Cross-country moving advice, as mustachian as possible!

[Simple Abundant Living]

This move is really happening!

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/raleigh-north-carolina/msg495988/#msg495988

My DH can work from here until our house sells. We are getting 20K to move, and I want it to go as far as I can. We will be packing, loading, and un-loading, but paying a driver.

I'm looking for any advice to do this as mustachian as possible. DH will be working extra hard and traveling at the outset, so I will be on my own a lot to do this. Some things I am wondering are:

1) Should we sell our older vehicles here and purchase others in NC? I don't want to spend thousands moving cars that aren't worth much.

2)Same goes for some dubious furniture. I don't know if it's worth the weight/bulk of moving.

3)What are your best moving tips? (Saving money & staying organized)

[barker]

I really hope someone can give some advice on this topic!

My SO and our two friends (also a couple) are planning to move from Long Island, NY to Los Angeles, CA.
We would like to get a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment of some sort for under $4000 (including utilities, HOA fees, cable/internet).

Don't mean to hijack the post...sorry.

We've looked at shipping the cars...wayyyy too much money if you ask me. One of our plans is to drive one of the vehicles and have the second shipped along with all of our belongings. We also looked at shipping containers...it all really depends on how much you own and what you are willing to part with. Personally, I've been downsizing like crazy and hope to only have 2-3 bins of personal belongings to bring with me. I'm currently selling off a bunch of possessions on eBay and Craigslist.

I think for the cost of shipping a car ($1500+ from what we've seen) is not worth it if the current value of your vehicles are around that price. Also, if you sell the current cars, it will give you a chance to downsize the amount of vehicles you have.

Same situation with furniture...if the cost of moving the furniture is more than the value of the furniture...why not buy new or buy used from Craigslist?

Hope I maybe helped a little...

[EDSMedS]

- Sell and buy!
- Inventory!  After item 243, the decision to sell becomes easy! ;)
- Be OBSESSIVE about properly packing the stuff you actually care about, especially if you use a moving company.  Stuff breaks, especially when the movers pack it.
- Be emotionally prepared for stuff to break ;)

DW and I conducted 5 cross-country moves (IA to DC, DC to NC, NC to CA, CA to IA, IA to DC) in 6 years, totaling less than $12K, including re-furnishing costs and not including gains on sales (b/c I didn't keep track).

Best of luck!  I look forward to reading more suggestions and your successes!

[gimp]

I've done it five times now, but then I didn't have nearly as many things. This made life a lot easier.

1. Use this opportunity to sell everything you don't need. Obvious.

2. My two cents. Use this opportunity for a stress-free cross-country drive. You can each do one alone. See awesome stuff along the way. A big life transition calls for a bit of a break, eh? Of course, if a cross-country drive sounds really stressful, this is not good advice for you. My first time, I thought it would be... after a day and a half (in other words, by the time I cleared the overpopulated eastern quarter/third of the country), I realized it was incredible. I drove the other five times, the last clocking in around 10k miles :)

[27y/oTennesseeRetiree]

Use it as an opportunity to downsize and get more mustachian. It sounds like you are getting paid to move. It's not clear whether you are using professional movers or if someone is driving for you. Consider renting a UHAUL and letting someone else drive or share in the driving. Like a ride share on steriods. The advantage of this is the tow dolly. You can tow a vehicle (and stuff it full too). Make sure the other driver is on insurance. Best bet would be a friend (or mustachian) who lives near you and wants to head to the east coast for a mini vacation. Put $100 a day in their pocket and get them where they are going and you still come out ahead over shipping one car. And why have more than one car anyway? You are relocating... one of you at least can be super close to work.

[Kaila]

I'm not sure what distance you're moving or if you have pets/kids to take into consideration, but I recently completed a 1,400 mile move with my SO, dog, and cat for around $1,200.

We don't have a whole lot of stuff, and we fit everything into a mid-sized Budget moving truck, but it sounds like you've already got that part covered.

In terms of vehicles, it was definitely cheaper for us to drive both vehicles to the new location. A friend offered to drive my car, and we opted to hook a trailer to the moving truck for my SO's car. Fuel costs to move my car were less than $150, and would be much less now that gas prices have dropped.

