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Moving companies, trucks, etc.


Slache
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We are moving from Portland, OR to San Antonio, TX around April 1st of next year. How should I do this? I am considering 3 options at this point.

  1. Getting a moving truck and doing everything ourselves. While this is the cheapest option on the surface we will need another driver which means additional flights and hotel rooms.
  2. Hiring a company to move our things. This is the most expensive option.
  3. Hiring a discount company to move our things which takes longer and packing a few weeks of necessities in our van and a rented trailer.

 

Important things to note.

  1. I do not drive.
  2. We are not well off financially
  3. We will have 3 kids in the van.
  4. We all need new mattresses so I was going to ship them to the new place or even to us but leave them in the boxes.
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What about using a Pod? You pack it, they store it until you're ready to have it delivered, and you unpack it. My sister used one when she moved and it worked out well. I don't know the cost, but it might fall between having movers move you and moving yourself. I think there are other companies that are similar to a Pod, too, that might cost a little less.

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You need to look into those "Pod" things. There are other threads on WTM (if you can locate them via Search, probably better to Google that).  Pods, partial trailer load, etc. there are some in between things that would not be as inexpensive as a complete DIY job, but probably much less than having a moving company do almost everything, which can cost an arm and a leg and sometimes not turn out well.

ABF or Arkansas Best is I believe one company that does the Pods or partial truck loads.

What I don't remember about those methods is how long it takes to get your stuff.

You may be on the  high rate side of the curve. Be thankful that you are not moving from California. That would probably be far more expensive, because of the people leaving California and the equipment distribution issues caused by the unbalanced shipments.

If you can delay purchasing the new mattresses, I would do that after you arrive in TX.  That will reduce the shipping weight and the volume (space) that you use.

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5 minutes ago, Slache said:

The argument against buying mattresses in San Antonio is the sales tax. We don't have that in Oregon and if I have them delivered in boxes and don't take them out of the boxes I feel like it's the wiser idea. I don't know.

I would do some sort of cost analysis. Which costs more, the tax or the additional weight/volume? 

My concern would be some sort of problem with the mattresses you wouldn't know about until you unpacked them in San Antonio. Unless you purchased from a national company that has a store in San Antonio, you might not get the issues resolved.

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6 minutes ago, wilrunner said:

I would do some sort of cost analysis. Which costs more, the tax or the additional weight/volume? 

My concern would be some sort of problem with the mattresses you wouldn't know about until you unpacked them in San Antonio. Unless you purchased from a national company that has a store in San Antonio, you might not get the issues resolved.

Amazon. 

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2 minutes ago, wilrunner said:

Totally something I would never have considered! Man, I feel old! Returning them wouldn't be an issue, then!

(And there is a new Amazon warehouse nearby, so generally things are delivered very quickly.)

I felt really stupid ordering a mattress from Amazon but man do I love it. I was sleeping on a 25 year old mattress and I wanted to spend the money on a really nice one but didn't have it and wound up with a $200 latex mattress that is to die for. I could spend $4,000 on a mattress and not love it as much. It made huge difference in my back pain and my husband's allergies. It's breaking down though, because $200 mattresses are $200 mattresses, so I'm getting a name brand latex mattress. My kids have $60 ikea mattresses that are awful and will be getting what we're getting.

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In case you’re still interested in DIY, on U haul’s website is an add on “rental movers”.  So you drive the truck but can contract out movers to load/unload from truck.  Some will be people who live where you live now (load truck), and some will be where you get to (unload truck).  It doesn’t negate the driving need, but can be a good option, especially if you have trouble moving furniture.

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You can cancel the UHaul pods pretty easily, too, if you change your mind - I did!

When we moved across-ish country a few years ago, we used Old Dominion. It wasn't full service, but not pods either. They dropped of a huge tractor-trailer back in our driveway, and then came back 3 days later. We filled it as much as we needed, and then they put up a barrier to hold our belongings in place. The rest of the space was filled with stuff from other families. Then, Old Dominion delivered all the stuff to the different drop-off points. It took about a week. We then had to unload it ourselves at our destination.

It was pretty cool how they coordinated everything, and from Colorado to PA, it cost about $1,000. There are other companies that do this too besides Old Dominion.

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We've used ABF U-Pack twice (once for our move and once for shipping some things we'd left behind, thinking we'd be moving back) and they were fantastic.  Much cheaper than PODS and the customer service/help was far, far superior.  The process was similar to what Mainer described with Old Dominion above.

Just remember, whatever you use, to pack your belongings tightly and use a lot of padding between things. We ended up with big spots on our refrigerator where the finish rubbed off. Totally our fault - the instructions were clear. Next time I will buy thrift store blankets to put between things, or scrounge old blankets and towels from people. 

