Does anyone have experience hiring a moving company that will store the furniture for awhile on the other end? My D is leaving Chicago after 3 years of law school to return to NYC to work and her firm will pay up to a fixed figure for moving expenses. She has a 1 bedroom full of mostly Ikea furniture, but it’s all in good shape and to be honest, we’d rather avoid putting it all together again! It will be hard for her to sell furniture while she’s studying for the bar at the end of July and she has to move out a week later, so she’s asked for some help to figure this out. And then once it makes it’s way east, she probably won’t have an apartment before October 1, and I’d rather have it stored and delivered than delivered to our house where we’ll have to move it again.
So, as the title suggests, any and all advice, recommendations, suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance.
I have used pod moving with some success, and they will just store the packed pod for a while. I used the PODS company for a full house move, and ABF a couple years ago for D1’s move of her bedroom furniture and some stuff for our house to her apartment a thousand miles away (her company paid her moving expenses, too). You have to hire pod packers and unpackers separately, though. D just made dinner for friends that helped on her end, though.
My guest bedroom furniture is IKEA, and I got the movers to take it apart on the packing end and put it together on this end. Just the beds, no need to dismantle the rest.
You should be able to arrange this with a moving and storage company. We have relatives who moved out of the country. Some stuff was shipped abroad, and some was stored (and I think still IS stored). The moving company they use has climate controlled storage.
Friends moved to a new city but their home wasn’t completely built. They rented a furnished place. All,of,their stuff was stored…and moved to their house about four months later.
But I would suggest you get a cost for the monthly storage, and secondary move. You may find that it’s just not worth it for IKEA furniture.
If she is moving to NYC then I wouldn’t use Pod because there would be no place for her park the pod, and she would have to do it herself. I would spend the money to find a reputable mover to do the whole move. FYI - my mover wouldn’t touch any Ikea stuff because they were hard to take apart and put together. Most moving companies will offer storage.
Thanks for the heads up on Ikea - will they move it without taking it apart? I wouldn’t use POD for that reason…she is moving to Brooklyn. This is all very helpful, I will make some calls. If they won’t touch Ikea, we will try to sell the furniture and drive back with the rest of her stuff.
OK, so they reimburse but your D is responsible for arranging? Check reviews. Many bad movers out there. My best experience has been with owner operators who are affiliated with a national company. We used a mover under Arpin last and had good success. NEVER pack valuables such as jewelry, family heirlooms, etc. Lots of horror stories. You have ask if you are being charged by weight or space. Sometimes movers will overuse paper to bring up weight total but that does offer more protection for your goods. If it’s just furniture, damage is less likely. It may be worth buying furniture blankets so stuff is wrapped and stays wrapped.
A lot depends on what the max is for reimbursement. As mentioned earlier, the fact that it will need to be moved into an apartment in NYC limits options as well.
Thank you - yes, she arranges and pays, they reimburse. We will need storage-in-transit as well since we won’t know exactly where she’s moving until after the move out of Chicago. We’re really just talking bedroom, living room and kitchen boxes. i will be driving back with her in an SUV, so all valuables, clothes and books will likely come with us. Reality is, the basement of our house has become a very expensive storage facility for the belongings of my children. You know, the stuff they can’t part with but have no room for! If we ever move they will have a lot of work to do…
I ran the numbers a few years back for one of my sons. His company gave him a fixed amount for the move. It made the most sense (economically) to sell the Ikea furniture on one coast, and then buy new Ikea furniture when he finally got settled in a long term apartment on the opposite coast.
We used Pods, and their storage, for more than a year when we moved a few years back, but we’ve been collecting antiques for decades so we had a completely different situation. It wasn’t inexpensive imo.
eta: never mind/ crossposted. It’s a different story if her new employer is only reimbursing expenses.
And I second Oldfort that you can only use Pods if you have a place you know you can park it.
Yes, she can only get reimbursed for actual moving expenses, which complicates the Ikea decision a bit. I think if the cost is equal to or less than what she can get reimbursed, we’ll take the chance. If not, sell and start over.
