Author Topic: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?  (Read 4819 times)

FrugalSaver

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Needing to move a full house of stuff and trying to balance helping and driving vs someone I could pay to do it responsibly.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Syonyk

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2017, 09:01:37 PM »
How big is the house?

You're probably looking at $4k or so for a moving van (professional driver).

If you can fit it in a fleet of U-Hauls/Budget trucks and have drivers, that's going to be cheaper.

However, selling a lot of it and buying replacements at the other end will probably beat both...

FrugalSaver

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2017, 09:16:18 PM »
How big is the house?

You're probably looking at $4k or so for a moving van (professional driver).

If you can fit it in a fleet of U-Hauls/Budget trucks and have drivers, that's going to be cheaper.

However, selling a lot of it and buying replacements at the other end will probably beat both...

about 2,000 sq feet.  Much has been sold, donated and otherwise trashed.

terran

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2017, 09:27:46 PM »
We moved almost twice that far, and stored our stuff for a month using PODs for a bit under $3200. I suspect going full DIY with a uhaul or budget truck would have been cheaper, but we were getting reimbursed, so it was nice not to have to drive the truck. We hired local movers on each end.

If you decide you don't want to drive it would be worth getting a quote from Upack too. They seemed better/"nicer" (for whatever that's worth) and would have been about the same cost for us, but they were just going to leave the trailer in a (secured) parking lot while PODs put the bin a warehouse which seemed like a good idea for long term storage.

Aggie1999

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2017, 08:58:20 AM »
Five years ago I moved ~1000 miles. Basically filled up the largest uHaul type rental truck and drove myself. If I remember right, after rental, gas, etc my total expense was around $1500. I believe gas was around a dollar more expensive back then.

DebtFreeinPhilly

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2017, 09:13:59 AM »
What about purchasing a tow behind cargo trailer and selling it when you get to your new location? A friend gave me the idea. I own a large truck so it was beneficial to me but maybe you have a friend that can loan you their truck for a few days. My friend bought/sold the cargo trailer for roughly the same price so he was only out fuel, registration fees, and some labor costs (beer, pizza, etc.). Just an idea...

bognish

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2017, 11:27:25 AM »
U-pack/ABF. They drop of a trailer and you get 2 or 3 days to load it up. When you are done you put up a divider to seal off the space you used. They deliver and you get a few days to unload. You only pay for the space used. You need some flexibility with timing, but it was the cheapest way for me to move stuff from CT to UT without driving the truck.

HipGnosis

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2017, 11:49:04 AM »
U-pack/ABF. They drop of a trailer and you get 2 or 3 days to load it up. When you are done you put up a divider to seal off the space you used. They deliver and you get a few days to unload. You only pay for the space used. You need some flexibility with timing, but it was the cheapest way for me to move stuff from CT to UT without driving the truck.
How much stuff/space did you use?  How much did it cost??  How long ago did you move?

Acastus

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2017, 11:57:42 AM »
This is a long way to move yourself. Packing several rooms of stuff, truck rental, gas & tolls for the truck, 2nd driver for your car, hotel. It would be worth at least $1-2k extra to have pros move the stuff for me.

bognish

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2017, 12:07:44 PM »
Its been probably 5-8 years so I don't have the $ numbers. The truck they drop off is the size second part of a tandem 18 wheeler trailer. Really tall and wide. If you tetris your stuff in well and then keep jamming things over the top of the divider once its in place you can fit a ton of stuff in a small space.

It is definitely the lowest level of service you can get without driving the truck and was by far the cheapest option around.

I also did a Budget rental truck once. It had a governor on the speed limit so max speed was 75mph. Kind of a bummer going across northern NV, but the upside was I could keep it floored and not have to worry about a speeding ticket.

If day laborers are a thing in your area (and you are a out of shape desk jockey like i might have been) it can be a cheap way to get a house loaded into a truck and save back pain.

