a friend is moving and they had a couple questions...hoping you guys can help.

[kfeusse]

Friends are moving about 700 miles from their current home.  They have been in their current place for about 30 years and they have a lot of stuff.  They are sifting through their belongs and downsizing for sure.  They are moving into a home that is similar in size to their current home.   But the main question is about the physical moving.   They are planning on getting a moving company (yes, they are aware of the cost of that), but were wondering if it made any sense (money or time wise) to rent at least one U-Haul truck and move some things themselves.  They know that moving companies charge by not only square footage of space, but also weight.  So they were contemplating moving some of the heavier things, like boxes of books (he is a bookoholic)....or actually just anything.   They don't know enough about weighing that out to make sense of that. 

I told my friend that you guys are a wealth of knowledge and experience and if anybody would know....it would be the hive.  So, I know you won't let me down.  😊

[Amethyst]

Just let the movers do it all. U-Haul rentals are notoriously unsafe vehicles. The amount of money they would save would be a drop in the bucket. Plus, y'know, age. I'm guessing they're at least 50, probably closer to 60. I'm in pretty good shape and I'm a hard worker, so I would be tempted to try moving also. But my moving days are over. It's not worth the risk of injury. Let the pros take care of it. 

Edited March 29 by Amethyst

[kfeusse]

1 minute ago, Amethyst said:

Just let the movers do it all. U-Haul rentals are notoriously unsafe vehicles. The amount of money they would save would be a drop in the bucket. Plus, y'know, age. I'm guessing they're at least 50, probably closer to 60, and yeah, I'm in pretty good shape too and I'm a hard worker. It's not worth the risk of injury. Let the pros take care of it. 

they are in the upper 50's-low 60's and yeah....that was my gut thought for them as well....but I have no experience as I have not made a big move like this myself in 25 years.  Thank you. 

[Amethyst]

There's PLENTY of work to be done once they've moved. They should save their energy for that, IMO.

[teachermom2834]

We just did a move only like 30 miles and we had already downsized a lot of stuff. We are both almost 50.

We let the movers do everything (including packing) except things we would absolutely need to access in the short term we would be between houses. 
 

We were still absolutely exhausted. Moving is awful and we definitely felt our age. We had decided to pay the movers to do it all and zero regrets. 

[Arcadia]

Not worth it for that distance. Its double the distance to my kid’s college and we have to top up gasoline twice on our way there. Also they would need to stay overnight somewhere because driving that far in one day is doable by long haul truckers but not recommended. For that distance, I’ll let the movers do everything. Moving DS19 into dorm last year was already exhausting even with four of us doing it. 

[ScoutTN]

Movers are worth every penny. Let them do the heavy stuff!!  Your friends will still have more than enough work to do. 

[HomeAgain]

700 miles?  Let the moving company do it.  They should pack a box or two in their car, though.  We carried air mattresses, bedding, toilet paper, towels, pots, pans, dinner ware, and seasonings.  Things we needed more immediately and didn't want to have to dig through boxes for.

[ScoutTN]

Yes to the immediate necessities in their own car! 

[Katy]

It might take up to three weeks for that stuff to get delivered. Even when it isn’t scheduled that way, weather delays and accidents that change the schedule happen. And when we hired movers ourselves, the corporate moving contracts took precedence because they had contracted dates. So when our stuff got delayed for a 2-day weather incident, it was actually delayed by weeks because of the contracts. 

Stuff that’s sentimental, hazardous, or valuable they should move themselves. Unless they’re minimalists, that might be enough for a small rental truck. It usually is for us. That would include: 

-Jewelry

-Computers

-Valuable electronics (not TV’s, but things like stereo equipment)

-Guns or any other weapons 

-Expensive specialty gear (kitchen knives, sporting gear)

-Valuable art

-China & crystal

-Personal files that could be used for identity theft (especially tax and health records)

-Paint

-Garage chemicals

- All Cleaning products that couldn’t be eaten by a toddler, including essential oils

- Anything they want to move ahead or leave behind, like cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and a vacuum cleaner to use before they move in or after the movers leave

-A kitchen box with necessities like a coffee maker, a couple insulated mugs, a small set of dishes and cutlery or disposable versions of the same, and I often bring one large pot and a strainer to make pasta, and one large ceramic skillet and a large spoon & spatula to make simple foods like scrambled eggs or proteins or sauces. Because sooner or later takeout gets gross. 

