Moving Cross Country

[mechengr2000]

I have to move cross country, from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

I imagine many of us are actually in this predicament moving cross country.

What is the cheapest way to do this?

UHaul and Penske truck rentals give quotes for ~$1600 for their smallest truck. I think that's a boat load of money! Has anyone looked into alternatives?

I don't need to move any furnitute (I'll buy all my furniture over there.)

What I need to move is:

Kitchen supplies

Clothes

Books

Bicycle

[acg]

I have to move cross country, from Philadelphia to San Francisco.

I imagine many of us are actually in this predicament moving cross country.

What is the cheapest way to do this?

UHaul and Penske truck rentals give quotes for ~$1600 for their smallest truck. I think that's a boat load of money! Has anyone looked into alternatives?

I don't need to move any furnitute (I'll buy all my furniture over there.)

What I need to move is:

Kitchen supplies

Clothes

Books

Bicycle

If you can fit it all in a car/van renting one from a car rental company will probably be cheaper than a truck rental at $1600 (plus the gas would be way cheaper). Also look into PODs. That's how I got all my stuff across country. Might be too expensive if you don't have furniture though

[husky]

If you can fit it all in a car/van renting one from a car rental company will probably be cheaper than a truck rental at $1600 (plus the gas would be way cheaper). Also look into PODs. That's how I got all my stuff across country. Might be too expensive if you don't have furniture though

I'm really not sure if it's any cheaper, but what about shipping by freight train?

[BlueRose]

I'm moving from Boston to San Francisco. I didn't consider driving, though (never learned how).

I considered taking Amtrak, as they have a very liberal baggage policy (5 bags free; up to 3 more $10 each, 50 lbs limit). Also cheaper than a plane if you don't mind sleeping in your seat; something like $700 right now if you want a room and meals. Takes a while, though (four days IIRC).

I might just fly, though. Virgin has the best luggage policy I've found; $25/bag, up to 10 bags, one can be up to 70 lbs, rest under 50 lbs.

Now, I'm off to sell the vast majority of my possessions. Craigslist here I come!

[mechengr2000]

UPS and Fedex:

15 boxes (11x9x12 inches) at 20lbs each

~$450

Pretty good!

[LJK]

I'm moving from PA to CA. PODs is quoting me a price of over $4000 while to have movers come, pack, load and unload themselves is significantly under $2000 including a spare month or two of storage. I have a nice bedroom set and a big futon so I need to do some sort of moving/storage kind of thing rather than just sending boxes or bringing luggage. I think that 200 cubic square feet is the smallest that most movers will do though, and I'll probably be around there with my furniture so it probably won't make sense for someone who is just moving 'stuff'. If you have a car, what about putting a hitch on it and towing a u-haul trailer?

[runonsentence]

Since you're not moving furniture, I'd recommend doing what you can to avoid renting a full-out van. Besides saving yourself a ton of money, U-Haul is pretty awful in terms of maintenance on their vehicles (try a quick Google search or this Wikipedia entry and see for yourself); I'd feel very unsafe about driving one of those things cross-country.

Greyhound also has freight shipping options, I think I've heard, and you could media mail your books. (Though definitely get insurance and/or tracking if you go the media mail route—my roommate lost some of his books when shipping media mail. But on the plus side, it was DIRT cheap!)

Consider taking only what's most valuable/important in terms of kitchen supplies and buying once out in San Fran. IKEA is amazingly cheap in terms of basic kitchen supplies, and I can't tell you how amazing moving sales are for that kind of stuff. I have some top-notch kitchen stuff sold by people in your very position, and they're usually desperate to just get rid of it, so it can be gotten cheaply.

[Mal83]

I'm going from Arizona to Virginia and will most likely fly (with as much stuff as I can carry in the allotted baggage). My parents are actually coming with me to help me move so they will also be carrying as much of my stuff as they can carry. I figure that will be enough of my things to get me started, the amount of money I'd spend to get it all out there by rental van/truck and on overnight stays could be used to buy new. This is definitely the most exciting move I've ever made!

[Curlygrrl]

Any suggestions for someone moving from Toronto to the US?

What issues will I have with customs- if I drive myself or if I use PODS?

[was1984]

PODS are overpriced. There is a moving company called ABF which has a similar product (U-pack) for much cheaper.

As a point of reference, I have reserved one of these for my upcoming move from Salt Lake City to Seattle (around 900 miles) for 800 bucks. Uhaul and other truck companies quote me prices around $1000 to rent a truck for this trip, and that doesn't include fuel.

It's still going to be expensive to move cross country, but I'd have a look at U-pack. It's about half what PODS wanted for the same move.

http://www.upack.com

[Usmivka]

PODS are overpriced. There is a moving company called ABF which has a similar product (U-pack) for much cheaper.

