Learn me moving long-distance

Due to a recent major life change (career related) I'll probably be posting near-endless learn me threads for the near future. Probably 0.05 Chinese spambots worth.

First off, moving. How do you? In the past, I moved long distance, but as a younger and unmarried man, all of my personal belongings fit into my van, with the exception of my RX8. 2 vehicles carried all my stuff. My last move took the van, the RX8, my wife's car, and a giant U-Haul van full. Now we're moving 900 miles back to where i started in southern Wisconsin, but we have a LOT more stuff. Already moved my wife's car, already moved my van with less stuff in it (to prevent overheating and road-side kaboom-age). Still remaining are lots of large things (odds and ends, baby toys, growing family and all), the RX8, and a 323 GTX. Much of the furniture is bound for the garbage as it was old ikea stuff and didn't survive the last trip, but a few large couches are coming with that are new and very nice. I'm thinking of leaving my work bench to sell with the house as garage shelving, we aren't bringing appliances, but there is still a crapton of stuff.

Given that info, i'm assuming i can't fit that all in 2 tiny Mazdas. One plan is the u-pack thing where they drop a crate, we load it up, they move it to new place, and we unload it. Has anyone done that? what were your experiences? The thing i like about this idea is i don't have to drive all my crap a thousand miles. Instead, I get to drive 2 sweet Mazda and not worry about my crap. Most of the valuable and fragile stuff is already moved here. The wedding china fits in a box, and my guitar would fit in the GTX. Everything else i'm not too worried about.

Plan 2 involves another giant U-haul and drive a mazda, possibly leaving the other in case we need to fly back and do another u-haul truck drive. (lots of trips, this plan isn't so appealing)

Plan 3 is driving my parents suburban and enclosed motorcycle trailer out there, loading it up along with a giant U-haul van, driving one mazda and towing another on a trailer. This plan involved 3 drivers, but all the extra space reduces the potential need for yet another trip. It's a long drive, i'd rather not do it too many more times. i have access to multiple drivers, but i'd like to not push it too much. I'd rather not be in a 2 truck/trailer and 2 mazda convoy. 4 drivers at once is a bit much...

One issue with towing the mazda(s) is neither can be flat towed or put on a dolly. Both must be on a trailer, like all 4 wheels off the road, or driven.

We aren't on a timeline as far as leaving the old house, we haven't put it on the market yet. We get access to the new place in a couple weeks, and we're renting it from my brother who is moving into a new house in a couple weeks (already has a date, i don't remember exactly). We aren't on a super strict timeline, but I kinda want the mazda's here, at least the RX8 by the time AutoX season is in full swing.

TL,DR: moving lots of junk a long ways, got any tips?

The first time I moved across the country, I actually built a plywood crate and had freight center find a truck to drive it. It was 2 weeks late, and I was upcharged for being over weight while the company they sent out it made a bunch of promises they never kept. All in all, not the best of ideas, but I didn't have much choice.

When I moved back, I mailed the super important stuff and got a pod. Wound up costing about the same as freight, but no where near the delay in times or the headache. I don't specifically remember if there was a weight limit to the pod, but it did make moving what was left of my possessions much easier.

When you're packing, really look at and think about everything. Unless it's a tool, or your planning more kids, odds are you can toss it if you haven't used it in a year. At one point I was down to what I could fit in a miata from what started as a 2 bedroom house. You've accumulated a lot more worthless space stealing stuff than you think you have, it just takes a little thought. Bulkier, heavier things may also be cheaper to repurchase than mess with shipping as well.

So you had a good experience with Pods? There are some competing companies with the same idea my wife was looking at.

I agree about the stuff, much of the furniture is being thrown or given away, whatever comes first, but some of it is coming with. As for the large kid things, not only has our current child not outgrown much of it yet, my wife is pregnant again. Looks like it's coming with.

lots will be gotten rid of, but fortunately we are moving into a much bigger place. That way, it will only be full IMMEDIATEY after the second kid is born.