One thing I’ve learned, moving my kids, is that unless you have a full truck of furniture, your things are grouped with other people’s things on a truck. Sometimes you get everything you started with and sometimes not. It isn’t the best situation, imo. For one move, I hired a couple young men to drive a u-haul and do it for us so we could avoid that scenario. They were doing some other work for me at the time and thought it was exciting to drive cross country. They had a great time. I had arranged a storage unit on the other end and they unloaded everything into the storage unit. That storage unit is still full three years later. I recommend you not do this. 
I know moms who have driven u-haul trucks for their kids’ moves. That is beyond my ability, especially cross country.
Our S was reimbursed for his move and he sold bulkier things and shipped the rest, LA to DC. He used the mover his employer recommended and I didn’t hear him complain. They stored it for months, from Aug until he arrived in June. His employer paid for storage as well. They also paid for items to be mailed from HI and SF to DC and one r/t air trip to find his rental. He sold his IKEA bed rather than moving it and bought a new one he prefers in DC.
I’d ask employer if they have any recommendations on movers–sometimes that can be helpful. Perhaps the law school may also have some suggestions on movers other students have been happy with.
What @alh said is correct about multiple people per truck and I’ll add that your stuff is loaded and unloaded at least twice with long term storage. Considering that, what about moving it themselves to climate controlled storage in Chicago and then paying movers to move it from there to NYC when ready? She would submit receipts for storage and any truck expenses for moving to storage and then the bill for move from storage to final destination. Any direct move with a company will have fewer hassles than one involving storage, even for one month.
You can use PODS. They will store the PODS in many facilities outside of NYC, some in NJ. When you need it, just call them and they will deliver.
All good suggestions, thanks. I will be out there in two weeks for graduation and will schedule some estimates. After e know what we’re dealing with, a decision will be made!
We’ve moved eleven times in our married life, from DIY moves from one apartment to another one a half mile away, to a move from the Gulf coast to Hawaii (and back again). By far the smoothest moves were to Hawaii and back, when our belongings were crated and the crates were sealed. The shipping crates took six weeks to make it to their destinations, but nothing was broken or lost.
The worst move ever was one that was cross country, and the mover unexpectedly split our belongings into two shipments. We lost items and things were broken when items were “stored” sloppily for a couple of weeks.
Everytime your belongings change “possession” during a move is another chance for things to go missing. Minimize those chances. Have the moving company’s packers pack and itemize (into sealed boxes). Military families have things in storage for years when the move overseas temporarily. There are good moving companies out there that can pack and store and then complete the move.
Get rid of the Ikea furniture. It isn’t worth the effort, time or money to move it. She lives near a law school/ university now, so it would tske about a day to sell/ give away that furniture to new students.
Well, the sell/giveaway solution is not so simple when she will be moving after the bar exam…new students will not be in town for at least 6 weeks, and those already there are seldom looking for furniture at that time. We know this because this is her second stint at this school and she has a real sense of the move-in/move-out/furniture selling gestalt. She will only have a one week window, post-bar, to return to Chicago and move. First things first, I have arranged for an estimate (from a company recommended highly by a friend I trust) when I am in Chicago for graduation and disclosed Ikea furniture upfront. We’ll see, especially since someone else will be paying the cost of the move. Her furniture is in good shape (after 3 years) and she likes it. If it’s too expensive, we’ll move on to Plan B.
I don’t know how it is in Brooklyn, but in the city I moved to I needed to get city permits for the delivery, and paid a company to put up no parking easels during the permit window so there was a place for the pod. When D1 got hers is DC, the apartment building had a place by a loading dock where it could sit for 24 hours.
I think you need to not worry about taking apart the furniture. It is silly to not take a bed apart, Ikea or other. They take up a riduculous amount of space and are hard to move if you don’t. No other furniture needs to be broken down, but beds really need to. I assume she has one bed.
Yes, we will break down the bed frame - she doesn’t have a headboard etc…only mattress/box spring on a frame which even I can break down. Spoke to the moving company about the rest of the stuff and even he said it was crazy to disassemble if we could live with the damage risk - which we can. Remember, we’re only doing this if it’s cost free to her.