How much is a cross-country move?

[Anonymous]

Moving to California- does anyone have any recent experience on how much would it cost to move the size of a 2BD apt from DC to there?

Also - how do people (who are on a budget) usually deal with cars for this sort of thing? Do you drive them cross country or is it reasonable to ship them?

[Anonymous]

Depends on lots of variables.
-are you packing everything yourself or looking to pay someone?
-do you have a vehicle that can tow a uhaul trailer?
-is there a time constraint?

When I moved, my family helped me. They borrowed a pick up truck from a neighbor, and we rented a uhaul trailer (6 by 12) http://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/ for my stuff. It was packed in pretty tight. I'd say the equivalent to a 1 bedroom plus den. My family drove the truck, and I drove my car (also packed full). I moved to DC from LA, so not as far a trip as you. Down side of the trailer was that we couldn't go faster than 60 mph. It made the trip quite a bit longer. About 23 hrs vs 17/18.

If you're on a budget, it's probably a lot better to drive the cars vs shipping them. I imagine that's pretty expensive.

Take the time to go through your stuff and purge things you don't need. Especially the big things like furniture.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP- I guess we'd be packing but would want movers for the furniture.

I'd prefer not to drive the truck ourselves - its a big drive, so I don't think I'd be up for that.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Not sure how much those costs would be. Have you looked into getting a POD? You can get people to pack it up for you I'm sure, and then they deliver the POD to your new address.

[Anonymous]

If they do PODs cross country that sounds ideal. Will check...

[Anonymous]

OP I just quoted our move from DC to Chicago - 1bed apt - and they want 2.5K flat rate. (we move a lot so I'm tired of those quotes that end up almost 50% more expensive) We're packing they're just doing the assemble/disassemble and drive.

We're driving our car.

GL

[Anonymous]

Get quotes. They are free. Get several ones to get a good price. Beware that they will probably lowball you by 30% and then calculate a higher price during the packing or loading.

[Anonymous]

We moved from VA to OR and the total move was about $20K for us. Included:
Movers (we used J&K - very happy with them and they packed for us; 2,500 square ft. house). About half the cost.

The rest:
-Shipped two cars
-Shipped two cats via a pet transport service, had to board them at a vet prior while we moved out
-Hotel costs both in DC and OR
-Airfare for three of us
-Couple weeks of eating out

[Anonymous]

Thanks PPs - appreciate all the detail and info.