Board 8 > who here has hired movers before? I need to learn more about this.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm doing a move of about 150 miles next month(central PA to Washington area), and for the first time in my life, I don't have family and friends nearby to help. So, I want to hire movers, but honestly have no idea where to start. I'm sure a few people here have dealt with this and so I have a few questions.

Is there much difference in paying for door-to-door service or renting/driving the truck myself?

How much can you expect to pay for this?

What is a good way to find local movers if I decide to rent the truck myself?

Are there any moving companies that anyone here would recommend?

Or, if you want to share your experiences, feel free to. I'm still trying to figure this out.
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hmm
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I moved about 30 miles. I got two quotes - one was about 1100, the other was 550. You can guess which one I went with. You also ought to tip if they do a good job. I think I tipped 20 bucks each guy because they were awesome. Everything I looked at was local.

I'm not sure if you will find much luck/benefit in renting a truck yourself. They will get paid for loading it, traveling, and unloading it. You aren't gonna save on the fuel charge by very much.

I'll say this, packing your stuff and having moves come in and rip through it does make the whole thing go much faster. I think it took 3 hours for my stuff to go from my old house to my new one. I dropped about 600.

And that felt like a lot - in my 20s, my circle of friends moved a few times each, and we'd all just pitch in and have like 6+ people helping move. We'd get paid in pizza and return moving favors. You'd rent a truck, buy a few pizzas, and that was that. But I think when you're older you just accept that you pay for a move if you can't get a crew of buds/family together.
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Movers are amazing. If you're moving more than just across town, I'd say they're the way to go.

I've moved across town without movers, and it took me like three consecutive 12 hour days just to to pack.

Then on my next move, i got movers, and then they brought enough people to pack and ship all my stuff in one day. Plus they take responsibility for your expensive stuff getting broken.

It's such a load off of a really stressful situation. Just spend the money, imo.
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Where in Washington?
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Well, the idea my wife had is to hire movers on one side to load up the truck, then hire movers at the destination city to unload it. We would drive it.

I would rather just get someone to do the whole thing for me. We will have everything packed in boxes already, just need people to move the stuff.

SantaRPidgey posted...

Where in Washington?

D.C.
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All movers suck. They will be expensive, they will never meet the timelines they offer. It's just a miserable experience always. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

I would rather just get someone to do the whole thing for me.

Expect this to cost at least 1.5k
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1.5k sounds fine!

But comparing quotes, it seems like I'll end up paying much less
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If you're already happy with the quotes you're getting, then you're good to go. Cheapest thing to do would be to get day laborers while you drive the truck yourself, but then you gotta be ready to negotiate sternly and be comfortable giving orders to dudes who probably don't speak much English. From my experience, the actual work of the day laborers is on par with professional movers.
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