Moving large furniture across the country? (Where is my teleport beam?)

LadyM

So, I may be moving to the other side of the country (Washington state to NYC or New Orleans.) Most of my furniture is from yard sales and thrift shops and I will have no compunctions about returning it from whence it came. But I do have two really nice pieces I want to take with me. One is a dresser I've had since a kid, the other is a loft bed my father made for me. (Aside from sentinmental value, the loft bed will be an asset in a small apartment.) The loft bed comes apart for transport, but it's still, you know, BED sized (and then some, since lofts are "bunk bed" like.)

Neither piece of furniture will fit in my compact car. And if I end up in NYC I don't want to take my car anyway as I've heard it's awful to drive in.

I've thought about renting a small U-Haul, but I'm wondering if there's a better way.

Thoughts?

MegaMan001

The cost of renting a U-Haul for that long of a trip or using a moving company is easily going to be many times over more expensive than buying a new loft bed and dresser.

I mean if you want it for sentimental value, that's great, but you need to be honest about the amount of money you are going to spend to keep them.

U-Haul, Penske, or whoever are all about the same expense over a period of time and a moving company like UPack, PODS, or whatever is going to be easily several hundred dollars.

To answer your question, no, there probably isn't a better way to do this. Though as a piece of unsolicited advice, find someone else to gift those pieces too who will take care of them and treasure them as you have.

I just moved from Minnesota to Massachussets and my girlfriend recently joined me here in Boston from MN as well, so I have recent experience with cross country moving. She was able to move everything through the UPack company, but was reimbursed by her hospital for costs or we would have never considered moving her stuff.

Evil_Reaver

You should let go of those pieces of furniture if your move isn't been paid for by someone else.

I've moved across the country twice and I can't emphasize enough that you should sell as much of/all of your shit as possible before moving.

Renting a moving truck is not cheap when you have to rent it for multiple days and you have to take it out of the city.

I know it sucks to have to get rid of sentimental items, but someone else will appreciate those items as much as you do. Sell everything. Keep nothing except for what you can fit in your car. Your life will be so much easier if you just buy used stuff on the other end of your move.

Wiley

You could find someone to store them with. Who knows, eventually you may have enough money that you can afford to have them shipped to you. Of course, depending on how much room they take up you may have a hard time finding such a person.

Improvolone

www.packrat.com or www.pods.com? I've moved with a pack rat unit, never that far but still, and it was a fucking dream come true.