I mentioned in another post that there was a story behind our move to Arizona. I’ll tell you the short version and you will understand why I might consider myself an expert on the best way to move a household across country.
We committed to moving to Arizona in 2009 and had a home to sell. Not the greatest seller’s market in Illinois but we managed to sell for a profit in September. My son had to be at school in August, hubby was starting a new job in October and my employer needed me to stay until the end of January before I could begin working from home.
We shipped my sons’ belongings to ASU, ordered a POD container and shipped it to Arizona where it would wait until we had an actual place to stay and packed 2 of the 3 cars with things the hubby would need in October and drove out. I returned to Chicago to bring the last car out in November. Project done? Not so fast!
Fast forward to 2013, my son graduates and my husband is homesick and wants to move back home. I lost that argument, and we reversed that process hiring a moving company to pack and transport all belonging and went back to Chicago in 3 cars. We were there 3 weeks when we knew we’d made a big mistake and we made plans to return to the Phoenix Area using PODs again.
Here is what I learned about moving. There are a lot of things that you will not need! Purge, Purge, Purge. Most homes in Arizona do not have the basements we were used to in the Midwest and your garage will quickly become a storage unit unless you opt for an actual storage unit – and they’re not cheap!
Major van lines are great if you don’t want the hassle of carrying boxes and loading trucks, perhaps you are not able to lift heavy boxes and furniture and if that’s the case, major van lines are great. They are costly and you’ll need to figure out the best option for covering your belongings. Check your homeowner’s insurance to see if coverage is available.
We opted to use PODS. They were flexible in the packages they offered, and I needed flexibility! Storing my big items for about 3 or 4 weeks until we had someplace to stay that had storage and that was a big deal. It wasn’t cheap but it was more cost effective that the van lines.
In between the first location we moved to and purchasing our first home in Arizona, we used U-Haul and they were great. It means a lot of manual labor and because I’m chicken to drive a truck long distance, I wouldn’t use them for interstate moves but many people do!
The end of this story was when I bought a new house and had to move one more time. This time we used a local moving company, and they did all the work and were very reasonable.
Once again, Google is your friend – do your research and figure out what your best options for moving are. Oh, and try to move just once -😊
#Transplanted