State to State Moving Companies

It's been many years, but I worked for a large United Van Lines affiliated company for a few years. Some moving companies own all the offices but most national companies have franchise or agent companies. So the quality depends mainly on the quality of the local company.

Some things to be aware of.

• Get additional insurance. The insurance that comes with the move is usually not adequate to cover loss or repairs.
• Do NOT ship any valuables that can easily fit in someone's pocket.
• Make sure the inventory accurately reflects the condition of the furniture.
• Make sure the inventory states the primary objects in each container.
• Do not leave anything in drawers. It will most likely disappear.
• Get rid of as much stuff as possible. Have a yard sale and replace at new home.

Your cost will be based on:

• Packing Material
• Packing Labor
• (Weight and Mileage) or Flat rate

• If you want to save money, pack things like toys, linens, sheets, pots and pans yourself and only pay for the mover to pack breakables.
• Buy your boxes from Lowes or some other store. Much cheaper than moving company prices.
• Have a couple of boxes marked open first - for things like bed linen, towels, soap, pots and pans, dishes that you will need as soon as you get to your new house.

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Rich

Once upon a time, long, long ago I worked as a over the road driver for Allied Van Lines. Even tho United was a competitor I have to say MoonRiver gives very good advice. Both Allied and United are good reliable companies. Your move is as good as the driver assigned to your move and most are professionals that will take good care of your belongings.

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* I'm supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one. .*-

Although it has been 20 years, I also recommend Allied. they move our 2br apt from So CA, to Colorado. No problems except for some confusion on the delivery day.

We did our own packing/unpacking. The movers disassembled bikes, bed frames, etc to pack tighter.

The only extra charge we had to pay was $100 for a lumper to help unload and move the stuff 200ft, and into a storage locker (the truck could not get closer). Our house was not ready yet.

Certainly less of a hassle than moving our stuff ourselves.

Hey, are you leaving us?

I don't hang out here on the boards quite as much as I used to so it's quite a shock to see your post.

I feel bad for not keeping in touch more. Always up to my eyes in various farm projects.

Where are you off to? Lots of people are going to miss your baking!

Pauline

GOSH NO!!!! I wouldn't leave this incredible place for anything. For some reason, someone brought up this ancient thread - not sure why. Although
hubby got laid off 3 weeks ago, we are never leaving - we planned on the
likely hood of that happening when we moved here and built and were prepared as one could be so we are able to pay everything if we just
don't buy anything extra. My business is really a help and that is one of the reasons i started it - that and for upcoming college expenses in a few years.

One long distance move and building of house was enough for a lifetime. We
are not going anywhere.

I think a lot of the nationwide movers depend on the local office as far as good service, etc. Atlas is moving us this spring. They have been very professional. We have their moving kit already. We realize that we will have some damage - we would get that if we moved ourselves too. At least, if they damage it - they will have to fix it or pay. Our company is moving us, so they know they have to do it right or they could lose the account - a huge advantage.

1. follow the moving company's directions exactly. Read the paperwork.
2. Take pictures of furniture, etc before you move it so if it is damaged, you can show it
3. Insist on blankets to cover items such as pianos.
4. Be there to watch them pack
5. Be there to watch them load.
6. Follow their instructions about labeling boxes and writing down HOW MANY boxes.
7. Be there when they deliver.
8. Follow their instructions about receiving your stuff.
9. If you have packed things up yourself, insist on their repacking them - they only insure what THEY packed.
10. Ask them questions - let them know that you are actively engaged in this move and are watching them.
11. Drivers dont' load. They hire locals to do that - watch them like hawks.
12. Will you need a shuttle - can they get an 18 wheeler in and our of your place. have someone ready to watch them at the shuttle point.
13. Be friendly. Be courteous. They will respond to that.

It will take them 4-5 days to pack and load our household. That is a lot of time to be watchful. I am not sure how we are get through this stage yet. It sounds like you may have the same issues with so much to be moved. Be ready for it.

I've moved twice, once by professional and once by budget truck.

We used a local company in Cleveland who worked for Allied to move us to Michigan. Overall we were pleased with their services. This was paid by a new employer so I did not have to worry about cost. My wife was uncomfortable with having them pack the whole house so we packed a lot of things ourselves. We didn't know at the time that they would not insure "PBO" (packed by owner) boxes. The things they packed were very well packed, much better than those we packed ourselves. We had one box with about 200 DVDs in it that was "PBO" and went missing, I was sure someone stole it off the truck, but it turned up a year later in our storage shed. We did have one coffee table damaged but honestly it was pretty flimsy to begin with. I just fixed it myself rather than bother with having them come fix it. Our stuff mostly filled a semi so we didn't have to worry about another family's stuff on the truck, but I was nervous about our stuff being in their truck overnight parked somewhere. The driver and crew were very professional and worked very hard.

When we moved by budget truck it was only a one bedroom apartment's worth of stuff and the move went well. No problems with the truck and budget was cheapest by far.

Both moves were exhausting and hopefully we'll never have to move agian.

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Well I sure appreciate it anyway! We're looking at a move from NY to Alaska next year and this info has been helpful! I had not even thought to ask!

We used United/Mayflower - same company of people owned both types
of trucks. We packed everything ourselves. I spent loads of $$ on good
boxes from the movers - using their "used" boxes AND bought piles and
piles of rubbermaid tote boxes. Also bought many, many batches of their
unprinted newspaper to wrap breakables and pad ALL our boxes. Even if
something wasn't breakable, but might suffer is "crushed", i padded it.
Also important was that i started a notebook that as i packed a box, i
numbered it and listed it in my notebook and it's contents. The box only
got marked with a number. We had 200 boxes, when we moved, we had
to store piles of them into a 10 x 8 shed - we called it the shed of dread
because although we had the notebook it was horrible to take out the boxes
to find the number you needed. However, in the rental, we were able to
quickly unpack boxes needed and not ones that were going to be stored
inside until our house was done. We did not specify which one had
all of our dvds and console games.

The only thing that broke of ours was a handle off one mug and a crack
in the top of my food processor - that's out of 200 boxes and all the furniture.

We got rid of any cheap bureaus, etc. that we were using in our cellar for
storage - too costly to move,etc. Our moving sales man was able to walk
through our house and tell us about what it would cost to move some of
our pieces of furniture, so that helped us decide. Books are the most expensive thing to move - We got rid of most of our book collection, but
NONE of my cook books.

ALSO save all the receipts, etc. because in most cases you can claim the expense on your taxes.

GOOD LUCK.