Moving cross-country, how to

Quoth

Greetings, helpers and advisers. I plan to move across the country in the nearish future and I was wondering if anyone had words of wisdom for me. In particular, I am debating the costs and benefits of using a professional moving company versus renting Uhauls or some equivalent versus those nifty-looking storage pod things that you pack/unpack and some other guy physically moves.

I have a three-bedroom townhouse plus my friend's one-bedroom apartment worth of stuff. Things that will be moved include (spoilered for tl;dr):

One queen-size bed (headboard, mattress, etc.)
One full-size bed (mattress and rails)
One couch
Two love seats (one large, one small)
One chaise longue
A large entertainment unit
A small entertainment unit
A large flat panel TV
A large regular TV
Ten bookshelves plus books
A desk that can probably be disassembled easily
Another desk that can't
A dining room set with six chairs
A coffee table
Two side tables
A sofa table
A large dresser
A small dresser
Two nightstands
A small kitchen table with four chairs
A microwave cart
A drum set
Five guitars
A speaker cabinet and amp
Two computers with flat-panel monitors

On top of that are the usual clothes, knickknacks, lamps and so on. And three cars.

Also important: I have four cats to move. Is it better to take them on the cross-country drive or to fly them over?

Thanks for any advice and assistance.

tl;dr: need tips on moving across the country, like how many trucks/pods and how to move cats

Reiten

If you rent a moving truck for long distance travel, ONLY RENT FROM PENSKE. Their fleet is new and in great shape.

corky842

Looks like you might be able to fit it all in several trailers + a truck. Of course, this depends on if your cars have trailer hitches or not. Getting one installed on each car would probably be more trouble than it's worth.

Bring your computers in the car with you. IMO the best way to transport them is lay them flat, motherboard facing up. Take the discs out of the drives too.

For the cats, how well do they tolerate regular car rides, like going to the vet and such? Keep in mind that you'll be in the car with them for days.

Improvolone

PackRat had the best rate on those fancy pod things when I moved several months ago. Give them and PODS a call to see what their rates are like cross country.
Ryder has good trucks and you also get the first 1000 miles free.

wmelon

For that kind of move, the way to go is really get a professional moving company if you can afford it. The luxury of not having to pack or load all your stuff and then drive 3-4 days is well worth the price. It will almost certainly be the most expensive option though.

Improvolone

I should note that I have moved a lot and using one of those containers was the greatest fucking thing ever. You can spend several days getting it loaded.

Quoth

The cats pretty much hate car rides, but I hear horror stories about plane rides so I am wary. Driving would make hotel arrangements slightly more complicated, and flying would be faster, but the wariness...

I have also heard bad things about moving companies breaking stuff and "losing" trucks, which would probably also be a fear with the pods. But the benefit of those, as mentioned, is not having to actually drive the truck.

However, we'll have to drive the cars anyway, so putting them on the little trailer doohickies behind moving trucks might be best. Or it maye be a lot more fun and stress-free to just drive the cars.

Basically I don't know what I'm doing!

mts

i have done it twice. the first time i drove a 17ft truck towing a trailer with a car. most recently we used Upack.com

price wise, the cheapest option will be the cheapest option with a professional being the most.

first off. thats a lot of shit to move cross country. probably won't fit in one truck . you could rent two trucks but why in gods name would you want to. driving a truck across th country fucking sucks. its uncomfortable, and everything takes 2-3 times as long.

how many people would be driving? first trip was NJ to CA. my wife did roughly 12 hr days and it took us 3.5 days to do it. 12 hr days was our max tolerance before it was too painful to sit in the cab. this was without animals.

driving back from CA to PA we got rid of some stuff and did the upack. basically you get a trailer, load up your allocated space, lock it up and unload at your destination. i highly recomend them as they were quite good. we drove our dog and two cats in our car. our cats actually did really well in the car. we drugged one and the other was not. we let them hang out outside a crate and they were great. i wouldn't want to do that with a penske truck

the problem is for the amount of stuff you have to move, its not going to be cost effective.

for a 8x9x10 foot space we paid over 2 grand. if you need more than that you are getting into pro territory and might as well splurge to get them to move things for you.

mts

so the question is what is your:

1. budget
2. planned route
3 # of people moving
4. new location, ie a job to pay for things

Saddler

I would consider getting rid of a fair amount of that furniture, unless it is very high quality stuff. I'm not going to go through it line by line, but just remember the cost of transport is going to be almost as much as you paid for it in many cases. You've got the size of the truck, the added gas mileage, and the cost of movers per piece, and possibly per floor. A friend of mine just moved from California to New York and paid $2000 to move a one-bedroom apartment worth of stuff, which was much, much less than what you listed. That includes renting the truck, driving it, and using movers for a few heavy pieces.

Personally I would never let my cat onto a plane, under any circumstances. I drove across the country with my cat, and most motels didn't have a problem with her (when I even mentioned her). A few large chains won't allow cats (Super 8 is one example, I think), but I always went with locally owned motels. You may be asked to put down a refundable pet deposit, which you will get back when you check out.

If your kitties like to hide, just make sure to catproof the hotel room before you let them out of the carriers. This includes making sure there is nowhere they can crawl into and get stuck, or get in a place where you will have trouble getting them out. I had to flip a few box springs on hotel beds to keep my kitty from crawling up into them, as she likes to do.