IWannaGo

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2017, 06:33:33 PM »
Just relo'd from IL to CO in May....my own UHaul was approx. $2k, prof mover $4k.  I shopped around and it was the mileage that was the biggest driver of cost.  Something to consider is the cost of moving vs. the value of the stuff you want to move.  Also, you might look into things like "media mail" via USPS...there are a couple of heavily discounted options, but always depends on weight. 

If I had to do it all over again, because I've now moved and paid $$, I would have limited myself to the small trailer that my car could tow, and only take what could fit in, sell/donate the rest and figure out what I really needed/wanted, once I arrived.

calimom

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2017, 09:32:52 PM »
Just curious: "600 miles" is not really across the US, at best it is a state or two away depending on where you're moving from and to. You might want to get estimates for several of the above listed options.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2017, 10:43:49 PM »
600 miles isn't much at all.

Assuming everything is already packed, it should take 2 competent adults 2-3 hours to play Tetris at each end, and 10 hours of driving. You can rent your truck in city A at 6pm, load everything, drive off at the crack of dawn, unload and drop off the truck in city B by 6pm.

clarkfan1979

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #13 on: October 11, 2017, 11:00:18 PM »
600 miles isn't much at all.

Assuming everything is already packed, it should take 2 competent adults 2-3 hours to play Tetris at each end, and 10 hours of driving. You can rent your truck in city A at 6pm, load everything, drive off at the crack of dawn, unload and drop off the truck in city B by 6pm.

They typically give you a specific number of days based on the total mileage of the trip. It would be cool if they gave you a discount for only using it for one day instead of 3 days, but that doesn't happen.

A 22 ft. diesel truck is going to be the cheapest. The gas trucks get 6 mpg and the diesels get 8-9 mpg. It will probably be $1000 for the truck and $250 for gas.

600 miles will take you 12 hours. Your average top speed will be 60 mph. You can't go faster than 65 mph. You will have to stop for gas every 150-200 miles.

I worked for my cousin's moving company for a couple summers while in college. I wouldn't trust my stuff with "professional movers" Many of the guys had some sort of arrest record that prevented them from regular employment. Some of the guys on my moving team would actively look through people's stuff to steal.   

Syonyk

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2017, 09:20:15 AM »
600 miles will take you 12 hours. Your average top speed will be 60 mph. You can't go faster than 65 mph. You will have to stop for gas every 150-200 miles.

Nah, they should have 50+ gallon tanks in 'em.  You don't have to stop nearly that often, though you probably can't straight through it.


Quote
I worked for my cousin's moving company for a couple summers while in college. I wouldn't trust my stuff with "professional movers" Many of the guys had some sort of arrest record that prevented them from regular employment. Some of the guys on my moving team would actively look through people's stuff to steal.   

That, on the other hand, is very good advice.  Pack expensive stuff you care about yourself.  It's funny how much a liquor cabinet "leaks" in transport with day laborers packing stuff...

NorthernBlitz

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #15 on: October 12, 2017, 09:34:54 AM »
U-pack/ABF. They drop of a trailer and you get 2 or 3 days to load it up. When you are done you put up a divider to seal off the space you used. They deliver and you get a few days to unload. You only pay for the space used. You need some flexibility with timing, but it was the cheapest way for me to move stuff from CT to UT without driving the truck.

This is what we did when we moved from ~ Toronto to up state NY about 5 years ago. We ended up filling up almost all of the truck, but I don't remember what the cost was (except that it was less than what my work would reimburse me).

Worked pretty well. Since we rented an apartment for a while we held the stuff in storage for a bit (but used a storage locker).

I remember feeling like PODS would have been cheaper if we could have fit stuff in one pod and that ABF was cheaper if you needed more than that.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #16 on: October 12, 2017, 09:49:57 AM »
600 miles isn't much at all.

Assuming everything is already packed, it should take 2 competent adults 2-3 hours to play Tetris at each end, and 10 hours of driving. You can rent your truck in city A at 6pm, load everything, drive off at the crack of dawn, unload and drop off the truck in city B by 6pm.