-Personal luggage with a few weeks of clothing and hygiene items

-And because this might be read by someone who isn’t older, we have personal boxes for each of our kids with toys, electronics, books, art supplies, and smaller/lighter musical instruments. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Something to consider—a U-Haul truck sends a big fat signal that says “All of our most valuable stuff is right in here.”  So that’s not a great thing to leave in, say, the parking lot of a cheap motel.  

They might want to consider ordering a pod and packing their most important stuff plus anything else that would fit in it.  Those are much more secure, similar to shipping containers, and are delivered intact to the other address to be unpacked at their leisure.  

[mmasc]

Let the movers to almost everything. I would not rent a uhaul *truck*, but we do often rent the tiny little uhaul trailer to pull behind my vehicle. See @Katy ‘s list for what to put in it. Most important being:

1) the things they’d be devastated about losing. 
2) the things they need asap @HomeAgain list is good. 

It’s possible that the things above would fit in their vehicle. If so, even better. We’re always maxed out in the vehicles due to dc and dp (darling children and pets 😁) and all the junk required bc of the aforementioned dc and dp. 
 

[teachermom2834]

When we recently moved we had a car and a minivan and only one child so we were able to pack all the essentials not going with the movers with us. So there are some things as listed above that you don’t want the movers to take but I wouldn’t get into so much as packing heavy things just to save money. Just the essentials really is plenty. There is enough to worry about. 

[ScoutTN]

Make sure insurance covers anything not moved by the movers! We have had things lost (stolen?) or broken by movers, but at least there was financial compensation. Friends helping to load a trailer drop something valuable, no money and no treasured/valuable item. 

[Annie G]

My biggest caution is to carefully check into insurance. Our move was flawless, and not a thing was broken. But I’ve had SO many friends, and last year my sister had a devil of a time collecting when movers broke things.  They paid something like 60 cents per pound for damage, nowhere near the cost. They damaged so many antiques my sister had and it was awful.  There are reputable companies out there, with good insurance.  But be sure to verify.  Sometimes people book through a broker and the folks who actually do the move sell crummy insurance with high deductibles.

Also make sure the quote is firm. I’ve had friends and family members hire movers and once things are on the truck they’re told it weighs a lot more than expected and they have to pay a lot more than was quoted. At that point they have your stuff, so they have the control. 
I’m not saying movers are not honest- I’m just suggesting that you check carefully to be sure you know what you’re paying for.  
 

 

[Bambam]

When we've moved, the movers send out an estimator. There is no way I'd move heavy things like books, but they could ask for an estimate with books and without books.  No way I'd move the books though. 

One thing to think of - if they aren't fond of their furniture/bed/washer/dryer/etc - just try to sell those locally or give them away and purchase new or used at the final destination. 

If they hire the company to do the packing for them, they should make sure to have one section of the house where they put the stuff they will move themselves (clothes for a week or two, medicines, important paperwork, etc). And they should make sure to empty all trash cans because they will pack trash.  We used painter's tape to mark off a square area of "not for packers/movers" and we just deposited things there as we came across them in the weeks before moving. 

[KatieJ]

We found a very reputable but small moving company to move us several years ago. 3 guys, one larger trailer. They did not charge by weight. They were cheaper than any bigger name company…we shopped around. My DH packed every box himself, except kitchen, which I had help to accomplish.

movers just moved the boxes. They were terrific.

note: movers will not take liquids. Cleaning supplies, gas cans, etc. 

We either gave it away, or took in our 2vehicles. 

Edited March 29 by KatieJ

[Innisfree]

27 minutes ago, Bambam said:

No way I'd move the books though. 

What do you mean here: that you personally wouldn’t move the books, preferring to have the movers carry them? Or that you wouldn’t bring them at all to the new house, because of weight or other factors?

I can see that some might be cheaper to replace than to move, but others are well-nigh irreplaceable for us. Obviously ymmv.

[Innisfree]

Fwiw, we’ve moved a bunch of boxes of books already, but we’re dealing with a much shorter distance than the OP, and an extended timeframe, so it’s easier in our situation.

We have rented a U-Haul a couple of times for smaller or lighter furniture that we could handle fairly easily. The big, heavy stuff we’re mostly planning to leave for the movers, but we’re taking some of the more fragile, older, or more emotionally laden items ourselves.