This really depends on the direction you are moving. Because of negotiated route prices between truckers and major freight companies, it is much less expensive to move West than to move East. For example, a single U-pack box is ~$2000 to go from Seattle to Boston, but only ~$1000 to go the other way (last I checked about a month ago--prices will keep rising as the price of oil goes up). By far the cheapest option is to use a freight expediter, which will ship partial container loads by weight. The big catch is you generally have to palletize your stuff and hire a forklift for loading on your own, and you have to find a company willing to work with an individual rather than a company. Still the price (including that forklift) works out to be about half that of a UHaul or Pods type service.

[rising_star]

Put everything you can into your car. What won't fit, mail via "parcel post" via USPS. If they are books, mail them USPS using "media mail". Alternately, fly Southwest where checked bags fly free.

[runonsentence]

Put everything you can into your car. What won't fit, mail via "parcel post" via USPS. If they are books, mail them USPS using "media mail". Alternately, fly Southwest where checked bags fly free.

Keep inventory slips and do some kind of tracking or insurance on those boxes, though. Media mail is an excellent deal, but my roommate had several boxes opened by the USPS (probably because they were so huge and heavy and looked suspicious) and had some lovely Norton anthologies lost and some weird "____ for dummies" and self-help books added to a couple of his boxes.

[mandarin.orange]

UHaul and Penske truck rentals give quotes for ~$1600 for their smallest truck. I think that's a boat load of money! Has anyone looked into alternatives?

Yes, I was astounded to find this out (I am moving from NC to LA). I don't really care about my stuff enough to pay this much, and then have to deal with a big-ass van or truck (and its lousy 9 mpg, and driving it over the Rockies)...not worth it!

I will echo what others have said about shipping everything via USPS or UPS (I will probably do a combination...definitely take advantage of the USPS media mail). I figure I will spend $800 MAX to move my stuff, $500-600 in gas to drive my car (with visits to friends and some cool stops) on this move. $150 for my mom to take my cat to CA on the plane after a visit this spring.

Anything that drives the cost beyond this, I will simply interpret as a sign that I need to pare my stuff down.

[Crotalus]

This is my first post, but I was in a similar situation lastyear.

I moved from Kentucky to Colorado for grad school lastsummer with my boyfriend and I did a lot of shopping around to figure out thecheapest way to move our stuff. The price quote PODS gave me was ridiculoustoo. Also, I was not moving any furniture and the few breakable items I had(larger aquariums) would be easy to replace.

I also felt that renting a truck was a little much. I amuncomfortable driving larger trucks and figured the amount of money I wouldspend on gas wouldn’t really make it worth it.

I ended up renting a trailer from U-Haul. Total cost: justunder $500 (not including the gas). To have the trailer hitch installed on mycar was just under $200 and renting the trailer was just under $300 includinginsurance on it, if I remember everything right (it has been almost a yearnow). I should also mention that my car is a small Toyota Corolla, and itpowered through the drive pulling a full 4’X8’ trailer like a champ.

Since I have been in Colorado, I have moved a second time intown and I found having installed a trailer hitch on the back of my car veryuseful. Renting a trailer from U-Haul for even around the town moves is thecheapest option and this wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t had the hitchinstalled.

As for disadvantages to moving with a trailer: reversing isa very daunting task and your car is kind of handicapped having the trailerattached. I would only recommend it if you don’t plan to do a lot of stoppingon your trip and to try and park in lots where you can just pull out and nothave to reverse.

[michpc]

If you plan on going the truck route, I definitely recommend Penske over UHaul. I rented from them in the past and all the trucks on the lot were quite new (mine was a current model year), clean and at least appeared to be well kept.

I'm currently in the process of figuring out the best/cheapest way to move between two cities while also stopping at a totally out of the way place in between for an annual weekend with friends that I desperately don't want to miss...my cat is throwing a serious wrench in this plan though, as I'm not sure she'd appreciate spending the weekend in a cramped hotel room with a bunch of rowdy rugby players!

[mandarin.orange]

I ended up renting a trailer from U-Haul. Total cost: justunder $500 (not including the gas). To have the trailer hitch installed on mycar was just under $200 and renting the trailer was just under $300 includinginsurance on it, if I remember everything right (it has been almost a yearnow). I should also mention that my car is a small Toyota Corolla, and itpowered through the drive pulling a full 4’X8’ trailer like a champ.

This is actually a really good idea. I just researched and found "Hidden Hitch," and the reviews are great, saying that they installed them on some pretty small cars (I have a 2D Hyundai Accent). I may do this, if I decide to drive from NC to SoCal straight through. It would solve the problem of moving the 1 piece of furniture I do want to keep with the rest of my stuff.