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How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Ceetar Aug 12 2013 09:55 AM

Anyone move recently? Did you hire movers? Did it cost a lot? I've been quoted twice now, $510 one place, $1100 the other. (This is out of a 1 bedroom apartment, no appliances, about 5 miles)

metsmarathon Aug 12 2013 03:35 PM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

pizza + beer + uhaul

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 12 2013 03:40 PM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Yeah, you should be able to do this yourself. Tip: Breaking down existing place takes FOREVER, unloading and setting up the new joint takes no time, relatively. Lure friends to help with promise of beer and pizza afteward. Hell, I'll do it for beer and pizza.

metirish Aug 12 2013 03:56 PM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

agree with above, last two moves were rented U-Haul.....no problems at all....IIRC the rent of the vehicle was not expensive.

Ceetar Aug 13 2013 05:13 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

we did the u-Haul with family to move in, and it was quite a production and I believe my brother in law said something along the lines of "getting too old for this" and we've since acquired much more stuff, including big bulky and heavy pieces of furniture like a sleeper sofa. (And the staircase has a landing/pivot) I thought about just asking friends, though no one's really the 'help you move' type (Unless you guys are volunteering? ;-) ), but we decided we'd acquired enough stuff that it was probably better to go the professional route. We've started packing, I really don't know how we fit all of this in here..

Benjamin Grimm Aug 13 2013 06:50 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

When we last moved, my wife and I rented the U-Haul and did it all ourselves, with the exception of six heavy items. Hired a professional mover for those items alone; it was much cheaper than having them move everything, and also allowed us to handle most of our own stuff.

HahnSolo Aug 13 2013 06:53 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

If there are any walk-ups, or walk-downs, or anything to do with more than a couple of stairs, hire somebody. Friends and family want to help, and they probably won't say it, but they don't want to be lugging heavy shit up and down stairs.

Ceetar Aug 13 2013 06:57 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: When we last moved, my wife and I rented the U-Haul and did it all ourselves, with the exception of six heavy items. Hired a professional mover for those items alone; it was much cheaper than having them move everything, and also allowed us to handle most of our own stuff. Thought about that, but couldn't find that it was much cheaper just to have someone move furniture. Still looking into it though. part of it seems to be because it's the 31st, Saturday, and Labor Day weekend. HahnSolo wrote: If there are any walk-ups, or walk-downs, or anything to do with more than a couple of stairs, hire somebody. Friends and family want to help, and they probably won't say it, but they don't want to be lugging heavy shit up and down stairs. Yeah, I got that impression from my brother in law last time, and that was 5 years ago (and he's ~20 years older than me). We're one floor up (and not on the street) and the house is up a hill as well. It'd be one thing if what I really needed was car/truck space and just carrying boxes, but I feel bad subjecting people to heavy labor. (And once you ask, you're sorted obligated to help them in return forever right? oof.)

Frayed Knot Aug 13 2013 07:09 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Movers generally charge by the pound (and distance) so whatever you can do yourself will save you overall - and since the distance part here isn't much a good chunk of this should be self-doable. Whatever estimates you're getting in advance could be just that, estimates, so the wide gap in what you're hearing are more like high-side/low-side ranges and the actual final prices might wind up to be more in the same ballpark after the movers see/weigh exactly what you've got. There's also a difference in price if YOU box/seal the items as opposed to them doing the packing as well as the moving. Moving tip of the day: real moving boxes come in a variety of sizes, are most likely better than whatever you've got kicking around, can be re-used several times, and there's probably someone in your area who has just recently moved and has once-used boxes they want to get rid of for cheap or for free. Craigslist is a good source for that.

Ceetar Aug 13 2013 07:19 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Movers generally charge by the pound (and distance) so whatever you can do yourself will save you overall - and since the distance part here isn't much a good chunk of this should be self-doable. Whatever estimates you're getting in advance could be just that, estimates, so the wide gap in what you're hearing are more like high-side/low-side ranges and the actual final prices might wind up to be more in the same ballpark after the movers see/weigh exactly what you've got. There's also a difference in price if YOU box/seal the items as opposed to them doing the packing as well as the moving. Moving tip of the day: real moving boxes come in a variety of sizes, are most likely better than whatever you've got kicking around, can be re-used several times, and there's probably someone in your area who has just recently moved and has once-used boxes they want to get rid of for cheap or for free. Craigslist is a good source for that. Thanks, yeah, actually my wife's company goes through A Lot of boxes and they're very sturdy so she's been taking a couple home every day. We close Tuesday and I can't really take off again to deal with moving, so that's Saturday, but we'll definitely hand-move fragiles, plants, cats, beer and what not ourselves in the interim. Yeah, the higher price ones I'm seeing seem to be the all-inclusive type places that talk about things like taking apart, putting back to together (And really only the bed needs that from the headboard, and it's just nails, and I know how to us a hammer). I've been googling some, and I soft-committed to this one company I found online. It's one of those generic "Northeast Van Lines USA" companies that seem sorta shady, but the little I can find on them as a company doesn't seem bad at least and it's not like I have to worry about the "truck breaking down" because it's never really going to be out of my sight. It might have been dumb of me picking this one, since they're out of Queens and charging me to get here, but all the local ones seemed to be booked up for that day, which unfortunately shrunk to one day once our closing got pushed back and we got out of the last two months of our apt lease.