Abf u pack

I would suggest Pods and hired help. I didn't use them, but wish I did. We moved from Philly to Atlanta in the summer of 2014. My wife, myself, our 3 kids, the dog and a large house worth of stuff. We even scaled our vehicle fleet back to just one car, our minivan. Here's what we did:

First, we started packing over a month in advance, so that come the week of our move we weren't stressed out. I highly recommend this. We rented a 26' U-Haul, a 20' U-Haul and had a tow dolly from my FIL. We hired laborers to help us load the U-Hauls. We filled both trucks to the absolute max, as well as our minivan was stuffed full. It fit 99% of our stuff. We had to leave my old grill behind and maybe one or two other worthless things. Having the labor help was great. We didn't have to load all the heavy stuff. But the drive from Philly to Atlanta SUCKED. First, our tow dolly got a flat in Maryland, so we got stranded there for the night, had to find a hotel on the fly, which the kids were upset about. Wound up leaving the van there and having it shipped down later because we didn't trust the tires on the dolly. But the drive was very long, very tiring and stressful. It rained the last 300 miles...and hard. Driving a fully loaded U-Haul in the dark, in the rain, with kids riding along was not my wife's idea of fun. When we got here to Atlanta, we had hired help again to unload the truck, which was awesome.

If we had to do it again, I'd have spent the extra $1000-$1500 PODS would have cost. I still would have hired help to pack and unpack the PODS, but it would have been worlds better if we could have just driven down in our minivan alone and let someone else move all of our stuff.

If you can't get your stuff, minus any furniture or appliances, in a 26 foot van, you have too much stuff. Dump the stuff you don't need and have a yard sale.

I would look into the ABF system. I think Dominion has something similar.

The way I see it from experience there's 2 good ways and a metric E36 M3 ton of bad.

1st is consolidate as much as you can, get the largest uhaul you can afford and play Tetris to get everything you want in then hook up the trailer and let the most comfortable driving all of your positions across the country (did that with the ex wife, speed3, and the dog riding with me and slut face following in the Saab from Maine to Maryland)

2nd hire someone to do the majority of it for you and worry about much less overall so long as you have good travel insurance.

My wife and I moved from MI to NC in 2007, then back to MI last year. Both times we used ABF U-Pack services. I cannot say enough good things about them!

Does the pic show up? I am testing a new host...

My next move is probably going to involve a house fire. We used PODS for our short move and it worked perfectly.

In reply to Storz, no the picture didn't work.

Reduce what you can, don't use uhaul.

Toyman01 wrote: My next move is probably going to involve a house fire. We used PODS for our short move and it worked perfectly. In reply to Storz, no the picture didn't work.

Dang. Thanks.

For the last two moves, both in 2010, both about 2000-sf 4BR houses, both local, I called a moving company and wrote a check. That's how I'm going to do it next time, if there is a next time.

We used ABF

We read some pretty good things about abf upack, that looks like a good option.

We had a problem with the last uhaul van we rented, it had a tire so rotted that it blew on the interstate. The truck that came to change it didn't have a strong enough jack, so it broke immediately...

As for consolidation there is a neighborhood garage sale sometime in the spring, I might throw a bunch of stuff out there for $1 or make me an offer. Anything down to (and including) free will be accepted.

Rufledt wrote: We read some pretty good things about abf upack, that looks like a good option. We had a problem with the last uhaul van we rented, it had a tire so rotted that it blew on the interstate. The truck that came to change it didn't have a strong enough jack, so it broke immediately... As for consolidation there is a neighborhood garage sale sometime in the spring, I might throw a bunch of stuff out there for $1 or make me an offer. Anything down to (and including) free will be accepted.

The nice thing about ABF is that you don't have to drive the truck. You drive your own vehicles and don't deal with blown ties etc. ABF was cheaper for us than even renting a UHaul or similar. Honestly man if you're willing to fill the shipping containers ABF is the way to go!

Penske trucks are much, much nicer than U-Haul.

Definitely avoid U-Haul. I have always had some sort of problem with them.

The worst one was a truck with a broken leaf and broken rear sway bar. Over 60mph would start a crazy sway that I thought would kill me.

I have had friends use the ABF service. If I had to move a long distance again, that's what I'd be doing.

Brian wrote: don't use uhaul.

Yea I forgot that part. When my wife and I moved back to SC from AL, the U-Haul truck we were using blew a motor on I-20. This was in 1985 when they were still driving those old ass Ford F700s with the manual trans. Go Penske.

If it were me, I'd be posting EVERYTHING on craigslist. Take a good look at it, if it hasn't been used recently, put it on craigslist or Ebay. Get rid of everything you can.

After that, my only recommendation is to pay someone on both ends to move your stuff into and out of the truck. Might have been the best $300 I've ever spent--but that was to a 3rd story walk up.

