Moving fiascos

[Sejla]

I recently made my decision on a program halfway across the country and am moving out there early to work a bit and get settled in before the fall.

I called the Salvation Army to come out and pick up a LOT of my stuff - and about half of it they didn't want. Wow! I'm not even a grad student yet and I already live below Salvation Army standards...

(I know that some people donate crap just to get rid of it, and that's not cool. I really made an effort to just throw stuff out if it was terrible, but this is stuff I bought used and happily used for sometime with little wear since I bought it).

I have done my share of moving and up to now have stored quite a bit in my parents. No more!

I know this is really not all that bad and I will just have to dispose of this stuff, but I was actually pretty offended at the time! Now I just think it's funny.

Any funny - or awful - stories about moving for school?

[crustaceangirl]

Haha, my family has had our stuff turned down by the Salvation Army, too. I think they just take things that they know will sell at their shops/they don't already have a bunch of. Funny, though. :-)

I just called PODS yesterday to get a price quote for my Boston to Atlanta move -- over $1600 for a small container, over $2000 for a big one! I realized that I'd find it difficult to beat that price by doing it myself (renting a truck, or getting rid of all but a carload of my stuff and buying everything new/used again in ATL) and find myself wondering if I should've accepted the offer from a different program than included $2000 for moving expenses...

[Minnesotan]

I wonder if there's any way to move a girlfriend without having her in the front seat, telling me how to drive for seventeen hours.

[LaraAnn85]

I wonder if there's any way to move a girlfriend without having her in the front seat, telling me how to drive for seventeen hours.

When my roommates and I moved into our house last July, the tenants decided to leave a day later than they said they would. But our lease was up a day before, so we were essentially homeless for a day. We had all of our stuff in a moving truck, which we could only get for 1 day without being charged hundreds of dollars as it was already booked for someone else the next day. So we drove on over to the new house when they weren't home, loaded all of our furniture and boxes into the garage, and crossed our fingers that they wouldn't trash our stuff. They left us some angry messages, but that was it. We happily moved into the house from the garage the next day and all was well. That is, of course, until we discovered mold last month but that's a whole different story :shock:

[rising_star]

I just called PODS yesterday to get a price quote for my Boston to Atlanta move -- over $1600 for a small container, over $2000 for a big one! I realized that I'd find it difficult to beat that price by doing it myself (renting a truck, or getting rid of all but a carload of my stuff and buying everything new/used again in ATL) and find myself wondering if I should've accepted the offer from a different program than included $2000 for moving expenses...

How much stuff are you moving? I'd think a Budget truck would be less than $2K...

[crustaceangirl]

Hmm. Budget quotes about $1100 for a truck big enough to hold our stuff and tow our car. That doesn't include gas, which I'm sure would be a lot for 1300 miles in a big truck so heavily loaded (I think a moving truck gets maybe 10 mpg?). The option of having the POD people handle the moving/storage container while we drive the normal (fuel-efficient!) car down seems more appealing and when you factor in the cost of gas, not that much more expensive.

[engguy]

Please keep in mind that you can claim moving expenses on your taxes. I did this when I moved cross-country several years ago for grad school. Keep all your receipts. You can claim pretty much everything, including mileage. Also, I found it was cheaper to box and ship all my books and whatever else I could fit into boxes via USPS or UPS than to rent a UHAUL, which, you're right, are pretty expensive. But if you have furniture you may have no choice.

[silencio1982]

ooh! Pods! i have seen those in the street. i wonder if i could make that work.. i live in a residence hall. FYI, though, i got a moving quote for $1400 which included having actual moving men. that's for a 1 BR apt moving about 400 miles. maybe movers are more cost effective than pods?