Making the move

[seroteamavi]

Cordial greetings to all. My family and I will be making quite a journey across the country to Florida for Ph.D. studies, and I am interested in insight from anyone who has made a move of great distance with family. Thank you for your feedback!

[Body Politics]

My wife and I used Uhaul U-Boxes to move from TN to CO. Price-wise, it is pretty comparable to renting and driving a big truck across the country, with the added bonus of not having to rent and drive a big truck across the country. You just pack up the boxes/pods and then Uhaul ships them across the country for you.

 

I would also suggest hiring movers to help you unload your pods/truck when you arrive, since moving help may be otherwise difficult to come by in your new place. I think we paid $75 for two guys for three hours. It was totally worth it.

[Theophilos]

We (family of 3) made the move from AZ to MA and used ABF Relocubes. Same principle as the U-Boxes, but for our route ABF was more affordable. Had a great experience with them. We had an 8-month-old at the time, so the 40+ hour drive was not our preferred method anyhow. If you're looking to move a car as well, check out Auto Driveaway. They pair up people looking to move their car with people looking to make the drive. It's fully insured, etc., and cost us about half as much as any other auto transport service we looked into.

 

Good luck!

[xypathos]

Presuming my partner comes with me to TN, I'll be paying professional movers. Well, her parents have asked to pay it actually. She's disabled due to Muscular Dystrophy so they don't want me to doing it and they've never, for whatever reason, trusted paying strangers to do it.

 

If it ends up just being me - if it doesn't fit in my car, it won't be coming. At least not on the first trip anyway, I may end up packing some things to mail at a later date. I practice a fairly non-materialistic lifestyle as I tend to move every 2-3 years and it has made life simpler for me.

[rising_star]

There are other threads on cross-country moves. You'll want to price all the moving options: United/Allied, U-haul U-box, truck rental (U-haul, Budget, Penske), ABF U-pack, ABF relocubes, PODS, and more. A search engine can help you find all the options. Sometimes where you are moving from/to rules certain options out because they don't service your route frequently (as in, you may have to wait 3-4 weeks between when they pick everything up and when they deliver it depending on your cities).

[mdiv2014]

My philosophy is that unless it is a 2000usd leather couch moving it is a painful expensive hassle. Donate everything to charity then pick up new furniture at charity shops and auctions at the other end. Salvation army stores and good will stores true furniture is unpredictable and can be funky but honestly moving to me is a pain.