Best small moving company?

[Buckeye(OH)]

Need to move sofa, loveseat, bed etc. Probably underweight for a national carrier. Anyone have any ideas?

Im damn for sure not moving my stuff from Chicago to Toledo in a UHaul. Im over that scene plus I have bil L5 spondylolysis.

The only reason that this is in this form is because Im going to be an intern so its sort of relevant. Some other people might be curious as well.


Thanks!

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[Winged Scapula]

We talk about this a lot here.

Based on recommendations here on SDN and elsewhere, I used Movers Inc. Very reliable, very pleasant and careful with my stuff. Since I had a whole household to move, it was worth it, and their rates were cheaper than the national carriers.

If you are only moving a small amount of stuff, you might have to wait until they have a truckload (with other people's stuff) to move it. Not a problem if you are going on a popular route and have some leeway as to when the stuff arrives. Since they are not taking your stuff alone, it takes longer to get it where it needs to go, but I recommend them if they can provide the service you need.

Might also check out PODs. You can get some friends to help you pack, they will pick up POD and move it. You would have to hire friends at your destination to unpack but it might be worth it.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Well, it would seem, that the only people talking about it now, are me and you!

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I don't know if they're in your area, but we used All My Sons for our last move and were very satisfied. Also, even with not very much stuff, you can go with the national carriers, but yeah, it might take a while for your stuff to show up.

For our move before this, we used ABF U-Pack and loaded our little pod thing ourselves. However, they work with some other company that can get people to load for you. Also, you could just try to hire some college students to do it.

 

[bmcgilligan]

Just say no to PODS! I got a quote from them to move our 3 bedroom from Pensacola Fl to Cincinnati Oh and it was $5500! That's $2000 more than the highest quote from a reputable nationwide mover...and we'd have to pack the PODs ourself! If you are moving within a city, they're great. If you are moving state to state, you'll get raped.

 

[dilaudid]

wingedscapula,

Which Movers Inc did you use? They sound like they might be an option but I can't find them online. Thanks!

 

[Winged Scapula]

wingedscapula,

Which Movers Inc did you use? They sound like they might be an option but I can't find them online. Thanks!

http://www.mooversinc.com/

 

[Old_Mil]

Need to move sofa, loveseat, bed etc. Probably underweight for a national carrier. Anyone have any ideas?

Im damn for sure not moving my stuff from Chicago to Toledo in a UHaul. Im over that scene plus I have bil L5 spondylolysis.

I just got a quote from Allied. $6700. Nuts. My furniture isn't worth that much.

 

[dragonfly99]

For moving out of town, they are all expensive I think. The cheapest are those pack-it-yourself in a pod thingy, and then the moving company moves it. I'm planning to stuff everything I can in my car, and sell the rest, before driving to my new fellowship. My furniture is not work 5k, or even $2500, so it makes no sense to move it.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Got a quote today that I am EXTREMELY happy about.

1 sofa
1 loveseat
1 queen size bed
1 futon
1 chest
1 46" flat panel
1 desk chair

Moving from Chicago to Toledo, OH. The price includes loading, unloading, driving, and blanketing all the furniture and tv.

1365$. Not bad since my program gives us 1k. This is a move I could do myself but Im f'ing graduating, I have an L5 spondyloysis, and god dammit, I earned the right to not have to move my own **** once and for all. Moving 7 times in as many years gets reallllly old.

 

[dragonfly99]

Your residency program pays for you to move? That's off the wall! I've never heard of that. Good for you, though.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Your residency program pays for you to move? That's off the wall! I've never heard of that. Good for you, though.

Yes. But they don't pay us for orientation and they don't pay for in-house food.

Can't win em all eh?

 

[MasterShakeDO]

Glad you found a great quote. Who'd you go with?

The distance isn't too much so if it weren't for your back I'd Uhaul and try bribing a my friends with a few cases and promise of loose Toledo women.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Glad you found a great quote. Who'd you go with?

The distance isn't too much so if it weren't for your back I'd Uhaul and try bribing a my friends with a few cases and promise of loose Toledo women.

Haven't gone with anyone yet. In fact, Ive gotten more than 1 sub 1k quote!

I don't want to promise anyone women in Toledo, I have no idea what the scene looks like.

 

[Cp22kjer]

I don't want to promise anyone women in Toledo, I have no idea what the scene looks like.

Think farmland.....