They typically give you a specific number of days based on the total mileage of the trip. It would be cool if they gave you a discount for only using it for one day instead of 3 days, but that doesn't happen.
Yeah, my point was that it will only take an efficient duo under 24 hours to do the whole thing. They can start on Friday evening and be done Saturday.

And I will add that hiring movers may spare someone from doing any physical labor, it will still cost a lot of time to coordinate, hire, greet, and oversee the movers. You will also worry about how they do things instead of doing it yourself.

There is an efficient frontier, and it can vary from person to person.

Lanthiriel

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2017, 04:10:01 PM »
UHaul. It cost me $2500 for a 17-foot truck and car hauler to get my 4wd SUV all the way off the ground to move 2500 miles over 7 days. Maybe another $1500 for gas, but I was driving through the middle of nowhere Canada where it's super spendy. It would obviously be way cheaper if you were committed to doing it in 1 or 2 days.

I paid movers to bring my stuff back down and it was $4400 for the movers plus $1300 for my SUV.

fuzzy math

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2017, 04:18:21 PM »
I've moved 7x in 9 years... A lot of the cost is distance and your move is really short. I've moved our 2000 sf house (though sparsely filled) and the cheapest $3000 was for 250 miles and the most expensive $9000 was for 2600 miles. This was with us packing everything, but them loading and unloading.

You've got to be honest w yourself about what you own. Our average weight was 6000 - 8000 lbs. move estimators will tell you that up front and their quotes are free. If you own a ton of books, China, or ornate wood furniture your estimate is going to be a lot higher. In the end I wish we'd gotten rid of more stuff than we did. Doesn't necessarily make sense to move Craigslist and goodwill items, but my moves were largely covered by my jobs.

DirtDiva

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #19 on: October 12, 2017, 04:34:55 PM »
We spent about $4,000 to move a 1700 square foot house halfway across the country (2300 miles).  We hired a couple of our son's friends at the front end ($200 plus pizza and beer),  Ryder truck (around $3500 with gas), and a couple of strong young locals at the new place to help unload ($200 plus beer), and 2 nights in a hotel.  It took 10 hours to load and 4 hours to unload a 32 foot truck.    The professional mover's estimate was $12,000.

I was scared of driving a big truck, but I did fine.  I learned how to use the mirrors, stayed in the right lane at all times, only stopped for gas and food at interstate gas stations,

sequoia

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #20 on: October 13, 2017, 01:34:38 PM »
However, selling a lot of it and buying replacements at the other end will probably beat both...

A few years ago, I was looking at a possible job ~1K miles away. I checked prices, and tried to come up with an estimated cost for us to move if we have to pay ourself. I forget the details, but I remember that the easiest (and cheapest if not second cheapest) is to move as little as possible, and just buy replacements at the destination.
- Less packing, and unpacking when moving less stuffs
- Smaller truck to rent - cheaper to rent - less gas to burn - easier to drive if you are driving
- Less stress overall - is my stuffs going to survive the move?
- No need to hire professional mover if moving less stuffs
- easier to find place to live if we have less stuff to move. We were planning to live in small apartment like for 6 months until we know the area better.

Good luck!

FrugalSaver

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #21 on: October 13, 2017, 08:22:13 PM »
Thank you for all the suggestions

kina

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #22 on: October 14, 2017, 04:54:14 AM »
If you go the DIY route, check out Penske. We have used them multiple times and their customer service was very, very good (I reserved the wrong size--too small--and they worked hard to get me the size I needed. Plus no extra charge). Sizable discounts are to be had if you have AAA.

Trifle

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Re: Cheapest way to get a house full of stuff 600 miles across country?
« Reply #23 on: October 16, 2017, 03:11:39 AM »
We moved a 2000 sf house 850 miles last summer.  We sold some stuff beforehand and then we did it all ourselves with the biggest UHaul (26 feet I think?).  We towed one car behind the UHaul and drove the other one.  Total expenses including gas were ~$1800. 

For the move before that one, we did the same thing -- UHaul -- but we hired two guys for the day to just help us load the truck.  (Some moving companies do that).