Hey guys, what do you think about cost versus trouble?
If we use a moving company to load a truck with our stuff, drive it to Rochester (next day arrival) and unload it, it would cost $2,625-3,000. Kelly would drive the car to Rochester and I would take the bus/train with the baby.
If we pay a local moving company to load the truck in Somerville, we rent a truck from Penske and Kelly drives it to Rochester, and then we pay another local moving company to unload it in Rochester, it would cost $400 for the movers in each city, plus $350 for the truck and approximately $250 in gas (assuming 450 miles / 8 miles to the gallon x $4.25/gallon), a total of $1400. (I think this plan would add a few other hidden costs, totaling maybe $300, making it about $1700.) But in this second plan, we have to figure out how to get the car to Rochester separately. I drive with the baby, just a week after giving birth? Does that seem realistic given that newborns need to feed and change diapers every 1-2 hours, so we would need to stop the car that often?
Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Do any of my friends or family want to take a road trip with either Kelly (in a big truck) or I (in our car) from Somerville to Rochester? Or drive the car to Rochester for us and get bus/train fare back? Sounds fun, doesn’t it!!
It’s clearly much cheaper to arrange the labor and then do the drive ourselves, but it is also much more of a hassle. With all that’s going on, I’m not sure we need the hassle. On the other hand, a thousand-dollar difference in price is no laughing matter.
EDIT:
Alex reminded me that I have not gotten quotes from container storage companies (PODS, Door-to-Door). I’ll price them out this weekend and then post how that compares. It may be the best option, combining cheaper than full-service with not having to drive our junk ourselves.
July 12, 2008 at 2:16 pm
After our nightmare of a move across country last August, I NEVER want to move myself again. Then again, we had a week long trip that started off on the wrong foot – packing took several hours longer than expected, heat, traffic, oh yeah and the close call with a Mac truck that left us with a flat trailer tire after only 2 hours of getting onto the road. Then there was the matter of 4 freaked out kitties (plus our suitcases, their food, litter) that we had to keep transferring from the SUV to the cat-friendly hotels each night and then back to the car in the morning. Once we finally reached Boston it took forever to haul all our stuff into our apartment, which took us until 2:30am. NOT FUN! I was so stressed and tired by the end of the trip I thought I was going to collapse and just wanted to die.
$1000 is a lot of money, but if you can afford spending the additional money, I’d be inclined to hire movers/pods in order to save your sanity. (although pack your items with decent padding, because I hear movers are not very gentle with stuff) Then again, your trip is much shorter and with friends/family on both ends, it may not be too stressful to do it yourself.