Here is the deal. Wife and I are moving from one state to another about 700 miles or 12 hours driving. Wife is going first for her job. I’m staying behind as I can work from anywhere.
We are struggling with the logistics of the move. We only have moved locally before and it was the old get a couple of friends, some pizza, and a uhaul truck and it is done in a day.
Closing on the house we are selling will be on a Friday so we need to be out Thursday. Closing on the new house is the following Wednesday. House is vacant so no issue there.
We are able to pack most things no problem. I will drive down with wife’s car packed to the gills with her things a couple weekends before and fly back. That leaves me at our current place with a car to move and a houseful of furniture.
It sounds like my choices are uhaul (I’m too old for that), a full service mover, or pods. I’m leery of pods due to some issues I’ve heard about. Not sure how a full service mover would work since the truck would be loaded on a Thursday and could not be unloaded until the next Wednesday after closing. Would they have to drive it down, offload into storage, reload, and then deliver?
This is making my head spin. Any advice from someone that has done this before would be greatly appreciated!
You might try to ask your buyers if they’ll let you stay in your house an extra week. You’ll have to pay for this, but it might be cheaper than a moving company’s storage. But call the movers first, often it takes them a while to get your stuff over anyway.
If the house you are moving TO is vacant, ask if you can move stuff in BEFORE the closing and pay rent for that period. (It is unlikely they will agree to this, but you can try. Lawyers would work it out.) Where will your wife be staying with her packed-to-the-gills car?
Otherwise, I agree with yucca10 about staying at your own home to coordinate the timeline. It’s actually common and is called a rent-back agreement. The lawyers should know how to set that up if the buyer is willing.
In the meantime, pack your stuff and get a moving company to load, drive, and unload. I would ask around because mover quality can vary WIDELY. Be sure the mover is insured in case they damage anything. Document or photograph any existing damage to your furniture. Remove any jewelry or other “temptation”. (SIL had her engagement ring and another $5K ring stolen from a dresser during their last move.) Pack and move anything too fragile or sentimental yourselves.
Depending how much you have to move, it’s possible that a long distance mover will take another client’s belongings on the same truck if they’re headed to a location on the way to yours or in the area. Once you find a reputable mover, and meet with them, they can answer questions you have about the logistics of the move. They deal with this all the time and storage and reload isn’t always necessary.
@sylvan8798 has some great ideas. A rent back is a great idea if the buyers agree.
We just did a similar to yours in Nov except it was 900 mi away. We actually used a Uhaul for stuff that we wanted to move ourselves and drove it and our packed van also. I think there is a service where Uhaul will pack your UHaul and then unpack at your destination but that’s assuming you don’t mind driving a Uhaul. Check movers ratings online. Just be aware that no matter how good a mover you pick you’ll probably have some damage (scratches, etc…) We did our research and we still had some small damage on some things (scratches). Definitely move anything of value yourself. We used a mover for the big stuff. Also, movers may not be available on the precise day you need them since they might want to fill a truck with more than one household if they’re driving a long way. Be there at both loading and unloading to check off things as they load and unload. We didn’t want our stuff to go into storage since it would involve more unloading and loading and possibly more opportunities for damage.
That time frame shouldn’t be a problem for movers. We moved 1000 miles and scheduled 6 days between pickup and delivery. No secondary unload/load needed. Call some movers and ask.
Occupancy after close is not an option. Moving furniture into the new house before is not an option either. Wife has a place to stay with friends in the interim.
It will cost you…but a moving company will store your things…and then move them later.
Really, what is your issue with a Pod. Everyone I know who has used one has been very happy. They fill it up…and delivery is scheduled at their new place. This would enable you to pack up your current house…and then get it sent to your new house.
We did the U-Haul thing for the the last time 25 years ago. Paying movers is costly…but it’s a cost we are willing to pay at this point in our lives.
I had a good experience using a pod to move a studio apt worth of stuff across the country. The key thing was using a local moving company to load the pod in such a way that furniture was protected and things wouldn’t jiggle. At the destination end, we used movers supplied by the pod delivery agent to unload the stuff. The pod had a lock on it that we purchased, so we knew that nothing had been disturbed while in transit.
We moved two years ago with UHaul UBoxes. We couldn’t hire loading help so did that ourselves with friends. On arrival, we were able to hire help. The boxes were in transit for about two weeks (1,000 miles). Check with UHaul to get an estimate of how long yours would take to get there. The box pricing and links to moving help are right on the UHaul website.
Two years before that, we moved with a national company. I had three reps over to give me estimates, and went with the mid-priced one because of availability for specific dates. Their professional packers came and boxed up the fragile items I wasn’t sure about. I paid attention, so I was able to pack everything myself for the next move.
We didn’t use the professionals for the second move because of local availability on the move date we needed. Letting the pros do it all is a lot less stressful!
I used Pods when I moved a few years ago between states. I hired movers to pack the Pods at my house, and found movers to unpack on the other end. Nothing was broken or damaged. I was moving farther, and it took over 10 days for them to get the pods to my destination. So there was a gap that might be useful to you. I did take some very fragile or valuable stuff in my car.
I did do most of my own wrapping & boxing of things. Bought supplies from UHaul. Paying for someone to do that runs up your costs.
Try U-Pack. They provide the truck, you can either pack it yourself or call one of their sub contractors for loading help. You get 3 days to pack after the truck is delivered, you then call them to say it is loaded, they come and pick it up and drive it to new place. You then get 3 days to unload, again doing it yourself or with one of their subcontractors. Tell them your time frame and when you need it delivered and they can probably work with your schedule to some extent. Worse case may be that the 3rd day of having the truck on the other end is closing day so you’d need to unload in a hurry.
We just used them for a move from Iowa to California in early January. No problems at all. The only annoyance was that we got to our new town on a Sunday night, signed our new lease on a Monday and had to wait until Thursday for our truck to be delivered and Friday for help unloading. We knew ahead of time it was going to happen that way, just didn’t know the exact day the truck was showing up until the day before. We were able to have air mattresses and some pans in the car so we could camp out in the apartment.
check out Uhaul’s Ubox, https://www.uhaul.com/UBox/. It is like Pods, but provide more services. I did some price comparison few months ago when I thought I may need to do some storage. I found their pricing and services were better than other Pods or storage places.
I would pack up using a pod or Ubox, put it in storage for few then get the pod or Ubox delivered to your new place.
If there is a gap of getting the furniture to the final destination, I would pack up few days early and stay at hotel or friend’s house before closing.
I’d forgotten that storing somewhere en route or after arrival was an option with the UBoxes, so it is good that @oldfort has chimed in! We moved about a one bedroom apartment plus extra book cases worth. We used 3 UBoxes, but I expect a professional team would have been able to squeeze it all into just two.