Moving house - helpful hints please

[trirod]

I early semi-retired in 12/31/18 and as part of that process my wife and I will be moving to our semi-retirement home by Lake Michigan in the next couple of months.

We have been gradually moving furniture and belongings over the last few months with every trip we make up there (it's 293 miles and about 4.5 hours), so I'm hoping that the main moving event won't be quite as painful as it otherwise might be.

We are planning on renting a U-Haul truck and handling the move ourselves. I am thinking I probably need the 20' truck but am considering renting the 26' just to make sure I can get everything in - I'll do some measuring up over the next few days to get a better idea.

Anyway, just looking for helpful hints for anybody that has done this. How are the trucks to drive? How hard is the loading and packing process? Anything that you wish you had done differently?

Thanks

Rod

 

[Teacher Terry]

We moved ourselves when young but the last few moves we hired movers. I would have lots of blankets for padding so you don’t scratch the furniture. If you pack the truck tight that will help too because things won’t move around. I put delicate items in my car.

 

[Aerides]

Have you looked into the difference with hiring a small mover? Two Men and A Truck I like.

I would not feel comfortable with a large uhaul and all my stuff, without someone to blame if something went wrong lol.

They will also be faster and better at packing and unpacking, shaving days off the rental time.

 

[Col. Klink]

Moving is a PITA. I don't know your age, health condition, etc. If you rent from a full service UHaul franchise owner, they may be able to get you a crew of folks to do the heavy lifting and loading / unloading.

When my daughter moved from CT. to downtown Baltimore a few years ago for a job at Johns Hopkins, we filled a couple of UHaul U-Boxes that we rented with her stuff. A downtown Baltimore UHaul franchisee then sent over a team of guys to unload and bring her stuff up to her apartment. We then bought furniture from IKEA in Baltimore to supplement what was needed. IKEA delivered the stuff and did the assembly in her apartment.

 

[MRG]

The trucks drive fine. You have to be comfortable with driving via mirrors as you can't see behind you. Loading and unloading is a factor of how much stuff and how well it packs.

I'd consider having TM&T, or other regional folks, do it.


+1

Have you looked into the difference with hiring a small mover? Two Men and A Truck I like.

I would not feel comfortable with a large uhaul and all my stuff, without someone to blame if something went wrong lol.

They will also be faster and better at packing and unpacking, shaving days off the rental time.

 

[travelover]

I mentioned this recently, but we used a UPack trailer. They drop off the semi-trailer, you pack it, they deliver it and you unpack it. We hired a crew of two on each end to help. Packing a trailer properly is a little bit of an art, anyone with a strong back can unpack. We packed the boxes and wrapped the furniture ourselves to save money. For our 2500 mile move, the cost was the same as renting a truck one way and we didn't have to drive or pay for fuel.
https://www.upack.com/lp/abfupackmoving.asp?refnum=googleabf&c=G%2FBRAND%2FUS&g=E%2FU%2DPACK%5F1&m=exact&k=upack+trailer&ad=225607398455&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkMDc_oj94AIVRR6tBh1EXwR3EAAYASAAEgIGG_D_BwE

 

[Spock]

I've moved 13 times. Mostly across town, but 3 cross-country moves of 1500ish miles each. All of the in-town moves we did ourselves with a pickup. On the last in-town move I hired a local mover for a small truck load of the really heavy stuff. The cross country moves used professional packers and movers.


Of the 4 movers hired, one was great, the rest sucked. The local movers on the last move had 3 guys, 2 of which didn't speak english and were fighting with each other through the 3rd guy as an interpreter.


My next move is going to start with a can of gas and a match.


Recommendations:

1. If you can swing it, get the biggest penske (not uhaul) truck you can. They drive easy... but your full size pickup will feel like a compact car after driving the penske truck 1500 miles.

2. Box/crate/wrap everything. As stated above, pack the stuff in the boxes tight and the stack boxes in the truck tight. Real moving boxes are great because they are uniform size (1.5cuft book boxes).

3. Expect to pay big bucks if you're going to buy all your cardboard boxes new. The movers will eagerly "help" you get rid of all the cardboard... because they are going to resell it.
4. You're on the right track with making lots of small trips like a cross-town move vs. trying to take it in one trip. Start with the stuff you never/seldom use. Once that is done you start to make a choice of what critical mass transfers the helm makes the new place the base of operations while you make trips back to the old place for the rest... for us that is sleep (BR/BA), eat (kitchen), and finances (den or office).