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9 minutes ago, Mainer said:

You can cancel the UHaul pods pretty easily, too, if you change your mind - I did!

When we moved across-ish country a few years ago, we used Old Dominion. It wasn't full service, but not pods either. They dropped of a huge tractor-trailer back in our driveway, and then came back 3 days later. We filled it as much as we needed, and then they put up a barrier to hold our belongings in place. The rest of the space was filled with stuff from other families. Then, Old Dominion delivered all the stuff to the different drop-off points. It took about a week. We then had to unload it ourselves at our destination.

It was pretty cool how they coordinated everything, and from Colorado to PA, it cost about $1,000. There are other companies that do this too besides Old Dominion.

 

Old Dominion is apparently an extremely good company. Years ago, when DD was very young, we bought something for her  from the Step2 factory in Ohio and they shipped it to our Receiver/Forwarder in Miami via Old Dominion.   I remember being impressed by their Tracking and some other things about the company.  More recently, when I watched a TV channel from the USA, I saw Old Dominion commercials on TV. 

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22 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

However, remember that moving costs money outside of the actual expenses of moving.   Not sure if you are planning to rent or to buy but things like application fees, security deposits, costs associated with travelling to our new location to look at places, deposits for starting utilities, "double billing" as utilities from the new place start coming in at the same time that final bills for the old place are coming in, packing tape....SO MUCH packing tape lol.  All sorts of odds and ends and incidentals.  All together, we have spent around $5k on all that stuff.  

Yes, I have a generous budget including 2 months rent, gas/hotels/food, and l large miscellaneous section. Thank you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

That's a pretty long move so it won't be dirt cheap any way you slice it. The pod or uhaul option might be cheapest, but you might be able to find a reasonable price discount mover if you don't have too much stuff. I'd probably get rid of the mattresses and pretty much anything else you plan on replacing. It'll just cost more to have it moved. If you need a recommendation for a mover, I've used A1AutoTransport (theyre movers and car shippers) - they operate throughout the southwest and were on the cheaper side of the ones I looked at. Good luck with everything.

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I am getting ready to move as well.....but only about 8 miles away.   I suggest getting rid of absolutely everything that you do not absolutely have to have/want/love.   You do not want to pay to move stuff that you will just get rid of later or that you can buy cheaper on your new location than it costs to move it.

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I also recommend ABF.  We packed and loaded. They drove.  We moved about 1,000 miles and received our trucks four days after they left. Keep in mind that the cost includes gas and tolls.  We checked craigslist for free moving boxes, and then returned the favor by posting ours for free once to got there.  I also purchased lots of old blankets from garage sales and thrift stores to use for packing.  Keep in mind that you can also use cardboard to cushion between items. Appliance boxes can often be picked up for free from dealers. 

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We live in Vancouver Wa and were just in San Antonio last week. :0)

I don't know anything about moving but will send you a bit of advice if you haven't spent much time in San Antonio..

The freeway/Highway system is very different than ours.  Look at an over view map and get a good idea of where you are going before you try to navigate with Google Maps or Apple Maps. Figure out what freeways share names and overlap the same space.  Some go in a loop around the city and some go in more of a straight line.  There is a huge lag time for both Google and Apple aps in that area (compared to ours) and there are lots road changes that are not current in the programming. Like closed freeway exits and exits that are not on the map.  There are lots of turnarounds and other ways to access the interstates but it can be really confusing at first. 

One time we had 3 phones in the same car pulling up a single location on their phone and all 3 phones had different directions with drive times between 6 and 20 minutes.  2 were Apple one was using Google.  We followed one of the Apple phones which sent us to a sketchy house in a neighborhood, to find a restaurant. (obviously very, very wrong).  Another time we were searching for a hotel to pick up a family member and Apple sent us to a seedy hotel, with a dumpster and a chain-link fence where it pinged the 'you are here'.  The real hotel (large national chain) was about 10 minutes away on Google maps. 

In Portland, both apps work great and when it sent us to areas that looked wrong, we assumed it was like when Google will send you through a neighborhood or parking lot to get somewhere  on the otherside.  Nope....not the same. LOL

Edited by Tap
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22 hours ago, Ottakee said:

I am getting ready to move as well.....but only about 8 miles away.   I suggest getting rid of absolutely everything that you do not absolutely have to have/want/love.   You do not want to pay to move stuff that you will just get rid of later or that you can buy cheaper on your new location than it costs to move it.

We're probably doing a local move in the spring - I started cleaning out closets last week. No way do I like most of this stuff enough to move it! It's actually very freeing!

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