The Moving Problem

[TakeruK]

When my wife (at that time, not-yet-wife) and I first moved for my MSc program, it was a ~4500km/~3000 mi move across Canada. We didn't have much stuff so we just packed boxes in cars and drove out. Got IKEA furniture etc. at the new city (our place is pretty much an IKEA catalogue...we spent the first week building stuff -- we didn't have internet connected yet so it was a good way to pass the time). We invested in a nice bed because we figure we spend 1/3 of our life there and having a good rest makes a huge difference for us.

Now, we're moving again, to the US and it's probably the same distance? Maybe further? Ironically, we will actually be closer to our hometown and families! But we have a bunch of furniture now (not too much though) and lots of useful kitchen stuff that make me feel like a mature grown-up. We mostly want to move the bed, because it was expensive and very comfortable!

We are planning to do a U-Box move from U-Haul (rent a box for $80/month, load up the box here, they ship it over for $1500, we unload it on the other side). Including extra costs for taxes and renting a truck to load/unload our things, we expect a cost of $1800-$2000. This will probably be about $500 more expensive than trying to sell everything here (which will be hard because it's a college town so everyone else is selling / giving away their things too) and then buying everything again on the other side. But then we would have to rebuild all the IKEA furniture and not to mention we won't have a car to go around to buy /pickup everything. So we figure $500 is worth it for the convenience (and we get to keep all the things we like / are familiar with). We will be able to claim these expenses on our taxes and even if you add up all the total moving costs, including the flights, it will cost a little over $3000 for both of us. Not really budget friendly, but we can sell our car to help. Also we will be at the new place for ~5 years, so it feels better if we think about it as a cost of $300/year/person.

[long_time_lurker]

This is of no help whatsoever to you folks who are moving, I'm just posting for the benefit of those who do a search in the future.

Do think of the cost of moving when you are sending applications and considering admissions offers!

Personally, and maybe this is only because I've lived in NY my whole life, but I could never imagine moving anywhere to go to school or take a job, something a lot of people on this forum seem to do. I have to hand it to you folks. I only know from friends who've moved (and I'm talking at most 120 miles) what a pain in the neck and how costly it is. So do think of the moving hassle and expense if considering an offer from school A in your hometown or current locale and school B further afield.

[OregonGal]

Ehh, in my field you have to be willing to pick up and move--overseas experience is pretty much a requirement for an advanced degree in international policy! While yes, moving costs/hassle should be a consideration, I think that if you weren't willing to move far away you wouldn't apply to those places and compared to the often tens of thousands people are looking at in debt, $2000-3000 to move isn't that large in the face of it.

[busybee3]

Moving expenses may also be a drop in the bucket when funding and the cost of living are taken into consideration. The funding package I receive from school, coupled with the cost of living in the area will leave me in a much better place financially than if I pursued doctoral studies in my hometown (NYC). The cost and aggravation may not seem worthwhile for a 1-2 year program but once you're talking 4+ years, the cost of moving becomes a nonfactor.

[stell4]

I am moving from NM to CO, not too far, but at least an 8 hr drive. I live in a 3 bedroom house and will be moving into the same. I have a lot of nice furniture, a lot of which my mother brought over from England, so I don't want get rid of it. That means I will be renting the largest truck possible, 26' and towing one of my cars (which is fine cause it wouldn't be able to make the trip anyways) and my husband will be driving the our truck (probably also loaded with stuff). I found penske to be significantly cheaper. They give a huge discount for AAA, big enough that if you don't have AAA and buy it you would still be saving money.

[long_time_lurker]

Moving expenses may also be a drop in the bucket when funding and the cost of living are taken into consideration. The funding package I receive from school, coupled with the cost of living in the area will leave me in a much better place financially than if I pursued doctoral studies in my hometown (NYC). The cost and aggravation may not seem worthwhile for a 1-2 year program but once you're talking 4+ years, the cost of moving becomes a nonfactor.

This is a very good point. Hopefully the folks who fret about coming up with a first, last and security deposit, moving costs, etc. can prepare beforehand so they are ready to shoulder the up-front costs so that they can reap the benefits later.

