r/moving

I’m moving from Philadelphia to New York. After graduating college, I moved to Philly for an engineering job, but part of the reason I took that job was to be closer to my family in New York, so I was driving back and forth often anyway. I was also working on a startup that’s since I’ve shut down.
I’m 24 and starting a new engineering job in Brooklyn at the end of July. My mom’s place has an extra bedroom that I’ll be redoing. It’s mostly furnished, and I’ll bring some furniture from my Philly apartment, but I have a lot of duplicate items now: an air fryer, laundry items, vacuums, furniture, and other household things.
I’m trying to decide what to sell and what to keep. I know I’m not going to live at home forever, but I don’t know if this will be a six-month transition or something longer. I like the idea of staying with my mom and sister, but I may eventually take a job somewhere else, move elsewhere in New York, or buy a nearby rental property.
I also don’t buy a lot of things casually. As an engineer, I tend to research purchases heavily, so the furniture and household items I own were intentionally chosen. That includes things like my table, chairs, extra kitchen island, dressers, vacuum, and air fryer. Rebuying later is not just a simple “buy it again” situation for me; it becomes a whole research process.
At the same time, I don’t want to keep everything in storage for years if certain items, like an air fryer, might become outdated or not worth storing. Selling everything is also a lot of effort because of how quickly this move is happening. Listing items on Facebook Marketplace, coordinating with buyers, and handling the whole process would fall entirely on me since my family and I are all busy.
I’m trying to figure out, financially and logistically, what makes the most sense to sell, keep, or store. Also any other things to consider; am open to some general life advice as well in terms of furnishing potential rental unit or the nature of jobs and moves in 20s.

I also drive a Chevy Colorado and I can park it in both Philly and Brooklyn easily because both are kind of like suburban not like Time Square but with my new engineering job closer to downtown Brooklyn I think it’ll be harder but I might just first use the truck for the move and then sell it afterwards.

Hi, I’ll be moving soon (didn’t find a place yet, not a part of problem for now). My current block is infested with pharaoh ants (I’m on floor 3 and still have big problems with them) and we’ve been struggling with them since day one (of course our current cashgrabber called landlord didn’t do nothing considering this, one of reasons we’ll be moving out, not a part of the problem now). During winter they’ve been dormant but now we find them everywhere - food, kitchen, among mugs and cups and even in our electronics (laptops mainly). How would you handle moving without infesting new place with ants that are pain in the A? We really don’t want to deal with them anymore and apparently killing them off was not an option, we’ve tried some traps and sprays but we have limited options since we have a cat. Right now we don’t even care about getting rid of them, we just don’t want them in our next place. Please advise.

I’m moving from Boston to queens (Saturday Aug 1st) and made the bold choice to rent a U-Haul and just hire movers to load/unload in each city to save money. My issue comes with driving from Boston to Queens: I would take I-95 from Brighton at about 11-12pm at the latest, as the Boston movers time slot is 9-10, with 2 hours moving time (although last time they took far less than that. I’m just thinking worst case scenario they finish at 12). The route is essentially I-95 from Brighton to NYC then I get off on I-278 and take that into queens. (AFAIK this is the only way I can go with a uhaul. The other faster routes from Brighton to Astoria, queens would require a parkway, and according to NYC DOT uhauls are not allowed on any ny parkways).

In queens my movers are reserved to show up between 5-6pm which gives me 5 hours to get there. However, I realized after talking to my dad that I-95 Boston-nyc can sometimes take up to 6 hrs (insane) if there’s an accident, or just really bad traffic etc. so that made me worried I’d miss the movers time slot in queens…

So I thought I have two options here:

- I keep the plan to do the move in one day and just move the queens movers time slot to 6-7. Hopefully 6hrs is enough time to make that drive…

- OR I keep my uhaul in Brighton for one night and leave at 5am the next day. Then I would avoid the worst of the traffic hopefully, and I can move my queens movers from Saturday eventing to Sunday morning 9-10am.

Only problem with the second option is that I have no idea where I would leave the uhaul overnight in Boston…and of course I’m worried about people breaking in and stealing my stuff too. I do have a truck parking permit from Boston for my street on Saturday, (my street doesn’t require resident permits and is free, the permit just means by law people can’t park there for that day). I figure that permit guarantees me a parking spot, so after the time is up i can just…leave the uhaul there until 5am Sunday? But, as it’s street parking, I feel like it does leave it more vulnerable to people trying to break in and steal things. I do have a U lock, but idk if that would be enough to deter people. Also concerned that someone will ignore the sign and park there anyways lol (they did last year and I was so pissed) but I guess I could always get them towed if I have to.

Does anyone know if there’s any rules against this that I don’t know about? Like, is it fine to keep a 10’ uhaul parked on a street in Brighton overnight? Is the drive on I-95 from Boston to nyc at that time of day really that bad? Is it worth the risk of leaving my uhaul on the street with all my stuff in it to do the second option?

Advice on which way would be a better plan is appreciated!

