I will be moving my graduating senior out of college in New England and moving her back to California. Our family of four will fly back with two big bags each. I’ve told her to give away or donate stuff to lighten the load. If she has more stuff than we can bring on the plane, what is the cheapest way to ship it across the country? I don’t care about the speed of the shipping, just want the best —and best value — type of service. I just want to have a plan in advance if we need it. Thanks!
Probably USPS, which is less expensive than UPS. If you can box books and other media together, you can ship those at the media mail rate, which is much cheaper (and takes longer). That said – once, I shipped a small piece of furniture (a heavy end table) by UPS, which was much cheaper than using a mover, so you should look at those prices, too.
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Maybe just pay for the extra with the airline. You can check in boxes. I think people aren’t aware of that.
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We moved a college grad in the opposite direction when she graduated. We told her to give away anything that she was not going to use again. She wanted to keep some books, and mailed those book rate with USPS. Took a long time but they arrived.
At the time, we flew SW, and there were three of us…so we had 6 LARGE empty suitcases for her “stuff”. We were very clear that anything that didn’t fit in those six suitcases was not coming back here. She made it work.
At the end, she wanted her bed comforter and linens, and some nice towels she had, so those were shipped via USPS as well.
Their college had one of those college tag sale events where stuff left behind or donated by students was sold…profits went to charity. Our kid and roommates donated a LOT of stuff there. Things like small microwaves, dorm size fridges, Keurigs, dishes, clothes they didn’t want, etc.
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Lugless is a reasonably priced shipping service.
We also used Greyhound bus shipping service for a small move across country — it took weeks and boxes were pretty dinged up. But it was cheap.
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A cube may be the way to maximize volume within the linear inches limit before the item gets the oversize charge (but note weight limits). Boxes are not rare or unknown as checked baggage on airlines.
Of course you can check boxes. But part of the question when we moved out kid was…just how much could three people schlep to and from the airport? We had six suitcases, and each of us had a carryon bag. Adding box(es) would have been an issue. That’s why we placed a limit on could be brought back.
To the OP…if your student is coming home for spring break (if that hasn’t happened yet), have them start bringing things.
I asked my daughter if there was anything she didn’t bring home that she missed. Answer…No. and she further said, she should have donated MORE before she left her college.
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UHaul has a service with smaller pods than the big 4x10/12/16 units that the bigger service has. Because it will be small, you’d probably have to load it and wait until another shipment was heading toward your area.