Gas Buddy has a great feature for helping estimate fuel cost for a trip at http://www.gasbuddy.com/Trip_Calculator.aspx.

Because we didn't want to deal with driving the truck + trailer into more populated areas or trying to find hotel rooms that were okay with dogs and cats, we slept in truck stops in the car that was on the trailer. So, our lodging costs were $0. I have a whole new appreciation for truck stops now. They offer free lodging (in your own vehicle), competitive fuel prices, relatively inexpensive prepared food, showers, and grassy areas for pets (usually). I'm not sure how cheap you're looking to get, but driving a fuel efficient vehicle and sleeping in your car is definitely a really cheap way to go. I found a list of truck stops for our trip on http://www.findfuelstops.com/. I just searched for "truck stops" + whichever interstate we were on, and the #1 results is usually from the findfuelstops website.

In terms of dubious furniture, my rule for myself is if I don't love it, I donate it. We ended up hauling a lot of stuff to our new place and then immediately donating it after we moved. I also donated a ton of stuff before we moved, and there hasn't been anything yet where I think, "boy, I wish I had that __ I donated." For the most part, I can't even remember what I got rid of.

As far as moving tips go, I took the advice of someone else and numbered all of my boxes and then wrote the box number and a description of what was in each box in a notebook. If other people are moving your things, this could definitely help you figure out if you're missing a box on the other side. I'm a little bit of a haphazard packer, so it helps me at least feel more organized about the packing.

Anyway, best of luck in your move!

[onemorebike]

We have a similar move planned in two months from co to mn. We sold one car, are selling a great deal of furniture and getting rid of excess books, clothes, toys, tools etc. I booked an abf truck, they drop a truck of in front of your house for loading and then charge you per linear foot. In expecting to pay about 1500 to move it and the we may store it an extra month to indulge in the road to some one else mentioned above. That was going to cost 350 a month. I've got kids and a dog, so having someone else drive my stuff is a huge relieve.

Isn't it interesting though to start to reevaluate your stuff by what is worth moving? As we considered moving costs I've pretty much decided to craigslist all furniture but my kids bunk bed. I wish my bikes weren't both special and bought at steep discounts or I'd sell those to buy on the other end too, as it is we have six rather difficult to replace bikes so they will be the biggest part of our shipping equation.

[kpd905]

I don't know if selling the cars would be worth it, unless you are planning on going down to one or zero cars when you get to your destination.  Having to search for and purchase two cars when you get there would be a pretty stressful time.

If you can get everything in one moving truck, with a trailer for the car on the back, the second person could drive their car to the destination.

[Simple Abundant Living]

We will be moving a family of six and one dog. We currently have three vehicles, my son has his license. We have a 2010 Prius (keeping), 1998 Toyota Sienna Van, and 2001 Honda Civic. I think we will sell the Van and Civic here. They are both pushing 200K miles, and I don't want to ship them or risk a cross-country journey with them. We have a (gulp) 5500 sq ft home w/3 car garage and will be downsizing to aprox a 2500 sq ft home with 2 car garage. There will be A LOT of selling/donating before we go. I have been considering a POD (or similar) to have delivered, so I can work on packing as I can, have it moved, unpack on our timeframe. Any experience with those?

[GoldenStache]

Pods are nice but expensive.  I looked into them before a recent 1,000 mile trip and ended up being about 5 times more than a uhaul. I used one once when I happened to have a month between places, nice that they held my stuff in a storage space for me.  I have moved more than 500 miles probably over 10 times in my life.   

Sell everything that you don't love or that is not actually nice (a very nice / expensive bedroom set that you will not be able to replace for the amount that you will sell it for). 

Old crappy table / couch / lawn mower (anything gas really) / cheap book cases / dressers --- Sell
If it has little nails with the cardboard back - it is cheap.. sell it, it will probably not handle to move anyway

The driving is not bad at all really if you get the large uhaul.  Take your time, stay in the right lane and just go with it.  Do not plan on driving 70-80 when you are fully loaded.  Please don't plan on driving 16 hours in a large truck. 

