Making A Big Cross Country Move

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

I think this is the proper forum for this? If not, my apologies!

So, as it turns out, none of the schools that I was admitted to are anywhere near where I live. I've only ever made moves that were within a four-hour driving distance, so making multiple trips back and forth over a few months was no big deal. I'm unloading a lot of my possessions, but I do collect records and other band merch and I am a musician - so some of this stuff will be a pain to move! I'm assuming other people have been in a similar situation before. How easy is it to rent a trailer and pack it up? How about shipping large items? Any help is appreciated.  

[dippedincoffee]

Hi there! For my Master's I had to move cross country from California to Georgia and I did it alone. I planned it pretty carefully, with all the stops planned out and had maps in case I lost service (free maps at AAA). Personally I donated a lot of stuff because I wanted to start fresh. Sometimes buying stuff at the destination will be cheaper than shipping/renting a trailer. I fit my whole life in my small car. If I were you, I would call up UHaul and other companies to get a rate for a trailer. Then look at the cost of shipping your items and compare. I would guess shipping will be more expensive, depending how far away the place is that you are moving to.

Cheers!

[juilletmercredi]

I moved from the Southeast to the Northeast for graduate school, and then from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest for my first job. The first move is more relevant - much like dippedincoffee, I scaled down significantly; I got all of my belongings into two suitcases.

I agree with @dippedincoffee that buying new stuff where you go might be cheaper than shipping things. I looked into shipping my bedroom furniture (really nice stuff) from my home in the Southeast to the Northeast, but it was cheaper for me to buy an inexpensive but still good quality mattress and bed frame in the new location.

If you have family that have larger houses, you might consider storing some of your precious but large things with them, and just sending for them when you've moved somewhere a little more permanently. But that also depends on where you're going - if you're going to a small college town you might be able to rent a larger place for relatively cheaply; in a large city, you may have to downsize.

Renting a trailer is easy. UHaul and other companies like that rent them out. If your car can tow a trailer, you can get one. Hell, renting a truck is also easy - I did that moving from New York to Pennsylvania for my postdoc. Depending on where you live, you could rent a UHaul truck and park it in front of your place for a little bit, packing it over the course of a week or something. (My partner and I did this, but over only two days.)

You could pack it yourself or you could probably pay people to pack it for you, maybe using a service like dolly or Bellhops (although I don't know how feasible that is during the pandemic.)

[you'll_never_get_to_heaven]

Thanks, everyone!