Daunted by the choices available. It‘s a 184-mile trip, we are a family of 3 moving to a 3br home, we want to avoid using moving companies.

We are leaning towards PODS, but don’t know how to approach the whole thing. Where do we find people we can hire to help load and unload our stuff? Do we have to research if we need to get permits to have a Pod parked? Is Packrat a better option?

Please chime in with your experiences. Everything helps. Thank you!

Am I correct that a cargo van would not hold a queen mattress, box spring, couch, oversized desk, office chair, 20 small/medium boxes and 2 extra large boxes? Should I get a 10 or 15 inch truck instead?

No furniture. I think I will have around 10-ish medium-sized boxes (maybe less? no more than 15 for sure). Most of them are not heavy - just bulky.

I don’t have a car and don’t want to rent a vehicle because I haven’t been driving for a while, and I can’t trust my driving skills..

It will be from one apartment to another apartment.

I was thinking about just shipping everything via UPS/FedEx. Would this be the best choice?

I was also thinking about hiring a mover from TaskRabbit, but (please correct me if I'm wrong) afaik you need to pay for the round-trip travel, which I think would spike the cost too much?

I am also considering PODS or U-Box/UPack but these seem pretty expensive

I hope it's okay to post this here.

I work in the supply department of a major hospital, and the amount of cardboard boxes we go through is insane! The upside is that they're a great source for anyone looking for moving boxes, along with other packing materials like bubble wrap and brown packing paper.

If you work at a hospital or any other type of medical facility and need moving boxes, take a trip to your supply department. You'll almost certainly find a wide variety of boxes of all shapes and sizes, as well as other packing materials like bubble wrap and packing paper. The quality of these boxes is generally pretty high too.

Just be sure to check with the department manager or a tech first to make sure it's okay to take any boxes or packing materials. The supply department at my hospital is happy to let employees reuse them, but it's always best to ask before taking anything.

My moving situation is a bit complicated. I'm from California & I'm going to school in Rhode Island in the fall. but, for summer, I am going to be at my family's in Washington. I'm using this as a bit of a base for some things. Since I'm flying & not driving, I have to be more strategic since I can't get or use just any size anything or use trash bags etc.

I'm looking to bring my comforter & a few regular blankets, not like those thick bed blankets but just regular ones if you know what mean.
The main reason I want to bring my comforter is so that I don't have to buy a whole new one - the minor aspect being that there is still no comforter in the guest bedroom & I don't think they plan on getting one since only a few guests visit, & I can just put this one away for me to use when I visit during summers once they hopefully do get one - but the major aspect being so that I don't have to buy a new one (for a house that is not my own & so they can choose what comforter to put in the guest room) on top of the other many expenses I'm incurring at the moment. (moving truck to bring nearby family furniture, flights, checking multiple suitcases/moving bags - which I'm also interested in hearing people's thoughts on this since I'm having to check multiple baggages due to moving via flying, I was looking at Lugless to get a couple suitcases/moving bags to my family's. Anyone have experience or suggestions?) In terms of expenses, this brings me to my question.

What do I get exactly to pack my comforter specifically? I'm looking at vacuum seal bags but I'm not sure what size to get because it doesn't seem like the jumbo vacuum seal bags with a comforter in it could fit in any size suitcase or a moving bag (I have Ticonn ones that are 27 long but I could get ones that are 28, 29, or 29.8 long since I was going to get more anyway). but it also doesn't seem like the comforter could fit into a smaller vacuum bag. Do I just put it in a box along with my other blankets & ship it somehow? Do I get the bigger moving bags & try to put it in there? or keep the Ticonn moving bags I have? & if so how do I put it in there, do I just fold it/roll it by itself or get what size vacuum bag?

I guess the issue is I'm trying to be mindful of how many moving bags or suitcases or boxes I have. I'm ideally trying to fit my comforter & the blankets together in whatever they fit in.
I still have to pack up some sweaters that I wanted to vacuum seal too but I just realized this is the same issue, the jumbo vacuum bags would be cool but then because they're jumbo I don't think they'd fit in a moving bag or suitcase anymore. so I'm not really sure what to do. the biggest vacuum seal bag I have right now is for regular clothes and it's for a size 28 suitcase (23.6 x 19.7). it definitely won't fit the sweaters unless I use a bunch & I doubt it'll fit the comforter, possibly the blankets but I don't think so

my dream would be a couple acre farm house within walking distance from the ocean, with a big city in driving distance. not sure how possible that is but looking for recommendations!

preferably east coast but i'm open to anywhere but biggest priority is by an ocean

Moving two brand new electric vehicles from CA to FL, ideally enclosed transport. Can someone recommend trusted companies that have not failed them in the past?

We're planning a move from West Palm Beach Florida to Manchester New Hampshire. The issue I'm seeing is that the quotes tend to vary and in some cases they just seem a little too cheap OR the first quote I got was just too high.

For reference, we have 2 cars but I've only got quotes on 1 for now.

I'm looking to move it in September, so it's not a rush at all, I want to find the right deal

Hyundia Sante Fe 2023.