 

[trirod]

1. If you can swing it, get the biggest penske (not uhaul) truck you can. They drive easy... but your full size pickup will feel like a compact car after driving the penske truck 1500 miles.

.

Thanks for the input - just curious on the preference for Penske vs. U-Haul? The prices seem about the same, just wondering if Penske has better trucks, better service, or something else?

 

[Spock]

Thanks for the input - just curious on the preference for Penske vs. U-Haul? The prices seem about the same, just wondering if Penske has better trucks, better service, or something else?

Much newer, reliable equipment. A little better an keeping promises for having reserved equipment actually available when you go to pick-up.
Usually slightly more expensive, so some of the bottom feeders of society are less likely to use them... thus a slightly less chance of roaches/bed bugs/aka "cooties". If you can pick up the unit the night before, bug bomb it and any rented pads over night before loading the next morning.

 

[Bamaman]

You really should consider another brand of truck--other than UHaul. How about Penske Rentals? They are diesels--not gasoline, and they're so much easier on the pocketbook.

Last time we moved, everything went into storage. Then we'd haul a load every time we were in the city--300 miles away. We finished with a Penske truck.

It sure beat the $20K our last company paid move cost with United Van Lines.

 

[pb4uski]

We've used U-Haul for numerous moves and been satisfied. We did have one instance where they did not have the specific equipment that we had reserved.

For a move like yours I would try to have help on each end and take your time and you should be fine.

 

[trirod]

I mentioned this recently, but we used a UPack trailer. They drop off the semi-trailer, you pack it, they deliver it and you unpack it. We hired a crew of two on each end to help. Packing a trailer properly is a little bit of an art, anyone with a strong back can unpack. We packed the boxes and wrapped the furniture ourselves to save money. For our 2500 mile move, the cost was the same as renting a truck one way and we didn't have to drive or pay for fuel.
https://www.upack.com/lp/abfupackmoving.asp?refnum=googleabf&c=G%2FBRAND%2FUS&g=E%2FU%2DPACK%5F1&m=exact&k=upack+trailer&ad=225607398455&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkMDc_oj94AIVRR6tBh1EXwR3EAAYASAAEgIGG_D_BwE

I liked the idea of that so I went online and got a quote - which was more than 4 times the price of a Penske or U-Haul for similar cubic footage (including the gas for the truck). I guess it must work better for a 2,500 mile move than a 300 mile move.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Cassius King]

Part of being retired is not having to mess with this stuff. Hire someone else to do it for you and relax.

 

[Walt34]

Part of being retired is not having to mess with this stuff. Hire someone else to do it for you and relax.

That is what we plan to do for our next move.

In the past I've done it every version of DIY w/help or solo. The last time we moved it was about an hour and a half drive and we made the drive frequently as the new house was being built. So we rented what turned out to be two storage units near the new place and everything that we could physically carry, would fit in the pickup truck, and we didn't need day-to-day like kitchen stuff, we moved to the storage units. On moving day the movers were loaded and ready to go in two hours. On the destination end they were unloaded in I think an hour.

Then over the next week or so we emptied the storage units. That worked well but it was exhausting. I was 52 at the time and DW was 46. In a month I'll be 69 and I'm done moving. For the next move I might pack a few boxes but that's about all I'll be doing.

 

[Dtail]

We will be moving from a rental house to a purchased house within a month, which is only 2 blocks away.
Needless to say, we are hiring movers for all the large furniture and beds, etc.
I already know 2 guys in their 60's who have moved everything and suffered an injury.

 

[W2R]

Moving is a PITA.

+1 That's for sure!

Part of being retired is not having to mess with this stuff. Hire someone else to do it for you and relax.

+1 Especially if you are over 65 years old. Why knock yourself out?

Back in 2015 I moved just 3 miles across town, at age 67, and hired a local moving company. I should have hired them to pack everything too because the move was too much for me. Numerous injuries due to bumping into boxes, having to move boxes around, and repeated falling over stuff were both totally unexpected and very painful, and recovery took a long time after my move.

I learned my lesson; although I had moved 29 times before then, that was when I was younger. Age sneaks up on you when you are least expecting it. When I moved for the 30th time, I discovered that intuitions aside, reality is that I am no longer capable of doing even half of what the younger W2R could do.