[rubose]

I'm moving the opposite direction, WI to CA. I'm planning on selling all of my bigger stuff and buying new stuff once I get there. My books will be shipped by media mail. Then I'll play a game of tetrus and try to fit everything else into my car.

I too will be moving from Wisconsin to California in the fall. Have you looked into renting a small Uhaul if you are driving? Unfortnately I don't have a car so I'm going to magically get my things there some how.....

[CarlieE]

This is a very good point. Hopefully the folks who fret about coming up with a first, last and security deposit, moving costs, etc. can prepare beforehand so they are ready to shoulder the up-front costs so that they can reap the benefits later.

Just thought this might be helpful... I'm moving from IL to GA and I have found out that security deposits work differently in different states! I expected first, last and sec deposit up front, but due to good credit I only pay first month's rent! It was a pleasant surprise but I could see how the reverse would be awful.

[virion]

I too will be moving from Wisconsin to California in the fall. Have you looked into renting a small Uhaul if you are driving? Unfortnately I don't have a car so I'm going to magically get my things there some how.....

I feel like it would be easier for me if I didn't have a car. I've got a small sedan and enough stuff that a Uhaul would be a good size, but a trailer would likely be too small (not to mention obnoxious moving across the country). I think I'm going to go with the pod system (like TakeruK said, Uhaul Ubox) - if anyone knows the cheapest, reliable providers of services like that, I'd be keen to hear about it.

[melly_mel]

my secret to moving: AMTRAK, AMTRAK, AMTRAK!

it has proven to be the absolute cheapest option by far to ship things long distances in the US. they do it based on weight.

i moved from seattle to san francisco two years ago and had clothes, books, kitchen supplies, photos/keepsakes, the like. i had 8-10 boxes total, or something like that, and paid around $150 for station to station delivery. this was in early 2009, and if i remember correctly, it was $67 for the first 100 pounds and .57 for every pound thereafter. with a one-way ticket, i spent less than $250 total to make my move. they shrink/plastic wrapped my boxes together and made it safely to its destination just fine in record time (a few days)

of course, if you're taking large/heavy furniture items that aren't easy to disassemble (read: not cheap ikea crap), this may be a bit more cumbersome of an option.

i plan on doing it again this time around, but still need to call for the most updated prices. i've heard that if your stuff gets there before you do, they charge some really low fee to keep it for a few days (as in, $4 or some crazy thing).

my tricky question isn't so much the method of delivery as it is the logistics of finding a place to live before i actually make the move. i'll be coming fresh off a trip abroad and back in my current city. do i just hop on a plane and show up? i only know one person in this new city who i could stay with for a bit, and even then it's more of an acquaintance. the timing of my stuff arriving comes into question if i don't have a place secured. do i fly there beforehand for a few days, apartment hunt like crazy, fly back and then ship? not ideal to be wasting two plane tickets, and in the middle of summer. do i try my best to find something decent looking online and sign a lease and take a chance? (i'm not at all crazy about this last option, and don't think i will...but still). what to do!

[mirandaw]

my tricky question isn't so much the method of delivery as it is the logistics of finding a place to live before i actually make the move. i'll be coming fresh off a trip abroad and back in my current city. do i just hop on a plane and show up? i only know one person in this new city who i could stay with for a bit, and even then it's more of an acquaintance. the timing of my stuff arriving comes into question if i don't have a place secured. do i fly there beforehand for a few days, apartment hunt like crazy, fly back and then ship? not ideal to be wasting two plane tickets, and in the middle of summer. do i try my best to find something decent looking online and sign a lease and take a chance? (i'm not at all crazy about this last option, and don't think i will...but still). what to do!

For a place to stay while you look, you could consider couchsurfing for a day or two. There is also apartment sharing. A friend in my building uses this website http://www.airbnb.com/

[melly_mel]

thanks, mirandaw, i'll definitely look into that.

as for amtrak, i called and got an updated quote. i believe the quote varies based on origination and destination cities.

for moving from the SF bay area to new orleans, the rate is $49 for the first 100 pounds, and 0.46 for every pound thereafter. once your things arrive, and in this case they estimate 3-4 days, you have 48 hours to pick up. after that, storage is $3/box/day for up to 60 days.

if you're looking at this as a potential option, here's the website and phone number to call for a quote: http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241267371736

hope this helps!