 

[KYTNOH]

Why don't you rent a Uhaul/Budget/Penske/etc truck in Chicago, hire local loaders to load your stuff, drive the truck to Toledo (with your car behind), and hire local movers in Toledo to unload? That's what I'm doing, and I'm saving a ton of money (rental for 16" truck which you may not need for 3 days is $330, and I will spend about $125 to have them load and maybe a little less to have them unload since I have family where I'm moving). Driving a truck really isn't that much different than driving a car, and you won't have to lift anything yourself. You might also look into renting a Ryder truck out of Chicago for about $45/day, but there are no one-way rentals. That includes 500 miles, so you could drive to Toledo and then back to Chicago to pick up your car.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Because I get reimbursed up to 1000 so this move will cost me 62$ out of pocket ;-)

 

[abbaroodle]

Anyone have any ideas for the best way to move stuff minus furniture? (Clothes, books, dishes, etc.) I know it wont all fit in my car. (It all fit in 2 cars 5 yrs ago before I bought kitchen stuff and some textbooks.) I am moving approx a 20 hr drive with my folks smack in the middle. I am up for taking or leaving furniture. Quotes are around $2000 to $2500 with furniture and $1500 without it, but I dont know what to do with everything that wont fit in the car if I dont hire movers.

 

[John Deere Gree]

Anyone have any ideas for the best way to move stuff minus furniture? (Clothes, books, dishes, etc.) I know it wont all fit in my car. (It all fit in 2 cars 5 yrs ago before I bought kitchen stuff and some textbooks.) I am moving approx a 20 hr drive with my folks smack in the middle. I am up for taking or leaving furniture. Quotes are around $2000 to $2500 with furniture and $1500 without it, but I dont know what to do with everything that wont fit in the car if I dont hire movers.

Find out how much your furniture is worth and/or how much you spent, and if it's not worth the cost to move it, sell it. Then buy new stuff at your new place.

If you don't like the thought of buying/searching for furniture at your new place then find a U-haul and move it.

 

[abbaroodle]

Find out how much your furniture is worth and/or how much you spent, and if it's not worth the cost to move it, sell it. Then buy new stuff at your new place.

If you don't like the thought of buying/searching for furniture at your new place then find a U-haul and move it.

Thanks for the recommendation. My questions was actually the best way to move stuff MINUS the furniture since it wont all fit in my car and hiring a mover just to move kitchen stuff, clothes, and books seems awfully expensive. Just mail whatever wont fit in the car and I wont part with?

 

[gutonc]

Thanks for the recommendation. My questions was actually the best way to move stuff MINUS the furniture since it wont all fit in my car and hiring a mover just to move kitchen stuff, clothes, and books seems awfully expensive. Just mail whatever wont fit in the car and I wont part with?

Do you have a reasonably large car? If so, how about a U-Haul trailer? You can rent a trailer 1-way for $200-450 depending on how far you're going. Trailer hitches can be bought for $100-150. so you're looking @ $300-600 total. Add another $50 for pizza and beer for loading help and you're on your way for well under the quotes you got. Anything that doesn't fit in the trailer, you leave on the curb and call it a day.

 

[mules05]

Thanks for the recommendation. My questions was actually the best way to move stuff MINUS the furniture since it wont all fit in my car and hiring a mover just to move kitchen stuff, clothes, and books seems awfully expensive. Just mail whatever wont fit in the car and I wont part with?

I'm going to use Amtrak Express...you just pack everything in boxes and drop them off at the depot, they take 5-7 days to ship it across the country on one of the trains, and you pick it up at the depot. They told me $50 for the first 100 lbs, about 50 cents a pound after that (so if you only have 20 lbs of stuff to move, not worth it, but 100 lbs or more is a good deal). Way cheaper than mailing things. The drawback is that you have to drop off and pick up boxes, but they're open 24 hours a day, and they'll hold stuff at the depot for you (after a while, the post office just sends it back).

 

[John Deere Gree]

Thanks for the recommendation. My questions was actually the best way to move stuff MINUS the furniture since it wont all fit in my car and hiring a mover just to move kitchen stuff, clothes, and books seems awfully expensive. Just mail whatever wont fit in the car and I wont part with?

U-Haul trailers really aren't all that expensive to rent in the grand scheme of moving. I agree with the above with the above post...get a hitch installed and rent a U-Haul if you want to keep all your stuff. Ask friends or family for help loading if needed.

If you don't want to do that, then ship all your stuff to your destination. You could pack boxes from most important to least important. Start sending your most important packages first and then the somewhat important and then the least important. Once you hit your limit of how much you want to spend, call it quits. Shipping can get pricey quickly though.

If you don't want to do that, have a yard sale. Earn money, buy new stuff at your new destination.

If you don't want to do that, donate your stuff. If you itemize your deductions just add it to the list and maybe get a refund on your taxes.

If you don't want to do that, leave it on the curb for the sanitation workers to pick up and dump at the nearest landfill.

Other than that I don't know what to tell you...