Cars..
I have pulled one with a uhaul, not bad.. It does make it harder to get around in the city and park but not too bad.     

@Simple - I would drive the truck, have SO drive Van with Son and pull the Prius.  If you are worried about the van making it sell it and drive the prius.  If you get the largest Uhaul, once it is full your new house will be full. So it makes the transition much easier. 

For those of you that have never loaded a truck, read a few posts about proper loading.  I have found it much easier to keep an eye out for free boxes on craigslist and getting the matching size uhaul boxes.  If the boxes are standard / strong it is much easier to stack than to load random boxes that you get from the trash. I prefer to use the actual packing paper vs news paper.. I have seen the ink on the news paper do some weird things to nice glassware.

Last tip.. Don't load and drive the same day.. Rest.. It is a lot of work, don't try to beat rush hour or leave by 3 / 5pm to get a few hours under your belt.
   

[Returnoftheyeti]

I did Michigan to Vegas in 2008.  I looked at EVERY option out there.  I ended up shipping all my stuff in an ABF UPack Re-lo-cube.  It was just me and I got rid of most of my stuff so this worked out well. 

Its not all about $$$$, its about quality of life as well.  A Uhaul might look to be the cheapest up front, but once you start adding in the cost of gas you are going to choke.  They get between 8-12 MPG.  Also, add in the cost of shipping or towing the car.  Another UHaul issue is driving.  Have you ever drove a large truck before?  Pulled a trailer?  Is this really how you want to learn?  What about the route.  And when.  Are you crossing mountains?  Do you have to add on extra miles to go the "Southern Route" so you don't have to cross the Rockies or the Sierra ? 

For me, once I looked at the cost of gas, and then having to add in that I had to ship or tow the car, U-Haul was out. 

For Vegas, I drove Detroit to Des Moins to Denver to Vegas.  I stayed in LaQuintas all the way, as they always allow pets, and I had the reservations made in advance.  I did the drive in May, and I hit a snowstorm in Denver. 

Here is another tip that didn't work out for me, but you might be interested in looking into.  You can Ship Cars and Freight with Amtrak. Seriously. 

[Simple Abundant Living]

Update: I spent most of the day selling a bunch on things on facebook yardsale sites. I got a sleeper chair, coffee table, indoor trampoline, elliptical machine, and other random pieces of furniture, toys, and etc. sold. It's crazy how much stuff we've accumulated here. I'm trying to get rid of things we don't want, as well as things I can easily replace in NC. My takeaway is that facebook is the way to sell things FAST. If you want it out of your house, you can usually find a buyer within minutes if your price is right. Some of these things were heavy, bulky, and up or down stairs. People gave me money AND hauled it out of my house. WIN!!!

[HipGnosis]

For staying organized;  during packing, put important things in the trunk of your car.

I don't understand your car issue.  I assume you will drive your car to NC and DH will drive his when the house sells.
Sell them if you're not confident they will make the trip.

If it will take longer for the truck to get to NC that it will take you, find some points of interest to visit along the way.  RoadSideAmerica.com is good source of usually free, quirky spots.

[Simple Abundant Living]

For staying organized;  during packing, put important things in the trunk of your car.

I don't understand your car issue.  I assume you will drive your car to NC and DH will drive his when the house sells.
Sell them if you're not confident they will make the trip.

There are a few different ways I am exploring to move:

1) ship everything (including cars) and fly there. (PODS, U-pack ABF, etc)
pros: easiest, fastest, DH wouldn't have to take off much time from work  cons: most expensive
2) rent uhaul, tow or drive car.
pros: cheapest, could stop and see sights and friends in KY  cons: would take at least 4 days, hard with kids
3) some hybrid of these- DH and son drive truck and tow car, the girls and I fly.

The issue about the older cars is that they are only worth $1500-$2000. It would cost a minimum of $1000 to ship them and they are both pushing 200K miles so a cross-country trip may not be advised. I've decided to sell them here and buy a used van in NC. That may mean that we will have to rent a car for a while looking. Not sure if we'll need a car for my son or not. We will try to keep it to two cars if we can. We also have a scooter, so that may be an option too.