EDIT: Just looked up that ABF thing. Yeah, I'd be doing that. And also paying a local moving company to load the truck up, and unload it.

spitfirebill wrote: If you can't get your stuff, minus any furniture or appliances, in a 26 foot van, you have too much stuff.

I was going to disagree, but I missed the part where you said "minus any furniture or appliances". Those damn things took up an entire truck and more by themselves. I don't know we'd have filled a 26' truck with other things, we purged what we could when we moved.

Klayfish wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: If you can't get your stuff, minus any furniture or appliances, in a 26 foot van, you have too much stuff.

I was going to disagree, but I missed the part where you said "minus any furniture or appliances". Those damn things took up an entire truck and more by themselves. I don't know we'd have filled a 26' truck with other things, we purged what we could when we moved.

When the wife and I moved to AL, we had professional movers that filled up a full sized van trailer with our crap. When we moved back (after getting laid off), we sold our house within one week and had to be out in two. We packed everything into one 26 foot Uhaul van, one of their biggest trailers and a LWB ford truck by ourselves. Never again. If their is ever another move, I think I will sell everything and buy new stuff at the destination. Excepting tools, clothes, pots and pans.

• Go thru all your stuff and put anything worth more than $50 on CL.
• Get a dumpster and stop saying "I should put this on CL". Just throw it away. If it was worth anything you would have sold it by now.
• Give any furniture you dislike even slightly to your cousin who is about to get married.
• Empty your closet into the Goodwill store.
• Sell all your cars that don't have a lien. Pay your down-on-his-luck friend who hasn't had a job in 72 mos and has been sleeping on your couch since his wife threw him out a few bucks to drive the car you have left across the country.
• Hook your now empty 24' race car trailer to your huge diesel pickup and fill it with your belongings - most prized first and when you get to the end of the trailer add a few items to the bed of the truck.
• Have a bonfire with the rest.
• Drive the truck to your new home.

Estate sale will bring every deal hunter out ..... let the Junk to some gold to other theory play out . Save money for cable/web / electric hookup

I found that ZippyShell was cheaper than ABF for the same size. It was around $2800 to move a single 12x7x7 crate across the country in 10 days.

I sold my cheap car and we drove her Fit on a mini road trip. In hindsight I wish I would've taken longer for the roadtrip, but the cat was an issue.

Thing we should've sold the most: couches. They take up a ton of room, get damaged easily, and don't always fit well in the new place.

It's been a while, but we did this in late '13. ABF was going to have our stuff for close to a month before we could get to it. I don't recall actual numbers but I do remember sticker shock, and that Pods were silly expensive, I recall we needed 3 Pods for our stuff, we might have gotten away with 2 but that would have required culling a lot of stuff to fit it all in only the 2 pods.

We had a $5K moving allowance and ~4 1/2 weeks notice for SWMBO's job, moving from Columbus, OH to central AR. We didn't know at the time that most moving companies wanted 2+ months notice, also we were moving at the end of summer when apparently everyone moves, they all called it their "busy season," late summer early fall.

The recommended moving company partner for SWMBO's new job couldn't work us into their schedule, but recommended a few others. Only one moving company, All my Sons, thought they could make it happen, though it'd take them a week to get our stuff back to us after we were physically in AR, for a reason I don't recall. Anyway, a guy from All my Sons came walked through the house, took notes, and gave us an estimate that was ~$300 over our allowance. We were both in shock, but at least with a moving company they could bill SWMBO's employer directly, and we'd only be out of pocket the $300.

We discussed the plan with the All my Sons rep, and thanked him for his time. Then as the All my Son's guy was leaving through the garage, he paused, looked around, looked at us, and said, "I guess you probably want all of this stuff moved too?" Needless to say the estimate then went WAY over our allowance.

We punted, paid out of pocket (with a promise to be reimbursed) for a 26' U-Haul and car hauler trailer (not a dolly), we gave away/threw away a lot of stuff. Loaded all our worldly possessions in the U-Haul, stuffed my car full of stuff and loaded it on the trailer, I drove the U-Haul, and SWMBO followed in her car also full of stuff.

I called around to all the usual suspects, U-Haul, Budget, Penske, etc. got the lowest price for the biggest truck and a car trailer, then bid them all against each other. Everyone met or beat their competitors. Wound up with U-Haul for some reason, lower floor maybe? I think they threw in a couple dozen moving blankets and an appliance dolly to sweeten the deal too.

I think fuel and rental wound up being around $1300 when it was all said and done. They took their sweet time but SWMBO's employeer did eventually reimburse us.