 

[nancysinatra]

Thanks for the recommendation. My questions was actually the best way to move stuff MINUS the furniture since it wont all fit in my car and hiring a mover just to move kitchen stuff, clothes, and books seems awfully expensive. Just mail whatever wont fit in the car and I wont part with?

If you mail books, be sure to send them book rate, which is much cheaper than regular mail. In fact it is one of the very cheapest ways to send anything, I think. You absolutely can only send books though. For papers and letters there is media mail, a slightly more expensive category.

 

[nancysinatra]

Why don't you rent a Uhaul/Budget/Penske/etc truck in Chicago, hire local loaders to load your stuff, drive the truck to Toledo (with your car behind), and hire local movers in Toledo to unload? That's what I'm doing, and I'm saving a ton of money (rental for 16" truck which you may not need for 3 days is $330, and I will spend about $125 to have them load and maybe a little less to have them unload since I have family where I'm moving). Driving a truck really isn't that much different than driving a car, and you won't have to lift anything yourself. You might also look into renting a Ryder truck out of Chicago for about $45/day, but there are no one-way rentals. That includes 500 miles, so you could drive to Toledo and then back to Chicago to pick up your car.

I'm in a similar situation and am thinking of doing this--but can you tell me, how do you find good local movers? I was thinking of just hiring some first year med students on this end. I really don't trust professional movers at all. A few of them have ripped me off before.

My main issue is that I will have to get my UHaul filled on a New York City street that doesn't allow parking. That means middle of the night. My other option is to go with a professional moving company.

Buckeye--are you still planning to use professional movers? I was surprised by your low quotes--are you at all suspicious? I hear they often raise the quotes after they pick up your stuff! At least check out that they're rated and reputable. I'm mulling it over but my other concern is that I've got some furniture I don't want damaged. And I've got valuable stuff I couldn't send IN the van with movers. Plus what if the movers didn't arrive on time, and my clothes were in the van, what would I wear to residency? So even with movers I'll need to rent a car and drive to my new city (2000 miles) with a couple weeks' worth of stuff.

I guess I gotta go with UHaul? But I'm like you Buckeye--this is my umpteenth move and I have some physical limitations to doing this.

Has anyone had experience getting local movers who can man a New York City street for a few hours? Movers would be nice too because they'd probably load my stuff well.

Or if I hire med students, how much should I pay them? 2 to help move, maybe I can get a friend to watch the street for me? I bet it would take 2 hours or so.

Does anyone know how many miles a 10 foot truck gets to the gallon?

 

[abbaroodle]

I was told 10 miles/gallon for a truck.

If you go with u-haul or penske or whomever, you can hire movers when you rent the truck. I have a friend who did that and it worked out fine. You can also try Craigs List. Dont know how that would work!!!

Depending on how you plan to get to your new digs, could you just fly? Or do you have too many valuables? (There is insurance from movers.)

If you do a google search of your mover or use a big-name carrier you can be reasonably comfortable that they are almost honest. For example, google "Nationwide Relocation Services." ICK!!!!!

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

I'm in a similar situation and am thinking of doing this--but can you tell me, how do you find good local movers? I was thinking of just hiring some first year med students on this end. I really don't trust professional movers at all. A few of them have ripped me off before.

My main issue is that I will have to get my UHaul filled on a New York City street that doesn't allow parking. That means middle of the night. My other option is to go with a professional moving company.

Buckeye--are you still planning to use professional movers? I was surprised by your low quotes--are you at all suspicious? I hear they often raise the quotes after they pick up your stuff! At least check out that they're rated and reputable. I'm mulling it over but my other concern is that I've got some furniture I don't want damaged. And I've got valuable stuff I couldn't send IN the van with movers. Plus what if the movers didn't arrive on time, and my clothes were in the van, what would I wear to residency? So even with movers I'll need to rent a car and drive to my new city (2000 miles) with a couple weeks' worth of stuff.

I guess I gotta go with UHaul? But I'm like you Buckeye--this is my umpteenth move and I have some physical limitations to doing this.

Has anyone had experience getting local movers who can man a New York City street for a few hours? Movers would be nice too because they'd probably load my stuff well.

Or if I hire med students, how much should I pay them? 2 to help move, maybe I can get a friend to watch the street for me? I bet it would take 2 hours or so.

Does anyone know how many miles a 10 foot truck gets to the gallon?

I got multiple quotes from multiple small moving companies. They all hovered around the 1k mark. Some a little lower, and one at 1500. So, Im not suspicious by the price because I got the same price repeatedly. Actually, I think its a little expensive for a 248mile move with very minimal furniture.

I signed a contract with them with the price in writing, so I am not concerned about them raising the price either.