Our main book dilemma has been that we can move the boxes of books more easily than the bookcases, so now we have accumulations of books at the new house and no shelves for them. That may require another U-Haul trip at some point, possibly utilizing some help at each end of the trip. U-Haul does have an option to hire someone to help, but we’ve also found good people through local antique shops that have people who help with deliveries. They’re used to handling things carefully.

[kathyl]

I would hire the best movers I could find and just do all the 'directing'.  

We moved so many times.  I hope I never have to move again.  Our last move was just around the corner, from the rental house to the house we bought.  Even that was totally exhausting, but we also did that one ourselves.

The last time we used movers (2019) dh was there and I wasn't.  So he opted for the cheapest movers he could find and they broke almost everything that was breakable.  It was ridiculous, and by far the worst of our moves.  Fortunately, we had been living in a 4-room cabin so we didn't have much stuff to move.  And I had already taken all the documents and valuable stuff with me.  Otherwise, it would have been a disaster.

Our best move was the one where I had already gone through each room and put all the stuff that the movers had to pack on one side of the room, and the rest on the other side, and labeled both.  The guys packing actually thanked me for doing that.  And it went SO much faster than our other moves.  Also, this was a national chain (company paid for the move).  And we had lots of stuff because our 5 dc were young and we were in the midst of hs'ing. 

We did use a pod once.  We even moved our piano a long distance in a pod and it was fine.  But grown dc packed and unpacked that one.  It went well because dc were there to do all the heavy lifting.  It would have taken me forever to do what they did in a short time.

Another thing we did that worked well was to rent a storage unit in our new town and store everything there until we were ready to put it into the new house.  That meant we had to move it into the house ourselves, but that was OK because we could do it slowly and we had 5 kids to help.

IOW, I'd research movers thoroughly and get the absolute best I could find for the money and then have it all laid out on both ends so no movers are standing around waiting for directions.  

 

Edited March 30 by kathyl

[Bambam]

3 hours ago, Innisfree said:

What do you mean here: that you personally wouldn’t move the books, preferring to have the movers carry them? Or that you wouldn’t bring them at all to the new house, because of weight or other factors?

I can see that some might be cheaper to replace than to move, but others are well-nigh irreplaceable for us. Obviously ymmv.

Oh, I'd take all my books, but I wouldn't pack them, load, and unload them. They are heavy, and we've done that before. I'll pay someone to move my books. If I couldn't afford to pay someone else to move them, then I would, but quite frankly, I think I'd end up paying for it in new supportive shoes/quality insoles, and possibly PT later.  But others might not have the issues with arthritis that I do. 

Re the suggestion to sell some stuff -that was just furniture. If people plan to replace their couch/recliner/bedroom furniture sometime soon, why not just offload that and replace it slightly earlier? Obviously I'm not talking about antiques, furniture that has a history or special meaning - or stuff you just like and would be hard to replace.  

[teachermom2834]

Definitely worth looking at what is really worth taking. We had quite a bit of lead time during which I was decluttering and preparing to move. Our previous move had been company paid and under duress so we had taken pretty much everything. This time we would be paying for the moving ourselves. We also didn’t know if we would be storing our items or for how long.

So as I went through the house I asked myself “is this worth what it will cost to pack, move, store, and move again?” An awful lot of things don’t make that cut and can be replaced later and make the move easier. And we were only going 30 miles so our move was even less expensive. A lot of things are not worth what they will cost to pack and load and unload and then maybe you find you don’t even need them at the new place or something new or different would work better. 
 

It is hard but really key to do your downsizing before the move. You don’t want to be going through a box of junk asking “why did I pay to move this 700 miles?” and “now where am I going to put it?”

Getting rid of useful things goes against how frugal many of us pride ourselves on being but there is a cost to packing and moving all that stuff. Not everything is worth it.

[KungFuPanda]

They can’t buy new backs. Moving yourself is for young people who heal quickly and their friends. It’s really not worth the risk when you have options and they are past the age where it’s ethical to ask your same-aged friends to help lift anything. Let insured professionals assume that risk.
 

The best thing they can do is purge ruthlessly and maybe pack the car with camp chairs, clothes, and bedding to hold them over until their stuff arrives and is unpacked. If there was anything they planned to replace soon, don’t bother moving it. 

 

P.S. People CAN purge books. If you are never going to read it again, give it to someone who will. Let that book live its best life. 

[footballmom]

I would hire movers to pack a Pod(s) and movers on the other end to unload the Pod(s) and drive my most valuable items loaded in my car(s).