Recommendations for a cross-country move

[Satyr]

Going to be moving with my girlfriend from the Midwest to Florida this fall and was curious how others have handled a move this this. We don't have too much stuff in terms of furnishings since we are in an apartment now, but we do have 2 cars and a few basic pieces of furniture.

I was thinking of getting a UHaul trailer and hooking that up to our SUV and then having her drive the car down, while the alternative is to get a UHaul truck with a trailer and drag the car (both vehicles are AWD, so the trailers are a bit more money). A friend of mine mentioned that we could get a UHaul Pod and they will pick it up, ship it, and deliver it for you; sounds like it would be expensive but he said it was reasonable.

Any other ideas in terms of how to accomplish the move? I don't want to spend a ton of money on it, but would pay to make the process easier and more straightforward. Thanks!

 

[Branhammer]

I would probably go with the Pod option. But I've moved so many times that I'm more willing than most to open up the wallet. My time has become more and more valuable to me over the years.

 

[CV355]

I moved from CT to SC in my Volvo in '11- everything I owned fit in my car, so it was an easy move (thanks to thieves and Mother Nature)

When I sold my house and moved into a better neighborhood last year, I rented a Uhaul. It wasn't too bad. Had to make multiple trips and load/unload due to our buyers' mortgage company royally screwing up, but I think my entire moving costs were $300 or so. If I had to move across the country again, I would probably get a POD for the large stuff. Make sure to go to Harbor Freight and load up on moving blankets- stuff 'em in every nook and cranny, and tape 'em to everything you can. Use your tetris skills to pack that thing tight- no room to move = less broken stuff.

I am wary of hiring moving companies that touch your belongings. My father had a small lockbox with rare coins, silver notes, etc that magically disappeared during the move South. To this day we think the moving guys they hired to unload the truck ran off with it.

 

[SHOdown220]

I am wary of hiring moving companies that touch your belongings. My father had a small lockbox with rare coins, silver notes, etc that magically disappeared during the move South. To this day we think the moving guys they hired to unload the truck ran off with it.

Agree with this, i hired some a company that sent 2 guys to move stuff from my apartment down a flight of stairs to our trailers. I only hired them because I had to work and between my wife and her dad they wouldn't have been able to move our very heavy sofa and love seat down stairs. Anyways the guys showed up an hour and 1/2 late, and first thing out of their mouth was to tip them outside of the regular payment so they didn't have to report it as income. They then proceeded to scratch the shit out of most of our furniture. My wife ended up tipping them $2 each for their "awesome service"

 

[CV355]

Agree with this, i hired some a company that sent 2 guys to move stuff from my apartment down a flight of stairs to our trailers. I only hired them because I had to work and between my wife and her dad they wouldn't have been able to move our very heavy sofa and love seat down stairs. Anyways the guys showed up an hour and 1/2 late, and first thing out of their mouth was to tip them outside of the regular payment so they didn't have to report it as income. They then proceeded to scratch the shit out of most of our furniture. My wife ended up tipping them $2 each for their "awesome service"

Yep! Had a similar experience with Rooms to Go in Greenville. Of course, that was buying furniture, but the moving guys that RTG sent to bring and assemble our bedroom and kitchen furniture absolutely trashed the hell out of it all. I mean, they assembled things backwards, cracked three chairs, tore out thread inserts, broke our mirror... One dude asked to use our bathroom and exploded all over the damn thing- god knows what he ate but damn. I took pictures of the horror show and went to RTG- the manager did absolutely nothing about it. Won't go there again.

tl;dr: Don't let anyone touch your stuff

 

[_Snake_]

The two of you can fit everything you're taking in a UHaul trailer?

 

[MG0h3]

Just you and the GF...uhaul and a trailer like you said. Shop around and make sure you get a good truck. Sometimes theyll stick you with a hunk of crap and you can refuse it and go to a different lot.

 

[_Snake_]

I moved from CT to SC in my Volvo in '11- everything I owned fit in my car, so it was an easy move (thanks to thieves and Mother Nature)

When I sold my house and moved into a better neighborhood last year, I rented a Uhaul. It wasn't too bad. Had to make multiple trips and load/unload due to our buyers' mortgage company royally screwing up, but I think my entire moving costs were $300 or so. If I had to move across the country again, I would probably get a POD for the large stuff. Make sure to go to Harbor Freight and load up on moving blankets- stuff 'em in every nook and cranny, and tape 'em to everything you can. Use your tetris skills to pack that thing tight- no room to move = less broken stuff.

I am wary of hiring moving companies that touch your belongings. My father had a small lockbox with rare coins, silver notes, etc that magically disappeared during the move South. To this day we think the moving guys they hired to unload the truck ran off with it.

I guarantee they did. I caught the two guys who packed and moved my stuff from DE to FL....they put a lockbox into one of their cardboard moving boxes and tried to force the lock box open somewhere while enroute. I figured it out when I opened the cardboard box and my lockbox lid was mangled from where they tried to pry it open. You could plainly see where they taped the flaps on top of the cardboard box differently the second time.

Come to think of it, they did steal a couple of Leatherman's and a pair of sunglasses.

I also caught them lying about the weight of my goods when they tried to tell me I owed them $1200 for being over.

So, yeah. Don't trust them.

 

[lobra97]

I moved from tx to Virginia last yr. budget trucks are cheaper than uhual, also it was about $3500 out of pocket with the truck rental, gas, condo deposit, first mths rent, etc. I was beat when we arrived from the drive and hired 2 movers for about $90. they unloaded all the heavy shit, was totally worth it.

 

[oldmodman]

I helped a friend move a while ago. He had a full house of stuff.
He bought enough heavy, double wall boxes to put everything in and water activated asphaltic tape to seal them with. Each box was numbered, and each box had a big letter on the sides. The letter was to show which room in the new house the box was to be put in.
He bought a used 40 foot long shipping container and had it dropped in his driveway. When he had everything boxed he hired a few guys from the local Home Depot parking lot to do the loading. He had a friend in almost every area of the house to watch for tampering, another at the front door checking the numbers off on a pad, and he was at the door of the container marking each box in. Nothing was tampered with or stolen.
Then he hired a trucking company to deliver the locked container to his new house and just revered the loading procedure. The total cost came in thousands less than a big moving company would have charged. But even more important to him was NOTHING STOLEN!
And after the container was empty he had it hauled behind his house and is using it for storage and as motor toy garage. He even installed power and lights into it.

 

[SID297]

I rented a 24 foot Penski truck and a trailer for the car. Easy way to move stuff.

 

[03cobra#694]

What part of Florida?

 

[Satyr]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. Looks like the UHaul box would cost around 2k, which is substantially more than it would cost me to do it myself. Looks like the original idea of either a truck and trailer for the car or just a trailer for our SUV will be the way to go.

 

[Satyr]

What part of Florida?

Seminole area. Haven't yet decided exactly where, but around that area.