East Coast to West Coast...storage?

eep610 · Joined: 17 Feb 2012 Posts: 1

We are looking for suggestions on how to handle our move. We currently live in southeastern Pennsylvania and will be moving temporarily, if not permanently, to western Washington.

Background: we retired and put our house on the market. We also rented a furnished home beginning March 1 near Seattle for 6 months to determine if we really want to settle there permanently before moving our things across the country. We never expected our home to sell quickly but it is now under agreement (the home is rather unique and spent 5 years on the market the last two times it was for sale so you can understand we never thought we would be in the situation we are in). Now we need to decide how best to handle our belongings.

We have a large home but do not plan on keeping much of the large furniture. We will not be storing/moving any couches, mattresses, TV's. We will be moving kitchen table and chairs, a couple of desks and chests, two dressers, a tall case clock, old work bench and an assortment of small things in boxes. We also will be moving about 25 boxes of books. My main question is, do we hire a moving company to move our things into their storage facility figuring we would use them when we decide on a permanent home or have them move our things to another storage facility (like Public Storage)? Or, do we hire our college athlete nephew and a couple of his buddies, rent a truck and have them move our things into a storage facility? Or, would we be better off renting a POD or similar? Or perhaps, would a combination of these solutions work best as there are some things we would like to have access to, although not absolutely necessary?

We would expect that our things would stay in storage 6 months to a year while we determine if relocating across the country is what we really want to do.

Finally, we were wondering if a move via container ship might be an option because we are basically moving from Philadelphia to Seattle. Has anyone had experience with this?

Thank you for any and all suggestions. We haven't moved in many, many years and this is basically all new to us. We appreciate your help.

BigLeeCalif

Firstly, let me dissuade you from shipping your goods via the deep blue sea. The cost would be substantial.

If you haven't decided on when you're moving, you can take one of several routes.

The one I would recommend would be to have a legitimate mover come out and give you the following type of estimate.

#1 - Estimate number 1 would be for a move that would be to pack all of your goods, and place them into permanent storage until you are ready to move them to Washington. Anyone giving you an estimate question them as to whether they would be able to haul your shipment when the time comes. Request that as a condition, you would like to have your shipment weighed when it is picked up. That way, when you need to get your estimate for moving it to Washington, you already have an accurate weight to get your interstate charges on.

If you use any of the do it yourself methods, when you get ready to move you will need to have an estimate, but without the weight, and if it is in storage, it will be pretty much a guestimate.
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Movinghelper

I have to second what Biglee say's. Also if you look at some of the major van lines they have relocation programs that can return money back to you for the purchase/sale or both of the homes if you use on of their referred realtors. This could substantially cut your moving cost with such littel being moved. Most of them offer around $5 for every 1000 of purchase/sale price of the homes.

It cost you nothing to sign up and use the program and if youa re goign to purchase a home it is a no brainer. Since you already have your home listed they can not get involved in that one till the listing expires.

http://www.stevensworldwide.com/CorporateRelocation/Plus.aspx
http://www.mayflower.com/moving/relocation-services/citypointe.htm

Both of these companies would provide in home estimates for you.
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or more information on moving or to file a complaint go to http://www.protectyourmove.gov

1..NEVER PAY A MOVER A DEPOSIT FOR INTERSTATE MOVING! IT COULD BE THE START OF THE BIG SCAM
2. GO WITH IN HOME ESTIMATES ONLY.
3. DO NOT USE A BROKER.

BillAdams

Good responses from Big Lee and Movinghelper.

I'll add:
Since you're not 100% sure that you'll actually move to WA, keep your storage here at origin. That way if the move out west never happens, you'll be doing 2 local moves rather than 2 long distance moves at a much lower cost.

I will repeat the advice on having your shipment weighed on the move into storage - very important since the cost to make an interstate move is based on weight. It'll be nice to know what you're interstate move will cost ahead of time.

You'd be better off interviewing a few movers and picking the one you like best to store AND move you interstate for full accountability, so get pricing for both moves up front. If you make your decision to stay in WA, a simple phone call is all it takes to schedule delivery of your things.

Ask the mover(s) you interview for a price break on storing with them. Most will give some sort of discount as they will be storing your things for a while, then moving you again.

If you think you'll need access to your things in storage, then you'll need to consider self storage.

Congrats and best wishes for a long and healthy retirement.
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Bill Adams
Finding good people is worth the effort you make.