It was a fairly stressful 5-6 days in the car for her, but she got through it. I limited my driving to 5-7 hours a day so she could run around in the hotel room, calm down, and eat a little. She wouldn't eat or go to the bathroom in her carrier, so this was necessary.

Quoth

Ok, budget: I can manage up to $10k but less is preferable so I will have more of a cushion when I get there.

Going from Miami to LA so planned route is basically a bunch of highways through the southern part of the country.

Three people moving, more can possibly come if necessary.

Not planning to move until I have a job if at all possible. That is in the works, hence my beginning to worry about moving plans.

As far as furniture costs, the living room furniture alone was $1,000 (not counting the tables, which were free), the bedroom set was over $1,000, the dining room set was about $600, the entertainment unit was $800, and the two other rooms' worth of furniture was from Ikea so about $1,000 each room. So that's already over $5,000 worth of stuff. So uh, yeah. Replacing that much stuff is probably not the best way to go. But as stated, I can swing up to $10k anyway, so maybe it is. But then I'd have to either sell my stuff or rent my place furnished, and that does not sound like fun times.

wallabeeX

Sell all of it. Sell it sell it sell it. I just moved out here last year and selling all my furniture before getting here was the best decision about my move I made.

Los Angeles Craigslist is the best Craigslist I've had the pleasure of reaping. I've gotten amazing mid-century modern, dark wood furniture for NOTHING out here. I just picked up a couch and two chairs for $450, and I haggled the guy down to $300. I picked up a 9x12 Iranian rug for $150 from some a girl who was selling a loft's worth of stuff for her boss so he could move to Vegas. This place is FULL of rich people who just decided to redecorate or take off and families who are downsizing because of the economy.

This - is - a - buyer's - market. If you're not attached to the furniture for sentimental reasons, there is NO reason to spend thousands getting it here.

Improvolone

What with the extra thousands it'll cost to move it, its proabably not worth it.

Quoth

My concern is that I won't be able to sell it, but I guess I won't know unless I try. Someone else had told me that selling their stuff was the most horribly stressful experience on top of moving. Should I try to get a professional to give me a quote before I go that route, just in case? I'm attached to some of the stuff but certainly not all of it.

zilo

I highly recommend ABF U-pack. We used them to go from Chicago to L.A. and it was great, and absurdly cheap. We loaded our stuff ourselves (rented a U-haul to shuttle it to the loading spot) but hired moves to unload.

Quoth

Upack is quoting $4200 for four bedrooms worth of stuff so they are currently my best friends.

Jasconius

You're looking at thousands of dollars in expenses... be aware that if you hire a mover, they are likely going to demand that you pay them to repack your stuff (assuming you've already packed some things) with *their* materials for insurance reasons.


My only advice is to have a place to live lined up a month before you intend to actually move, especially if you are presently renting, because sometimes rental management companies want to do renters history checks and if your current landlord sucks ass at answering phones, like mine did, it takes over a week just to get that part of the approval process handled.

zilo

If you want movers to unload in L.A. I recommend Laprom Movers. We've used 'em twice, and friends have used them a few times too. They're good.

Moe Fwacky

You've got $5000 worth of furniture and are looking at spending at minimum $4000 moving it. If you don't want to sell it, give it away or burn it. You'll still break about even buying new furniture even if you don't make any money off what you have. By selling/giving away what you've got, you'll be doing yourself a great service. Reduce the amount of crap you have to deal with getting across the country. Dealing with selling and buying furniture is a lot easier than dealing with moving that much stuff and well worth the savings.

Daemonion

If it is costing you $4,200 to move all of that crap, even if your budget is $10k, you really need to get rid of that furniture unless it is sentimental or hard to find.

Craigslist works great, garage sales ...


Having less shit makes moving A LOT easier. It is also kind of nice to start off fresh in a new place with new/different things, if you can afford it.

ASimPerson

If you're wondering about flying pets over, here's American's page on the subject:
http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/travelInformation/specialAssistance/travelingWithPets.jsp&anchorEvent=false

Keep in mind if you drive, it will probably take you around 3.5-4 days with stops.

mts

well to be honest you need to weigh the cost to replace vs. the cost of moving. some large ticket items like beds and some couches are worth bringing depending on their quality, but book cases, unless super nice or what night likely are not.

10K is a lot of budget for moving. if i had that budget i would pay a mover personally or some combination of Upack + people to do the work for you. if going professionals, they pack your stuff for you. and you know what its probably worth it. you don't need to scavenge boxes, and they do it way faster than you ever would and probably do a better job.

Ganluan

I haven't used it for cross-country moves before, but if you want some professional moving help check out emove.com. They expect you to rent your own truck/POD type thing, but they have companies that will do driving/packing/loading.

The nice part about emove is that you pay emove right away, and they hold the payment in an "escrow" account. Once you're totally satisfied with the movers' work, you give them a special code that allows them to withdraw the payment and actually get paid. This puts the onus on them to keep you happy. I've heard horror stories of moving companies holding people's belongings for ransom after demanding extra payment for bullshit charges.

Thanatos

The best thing I did before I moved was give away all of my books. Moving bookshelves full of books just does not seem at all cost-effective.