These are the quotes I got for open shipping (when the car sits on a truck without cover essentially so it's supposed to be cheaper I believe):

Montway: $1269

Sherpa: $1700

Nexus: $1235

Ship Your Car Now: $2413

To be honest I was recommended ship your car now by a friend and that was my first quote. Now I'm looking at these other quotes and I'm not sure what to make of it. I called back and the guys at ship your car said that these other companies will do like a bait and switch and quote lower and then increase the price later after they collect a deposit which essentially covers their fee anyways.

Does anyone have any experience with these companies and have any clue if this is true? The $2400 quote was more what I was expecting but I don't want to be taken for a ride either (pun intended).

Hello! This may be a long shot but I’m wondering if anyone has ideas for getting just a few large/cumbersome items from a relatives house in AZ to our house in OR. Neither of us are fully moving, just trying to get a few big items state to state after a death in the family: motorcycle (not running), piano, dining table. Clearly not enough for a full truck, maybe not even for a small pod, but difficult to do ourselves. I’m feeling pretty lost in all the options out there…has anyone done something like this before and have ideas on the most efficient method (or even some better search keywords I might use besides “moving”, since that isn’t quite accurate)?

Thank you!!

Moving in two weeks , the new place is 15 mins away by car. Very local . And We’re packing our own boxes . Roadway quoted us 1600$, and the salesman on the phone tried to get us to sign on the phone saying it was only good for the phone call. Lo and behold, we got the email quote for the deal being good for 72 hrs. That was in bad faith. But whatever . We called back to remove some items and tried a failed promo code. He helped find another code to use and it worked . My question is: worth it to call them again today and get different rep to see if quote is correct? Or is it not worth my time ?

Question for anyone who has used a Relocube - did you end up needing or using ratchet straps to hold things down? I'm trying to decide if I want to get some off Facebook Marketplace.

Moving from the UK to the USA (Central England to SW Virginia). International moving companies all seem to (1) offer a full, door to door service, and (2) charge a lot for it.

My household goods are currently in a storage unit. All small items are boxed and stacked, with furniture tidily arranged, and the whole cubic space filled wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling. With the help of a couple of local movers I can hire, it would be easy to pack all this into a 40-foot container, filling it to about a height of 4-5 feet. (According to my calculations, it would just fit in a 20-foot, but that would require packing it to the absolute top, and I'm concerned we might end up finding it doesn't all fit.) I can then be at my home in Virginia when the container arrives, and again hire a few guys to help unload the goods into my house. Loading can be done in one day, and unloading in one day.

Question 1: is this feasible? Will freight forwarders and customs agents accept self-packed goods?

Question 2: will this actually allow me to save a lot of money, compared to just hiring an international moving company for their standard service?

My family is retiring soon and I'm planning on moving with them. We're trying to decide between West Virginia, Maine, Vermont or rural New York.

We're looking for 15+ rural acres, somewhere colder than the south, where we've lived our entire lives. We'd prefer 5 months or so of winter but we'd like to avoid 8 months of winter, like some areas seem to have. We'd also like to get away from the southern culture if possible. We're not really concerned with the city life or job opportunities. As long as we live within an hour or so of a city we'd be fine.

We absolutely love the scenery in West Virginia. Our concerns are that it's still close to the southern culture that we're trying to avoid. And the land is rugged and steep, it may not be as usable as we'd like.

We're seriously considering Maine because there are a lot of properties in our price range. Plus we love the outdoors, hiking and my family loves fishing. There's lots of water in Maine.

Vermont and rural New York also look very beautiful though.

Which would you suggest for our family? Which would you choose and why?

Once everything is packed, how do you know where items are?
- Labels only?
- Numbered boxes?
- Spreadsheet?
- Notes app?
- Just remember?
- Something else?
What system has worked best for you, and what hasn’t?

Myself and two family members are planning to move from Arkansas to MN sometime this year and one of the issues we're facing is figuring out the best way to actually move our things there. The situation is myself and my roommate (Cousin 1) living in a small 2 bedroom apartment and the third (Cousin 2) living with his family. He wouldn't have much to move, basically everything in his bedroom, but me and my roommate would have both of our bedrooms worth of things as well as living room furniture. We also have two cars between us, no trucks.

So far myself and Cousin 1 have determined that due to the length of the move (14 hours), repeat trips are really not practical. We're expecting this to be a one way trip. And our problem now is trying to decide what actually would be the most practical (and more importantly, safest) way to actually transport everything, or if we should just plan around shipping things to the new location.

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I'm moving from OK to PA. I have a 2019 cbr 600rr that I'm moving back with. I really don't have a lot of furniture, and the furniture I do have can be broken down(Amazon). I have 2 queen mattresses and a large dresser type piece of furniture. Does anyone have any tips that will make transporting my bike easier? The truck size I'm looking at does not come with a ramp or even a hitch for a trailer. A 16' truck would be overkill for what I'm bringing back as half of it would be empty.