Monday, September 18, 2006

Moving logistics

I'm sure no one's really interested in all the gory details, but moving's all that's on my mind lately!
I have set aside $300 for the total move. We are spending a little extra to rent the biggest Budget truck for three full days. This way, we have two nights and a whole day for loading. It also enables me to have the house emptied for cleaning and to spend the night in a hotel.

The hotel was pricier than I anticipated. I scoured local hotel coupon books and the internet for a decent rate near the new house. The cheapest thing I could find was a room at an all-suite hotel for $40. My bidding wasn't too sharp because I was doing it in the middle of the night. I now think I could have saved an extra $10-$15 with a better strategy--or gotten the 3-star hotel for only $5 more. Ugh. At least the suite hotel features a full kitchenette and free laundry! (If anyone is thinking of stealing my precious garage sale furniture from the truck, think again. It will be parked at a safer, undisclosed location.)

The final chunk of change will be used to pay two high school students to help us unload Friday afternoon. We have offered them $10 an hour and expect 2 hours apiece, plus food, or roughly $50 total. What I haven't included are the mental-sanity costs of moving such as one restaurant meal, convenience foods like bottled waters, and other things which will come out of my daily operating budget.

Is a do-it-yourself move really worth it? The cheapest moving service I could find was Two Men and A Truck, which charges $97 an hour, with a 2 hour minimum. They estimated at least four hours, plus overnight storage fees and tips for the workers. It's a lot harder to be completely out of an old house by the closing date than it is to move from an apartment to a new house. I'm pretty confident that our $300 budget for this particular timeline and houseful of stuff is a fair savings.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have moved myself several times w/ help from friends and family, using UHaul. I have also used a low budget mover who showed up in a Hertz rental truck. They were great, quick but scared us to death when they didn't get to the new house as quickly as we did and then didn't answer their cell. I could just see the Hertz truck driving off into the sunset w/ everything I owned inside! They did show up (they stopped for lunch!) and for the time convience and muscle were worth the $500. (I had a 27ft truck full) I think what you have planned is great and will work out fine. You will all be very tired I think though. Good luck & enjoy the new house!
Emmy in Nashville

DonnaB said...

I'm enjoying the gory details! You sound as if you have everything organized and covered.

Goslyn said...

Good luck, Meredith! I am impressed that you can unload ALL of your belongings in 2 hours with just 2 high school boys.

We had a team of 4 movers on our last move, and it took them probably 2-3 hours to move our stuff, and they were moving.

I have to say, though, movers beat the heck out of doing all that lifting myself. Especially since we own a piano.

I hope everything goes smoothly for you on your move!

Anonymous said...

Seems like very reasonable costs, I think we spent that much on truck rental and supplying a nice lunch for the ten friends I corralled into helping us move last time. Trying to remember how long loading & unloading took--maybe three hours including a drive of no more than 30 minutes (we were moving from a 3 bed/1 bath for comparison's sake).

Frankly, the hotel costs make me chuckle! Remind me again that wages in the Southeast are much lower please...right?!? Here in Sacramento $40 wouldn't even get you a fleabag motel so all-suite impresses the heck out of me.

Anonymous said...

If you have already moved, sorry this is late. Friends of ours moved a few years ago and implimented a great idea that we will definatly use when we move. They had a moving party. They ordered a whole bunch of pizzas and got some two liters of soda. They invited everyone from work, church etc. that they knew to come over from 5pm on for free pizza and to help move. They had packed up a lot of their most valuable stuff, but had some left. Here's what we did. At 5pm the girls finished packing and the guys hauled all of the heavy stuff out to the truck. People ate pizza in between. When the truck was loaded, everyone cleaned the old place. Then on to the new place! We cleaned the new place. The guys carried everything in and rearranged the furniture etc. according to my friends' wishes. The girls washed dishes and put away things in cupboards etc. again according to the wishes of my friends. The result...by 11 pm the old apartment was empty and clean, the new house was completly moved into. Everything was unpacked, beds made, cupboards stocked, pictures hung, boxes disposed of. They woke up the next morning to no unpacking! What an awesome idea! We will definatly do this ourselves. The best part. Everyone had a blast!