff on CL and only using Goodwill for stuff that's not worth selling like old dishes.

[MakersTeleMark]

I like the simplicity of pods, but it's been a few years.

[Mazderati]

Moves are so personal. If you don't have a house full of valuable / sentimental / hard to replace stuff, sell everything you can and donate everything you can't.

Moving pods can be convenient but there are caveats:
- there has to be a place to park the pod; especially relevant for urban settings and HOAs
- pod delivery>pickup>delivery timing may not align with your own move; think about where to sleep if you arrive before your bed
- different pod companies do things differently, some may fit certain needs better than others
- pricing may be negotiable or matched

[garyfromterrace]

Two words: garage sale. Ok, more words: put bigger items up on Kijiji & FB market place asap. We only moved about 18hrs away but sure liked the convenience of a big ass U-Haul truck and paid some mover dudes to help fill it for us and at the other end to help unload. Much faster and a pro job of furniture Jenga.

[XXX-er]

Containerized or pod moving is a good way to go IME, I did a few corporate moves so the moving company could take the container off the truck and leave it in the yard until you wer ready to unloaded

Yeah get rid of as much stuff as you can, in my last move it was not a corporate move so i had to pay, but a divorce had already purged a lot of stuff and I had managed to not need a truck or mover cuz i thru out so much more stuff

the idea being I could buy whatever on the other end with what i saved on moving costs and I believe i am still ahead

[jackstraw]

Moving companies pretty much suck, but they move most of your shit, break some shit, and lose some other shit. Or in my case, give you somebody else's shit.

If I was to do it again I'd probably go Pods and do it myself. But I was in a situation where my wife was already moved into our new house working and I was back finishing packing and working all solo. No kids local, so between packing, dump runs, donating, and work, there was no way I could pack the pods efficiently pretty much solo. And I was painting and prepping the house to rent...and getting it rented. It was a shitshow, but purging feels good. Take pictures of sentimental stuff and give it or throw it away. ...me...kept way too many pair of skis and snowboards...whata kook. Guy at dump was psyched though as he took my skis to build ski chairs. That made me happy.

[dan_pdx]

Yeah, I also moved way too many skis and snowboards, maybe a dozen all told. Those things are a bitch to pack, especially the small dick compensating massive pow boards. The good news is my buddy who builds snowboards says there's no need to worry about delamination during a move, even at 130° inside a trailer.

[carlh]

I’ve done this twice and it sucked moving west. If you’re doing the moving company option either go by the pound or a dedicated truck. They rip you off packing like shit if you go by volume. Also buy insurance the movers will break something.
Anything easily replaced is probably better off selling and replacing.
If you don’t have a dedicated truck plan on your shit taking 6+ weeks to arrive. Ours took 12 in summer 21.

[mcski]

I like the idea of POD but in SF it’s kind of a bureaucratic fee nightmare for placing them anywhere besides large flat driveways that don’t really exist here. And the people that do have em, ain’t usin PODs, that’s for damn sure. I would count on some major fuck up getting them delivered here [emoji817]%

[jackstraw]

I’ve done this twice and it sucked moving west. If you’re doing the moving company option either go by the pound or a dedicated truck. They rip you off packing like shit if you go by volume. Also buy insurance the movers will break something.
Anything easily replaced is probably better off selling and replacing.
If you don’t have a dedicated truck plan on your shit taking 6+ weeks to arrive. Ours took 12 in summer 21.

Yeah, we shared with I think 2 other stops. It only took two weeks to go 3k, so the time frame was ok. I was shocked that our crap only filled less than half the truck. They pack those things tight, hence the breakage.
This shit that wasn't ours was a guy in southern California. He used an old envelope as packing filler, so I was able to track him down and ship him his shit. It was humorous when my wife opened a box and sent me the pic of this guy's personal photos and a stuffed Pee Wee Herman doll with a "wtf is this?"[emoji16]

[carlh]

Shared truck for us took 10 days in a fall move and 12 weeks in a summer one. The summer move also managed to come in 30% over quote to where the dedicated 26’ truck would have been the same price and gotten there in a week.

Yeah, we shared with I think 2 other stops. It only took two weeks to go 3k, so the time frame was ok. I was shocked that our crap only filled less than half the truck. They pack those things tight, hence the breakage.
This shit that wasn't ours was a guy in southern California. He used an old envelope as packing filler, so I was able to track him down and ship him his shit. It was humorous when my wife opened a box and sent me the pic of this guy's personal photos and a stuffed Pee Wee Herman doll with a "wtf is this?"[emoji16]