[MDF]

Besides the high cost of moving cross-country, or between cities, how do you manage scouting out new housing before arrival?

Although I'm preparing for my 3rd long-distance move in 4 years, and I've got the whole purging-and-packing thing down to a science, I am coupled up now (with pets and furniture) so I don't want to end up in the first flea hotel or student housing I'm offered, and we're moving on a pretty serious budget too!

[isawstars]

This thread is awesome!

I am moving from North Carolina to Northern California.

[pinkrobot]

Besides the high cost of moving cross-country, or between cities, how do you manage scouting out new housing before arrival?

Although I'm preparing for my 3rd long-distance move in 4 years, and I've got the whole purging-and-packing thing down to a science, I am coupled up now (with pets and furniture) so I don't want to end up in the first flea hotel or student housing I'm offered, and we're moving on a pretty serious budget too!

I've recently had good luck scouring my uni's off-campus housing page. It's not only for actual university grad housing (although that kind of stuff is there too)--it also has a lot of houses for rent and for sale by private people who have typically rented to my uni's students, post docs, and professors. Maybe your uni has one of these, too?

I browsed and sent out maybe 30 emails over the course of a few weeks, narrowed things down from there, and found one place I really liked. Then I asked a current grad student who's already in the area (and who I have met in person) to please check out the showing for me and take some pictures (so I could rest assured that the pictures the house owner showed me were not fakes, etc.), asked for the contact information of the current tenants (to check in about stuff like the condition of the house, the general M.O. of the house's owner as a landlord, the safety of the area), did a little search on the house's owner and the names of the tenants (to make sure they're real humans), double-checked that the house's owner is REALLY the house's owner (to avoid getting stuck in a foreclosure scam or a similar situation), had several phone conversations with the house's owner, and then took the plunge and snagged it.

I'm coupled with pets and furniture, too, so I really wasn't keen on the couch surfing or motel hanging ideas. If it'd come to that, I'd've gone a week ahead of the brood so it would just be me doing the surfing, not me + partner + dog + cats (which would = disaster). Also, the rental market of the area around my uni is kind of helter-skelter--good places come and go very quickly, especially for start dates around Aug./Sept.--and I would not have been able to afford short-notice plane tickets.

It can be dicey to do things the way I did--I've heard horror stories of renting sight-unseen. I think the key is to do the legwork from afar as best as you possibly can and have a person who is already in the area scope it out for you: in other words, make it as not-sight-unseen as earthly possible. There's no way I would have done things this way if I hadn't known a flesh-and-blood person who was willing and able to go see the other flesh-and-blood people involved.

And many things about the house's owner put me at ease, too, which helped: for one, she was definitely interested in checking me and my partner out thoroughly to make sure WE weren't scamming HER. If she was too eager to rent to us right off the bat, I'd've been worried. Never once did she ask for a piece of my information that I felt was intrusive or susceptible to leading to identity theft, and she wasn't eager to get me to send her a check for anything. She conducted things in a very open-book way and gave me plenty of information about herself (all of which I was able to confirm on my end). On top of it all, the friend I asked to scope out the place said that she herself would have loved to live there (we have pretty similar taste), and she already lives very close by so was able to give me the skinny on the area. I was also able to verify that the house I'm renting has had only a few tenants in the last decade or so: people seemed, in other words, to rent it very quickly and then stay for a very long time (the current tenants lived there for three years and only decided to move because they had to leave the state). I should mention also that she used a verifiable service with a good BBB reputation--Tenant Verification Services, which landlords actually have to register to use--to screen me: the application she sent me to peruse before I'd even decided I wanted the place came directly from TVS (it wasn't just a form made up in MSWord or anything).

Good luck!