I doubt I'll every move again. However, if I do move for some reason, then I will pack a small suitcase or two, drive to an Extended Stay place, and stay there while the movers pack everything in my present house and put it all in my future house.

 

[statsman]

We will be moving from a rental house to a purchased house within a month, which is only 2 blocks away.
Needless to say, we are hiring movers for all the large furniture and beds, etc.
I already know 2 guys in their 60's who have moved everything and suffered an injury.

Similar situation for us. We're in a rental house now, and the purchased house should be ready in about three months which is about 10-15 minutes away. We moved 1,700 miles from CA to TX, so we had someone move us. We packed 99.9% of the house ourselves, donating, tossing or giving away as much as possible. Some of the valuables, including PC internal hard drives, came with us on the 1,700 mile drive as we needed to bring our three indoor house cats with us.

A good portion of our belongings are still packed. Some we will be able to drive over ourselves. Items like furniture, as you mentioned, will be moved by someone else. We heard similar stories from the people we interviewed at the various home communities about people hurting themselves doing too much during a move. Packing and boxing is one thing. Lifting and hauling down stairs, even if it's just the front porch or into the garage, is another story.

 

[Katsmeow]

Used to when I moved I would do all the packing myself and then hire movers for the rest. The last couple of months I (persuaded by DH with some reluctance by me), we had them come in and do most of the packing. We did pack some of the boxes ourselves (mostly because we needed to put them in storage while the house was for sale) but it made things ever so much easier to have the packers doing the packing. And, I was not exhausted when we had to unpack. It is hard for me to imagine us voluntarily doing a Uhaul for a major move.

 

[COcheesehead]

Buy your moving boxes at Home Depot. They sell them cheap.
Tape hardware to the item it belongs to.
Don’t plug in your refrigerator for at least 24 hours after you move.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I mentioned this recently, but we used a UPack trailer. They drop off the semi-trailer, you pack it, they deliver it and you unpack it. We hired a crew of two on each end to help. Packing a trailer properly is a little bit of an art, anyone with a strong back can unpack. We packed the boxes and wrapped the furniture ourselves to save money. For our 2500 mile move, the cost was the same as renting a truck one way and we didn't have to drive or pay for fuel.

This is what I'd recommend. My sis used something like this for her last big move, and it gave her time to get things moved into it carefully and efficiently. Then the trailer was picked up and delivered to her new driveway, where she could move stuff in at a slower pace.

If you are organized about packing each room and putting it all in the truck with a mind to where it is going, this can be the easiest way not to live among boxes like a hobo for weeks on end.

There will be tons of little things to take in your cars, which take up shocking amounts of space and energy. And then you will wonder why you packed them at all.

 

[travelover]

Buy your moving boxes at Home Depot. They sell them cheap............

Agree, but strongly recommend to buy the heavy duty boxes as opposed to the regular weight. Once you start stacking them, together with a little humidity, you'll see the bottom ones collapse.

 

[MBAustin]

Our neighborhood e-mail list regularly has people post that they have moving boxes to get rid of. You might also keep an eye out for anyone moving into your neighborhood and offer to take empty boxes off their hands.

 

[spncity]

Empty a dresser drawer and put the bed linens in it. Then the first night when you're exhausted, at least you can make the bed.

 

[Amethyst]

Ok, I have to ask: Why not?

Don’t plug in your refrigerator for at least 24 hours after you move.

 

[Dtail]

Similar situation for us. We're in a rental house now, and the purchased house should be ready in about three months which is about 10-15 minutes away. We moved 1,700 miles from CA to TX, so we had someone move us. We packed 99.9% of the house ourselves, donating, tossing or giving away as much as possible. Some of the valuables, including PC internal hard drives, came with us on the 1,700 mile drive as we needed to bring our three indoor house cats with us.

A good portion of our belongings are still packed. Some we will be able to drive over ourselves. Items like furniture, as you mentioned, will be moved by someone else. We heard similar stories from the people we interviewed at the various home communities about people hurting themselves doing too much during a move. Packing and boxing is one thing. Lifting and hauling down stairs, even if it's just the front porch or into the garage, is another story.

Plus in one's 60's, the injuries can last a lifetime.
Will suck up the moving costs, especially since the new place is expected to be a long time residence.