Movers

[east2west]

Hey there—Anyone have advice on finding (affordable) movers? I'm headed from the East Coast toward the West— I'll, of course, check with folks in the Department I'm headed to, but I was wondering if there might be some collective wisdom to tap into here...

[maynotmatter]

Mar 2, 2012 14:13:14 GMT -5 @east2west said:

Hey there—Anyone have advice on finding (affordable) movers? I'm headed from the East Coast toward the West— I'll, of course, check with folks in the Department I'm headed to, but I was wondering if there might be some collective wisdom to tap into here...

If your dept is funding part/all of your moving costs, they might have a contract with a national moving company already. I'm not sure whether you would *have* to use them or not, but definitely something to check.

In terms of tips, the more you can pack yourself, the less it'll cost, since most movers charge X amount per box packed. We packed almost everything ourselves, but let the movers pack a couple valuable (for a grad student, at least) pictures/paintings, and a cabinet of fragile (and expensive) dishware. You'll also have more insurance coverage on things the movers pack, so keep that in mind.

Look for heavy things that you can get rid of, since you'll be charged by weight. For my move (northeast to southwest), the costs came in around 50 cents/pound, plus gas/tax/fees/etc.
Thus, it might be cheaper to sell your 500 pound 10 year old elliptical/treadmill, Tube TV, or ratty but heavy-as-shit TV cabinet, if you can buy something similar at your new place for less than the $250 it would cost to move it. Ditto with household supplies/misc items, like a gallon of bleach, laundry detergent, cat litter, old books, etc. A bunch of those little things could add up for a few extra hundred pounds of weight, and thus a hundred bucks or more in moving costs.

Also, from what I've seen in a couple moves, most national moving companies go by a set rate schedule that everyone uses, so the 'discount' would really be the perks they offered because you were moving with University X, rather than the rate actually being cheaper than a competitor.

Finally, we found that the wardrobe boxes (with the 'rack' across the top of the box where you hang clothes) are absolute garbage when they get stacked 3-high in a big moving truck, but liquor store wine boxes worked amazingly well for our glasses and knick-knacks (and full bottles of liquor... don't tell the moving company).

Good luck!

[east2west]

This is helpful! Thanks! And your description of the old treadmill and tube tv are spot on. Well done.

[ohh]

And do not trust a moving company that does not come to your house for an estimate.

[runner]

if you put your info on one of those moving websites, you will be instantly inundated with offers for in-home estimates. you should get at least 3 estimates, and they're generally good for 60 days.

[laughthroughit]

I haven't been able to afford a full-service move, so I can't speak to that, but if you're paying for your move yourself (or you have a limited budget based on what your new position is giving you - in other words, what they're giving you won't completely cover a full-service move), I'd totally recommend ABF UPack. A fellow academic told me about them because they had used the service for three moves after grad school.

Last year, I used ABF UPack - they're sort of like PODS but they tend to be cheaper. I loaded myself and they drove the cubes to the new location. I paid a local moving company (found via the UHaul movers help site) to unload the cubes and move things into my new place since I didn't have friends in my new location to help me out on this end. ABF was really nice and helpful - they worked with me closely for the drop off and delivery dates of the cubes and called to check on things to see if I needed the cubes longer or anything. You can get quotes online.

[Two Men option]

I have used "Two Men and a Truck" before, and they were quite a bit cheaper than other national companies (Mayflower and such) and more willing to deal with idiosyncratic requests. The guys who packed the truck were the same ones who drove it and unpacked it -- seemed less impersonal, and I was satisfied with them.

One thing to ask a moving company is whether your stuff will be packed into a huge trailer with somebody else's possessions. Apparently that is quite common; they do several moves at once. I really wasn't comfortable with that, and the "Two Men" company was able to guarantee that they would use a smaller truck for just my belongings. I didn't have that much, since I was going from one smallish apartment to another, and they could handle that fine. I was obviously satisfied with them, hence the plug.

It is freakishly expensive, I could never have afforded it myself, but it was so nice to have the institution foot the bill. I understand now why that is a common negotiating point in the contract.

[door2door]

We used door 2 door to move from Boston to the west coast a few years ago. It works like Pods but is not as expensive. We also hired movers through uhaul's website to load and unload the containers on the front and back end.

Worked like a charm.

[anon]

For moving internationally (between the U.S. and Canada, for instance), Atlas Van Lines is great: www.atlasvanlines.com/