Edited May 12, 2012 by pinkrobot

[DeeLovely79]

@ MellyMel

Thanks for the Amtrak info. I just called to get information on my move (and to make sure that they ship to/from my cities). One thing person on the phone mentioned were that there are somethings they do not take/recommend you ship: nothing breakable, electronics, perishables (there go my spices), artwork, furniture etc. So if you have appliances/furniture you may need to split things and do one shipment for Amtrak and hire a moving company to do the rest.

I'm thinking about using a freight shipping company like this one for my furniture/electronics.

http://www.transitsystems.com/

Edited May 14, 2012 by DeeLovely79

[OregonGal]

Are your spices that perishable? I think they're mainly referring to items which will spoil without refrigeration within the time it takes to ship them (fresh fruit/veg, etc). Dried herbs shouldn't be an issue.

[bedalia]

One thing person on the phone mentioned were that there are somethings they do not take/recommend you ship: nothing breakable, electronics, perishables (there go my spices), artwork, furniture etc.

Spices aren't considered perishables and should be fine. They're concerned about things like meats, dairy, fruits and vegetables that would spoil en route; they don't want anything that could cause a smelly, rotting, leaky mess.

[virion]

The quote I get for the Uhaul Pod service essentially doubled in price since I last checked a few weeks ago, making it completely non-feasible at this point. Should have reserved it then but was unsure about exact dates. doortodoor.com fortunately had the same price that Uhaul originally had, so I went with them. They were extremely helpful on the phone, we'll see how it goes...

[DeeLovely79]

Yes, you guys are right my spices should be fine especially since Amtrak says my stuff should be shipped in a day. I am glad others understand how important/costly spices are.

[melly_mel]

@DeeLovely79

I am definitely shipping my spices! I have quite a collection that are essential to everyday cooking. The key is that they stay dry and not exposed to the air, so as long as you have them sealed properly they'll be alright.

I'm not taking any furniture or appliances with, mostly clothes and small items, so Amtrak makes the most sense personally speaking. Trying to figure out what to do about artwork and large frames - will probably send via UPS.

[OregonGal]

So when you ship via Amtrak, are you yourself taking Amtrak or are you flying out and letting your belongings catch up with you?

[melly_mel]

I'm flying out and letting my belongings catch up with me a few days later. While Amtrak can be fun to ride, I really don't feel like a 40 hour trip. Much more economical in time and money to fly and have a few days to breathe before dealing with all my stuff.

[BrokenRecord]

Hi, I'm commuting roughly 3000 miles away from Raleigh NC to Seattle this fall for the next two years of my masters program. I've been craigslist hounding for weeks since I decided to accept in April. Nothing panned out except for rented rooms in houses so I decided to apply for the graduate housing at UW which had furnished individual rooms in 2 or 4 bedroom apartments. The typical rent all included for one room is around 750-1000/month!! I am spoiled with Raleigh cost of living--that is equivalent to a 3 bedroom townhome here. But, I am paying for the convenience of on campus housing, fully furnished, all utilities including internet/direct TV. I'm also living with other graduate students so it works out great. I'm going to essentially pack my clothes and order the rest of my other stuff off of overstock or target (toiletries, linens, pots/pans, etc.) once I get there considering the back to school sales will be going on---and it's cheaper than shipping from home.

All in all, UW has been exceptionally accommodating as far as keeping my initial out of pocket costs low. I'm fortunate for that.

[TakeruK]

I just reserved my UHaul U-box service for late August! You can cancel up to 24 hours prior to your move so I figure I would book it now. It's an international move -- from Ontario to California and the estimated ship time is 12 business days. However, to other Canadians considering U-Haul (or any other pod service), apparently we cannot start the shipment until after we've already arrived in the US !! Also, with all the extra time to do customs related things, it is more than likely we will have to pay for more than 1 months rent on the box.

I also read reviews online about this service -- it's significantly cheaper than other similar services (e.g. PODS) but lower in quality (box material, inability to track the boxes, boxes taking longer than estimated to arrive etc.) But basically it's still decent for small moves (1 pod only) and for those on a student's budget.