Benjamin Grimm Aug 13 2013 07:22 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

We had the luxury of having six or seven days to move. In the first few days we moved cartons and stuff to the new place but slept at the old place. Then once the beds got moved, we slept in the new place and spent the last day or two moving the final things from the old place. When you have to do it all in one day it's much tougher logistically.

Frayed Knot Aug 13 2013 07:46 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

but we'll definitely hand-move fragiles, plants, cats, beer and what not ourselves in the interim. You'll probably HAVE TO move most of that stuff yourself. Last time I helped pack up my parents stuff for their move the mover told them what they would not take which included pets, plants and even most liquids. IOW, the planner said, "nothing that could possibly leak, explode, or die". They were even balking at some of my father's art supplies like paints and thinners in squeeze tubes.

Vic Sage Aug 13 2013 08:29 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

picture this: It's 1990 or so, and my girlfriend (the future Mrs. Sage, who i will call FMS) are planning to move in together in a Brownstone in Park Slope. It's owned by a friend, Joe, who is moving in with his girl up in Tucahoe. Meanwhile, my roommate, Mike, decides to move in with a couple of our other friends (Chris & Dean), so they all decide to move into a bigger place in the neighborhood (Carroll Gardens). So here was the plan -- we would all help each other move, and all on the same day. Mike was to be moved from our place to the new bigger place on Friday night, because he wasn't going to be around Saturday (moving day). We grumbled about his absence but chalked it up to "Mike being Mike". Of course, he wasn't even much help Friday nite, but he didn't have that much stuff (his waterbed was emptied and disassembled; the rest was clothes and junk, no other furniture). It's Saturday morning, bright and early, and we move Chris and Dean into their new place first, navigating around Mike's still-packed crap sitting in the middle of the apartment (Dean is such an OCD neat freak that everything of his is properly boxed, labeled and organized before we get there -- good luck to him living with Mike, I thought). Then, we go back to my place, load up my stuff (including 6000 comic books, and hundreds of hardcover novels, and the stuff Mike left behind because he was too lazy to move it) and then we stop at FMS's place to get her girly stuff, and then off to the brownstone, where friend Joe is waiting to exchange his stuff for ours in the truck, so we can take him up to Tuckahoe. The brownstone apartment is 3 flights up a narrow staircase -- bed, sofa, bookcases, tables (FMS even has furniture with French names) had to be carried up while Joe's stuff was being carried down. This is where we all really earned our pizza and beer. Joe hadn't bothered to pack very much, so we also had to help him finish that before we could move anything. But finally, the truck is packed, our stuff is inside, and we're all off to Tucahoe. Except for Dean, who decides he's had enough moving, and is pissed at Mike and Joe for not doing their share, so he goes back to his new apartment to start unpacking, since the notion of all his stuff still packed away makes his OCD explode. Ok, most of the heavy lifting is done anyway, so Me, my girl, Chris and Joe head for Westchester. But we have to make one more stop... FMS has some more stuff she wants to pick up from her parents' house in Mamaroneck. While its not out of the way, we groan with the knowledge that we have to lift and carry even more shit. We finally get to Tuckahoe, and Joe's place is a cute little house into which his couch will not go, not through any of its known orifices. We consider ripping it a new one, but instead we start unscrewing legs and playing that spatial relationship game of shifting and moving the couch at every conceivable angle to somehow get that 10 lbs of shit into that 5 lb bag; ultimately, we are successful. The rest of his stuff goes in without incident. As the sun went down, we sat on Joe's new patio while he got the pizza and beer, and i have never been so tired and sore in my life. And my back has never been quite the same since. My wife and I swore to each other that night that we would never help our friends, nor ask our friends to help us, to move ever again. WE were too old for that shit. If we couldn't afford to hire movers, we would just stay where we were. And so it remains ever thus. To those who dare to UHaul it, i salute you. But don't ask me to help.

Ceetar Aug 13 2013 08:38 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

yikes. This is also another reason why I'm happy not to have or buy a pickup. I feel like that's code to your friends to "hey, pick up this couch for me?" So beer and pizza for friends that help you move is standard, but what's the fee for mother's that come to help clean up the new house? (Or Mother in laws, as I'm going to be at work and it's my wife and mother that will be cleaning)

Benjamin Grimm Aug 13 2013 08:40 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Take them out to dinner.

dgwphotography Aug 13 2013 08:41 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Ceetar wrote: So beer and pizza for friends that help you move is standard, but what's the fee for mother's that come to help clean up the new house? (Or Mother in laws, as I'm going to be at work and it's my wife and mother that will be cleaning) Grandchildren.

Mets – Willets Point Aug 13 2013 08:55 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

When we moved back in 2007 we had great movers who finished the move in less time and less cost than the estimate. A bunch of burly Hondurans who filled their coffee with 10 sugar packets each. I wish I could recommend them to you, but they don't operate in New York.

Vic Sage Aug 13 2013 09:00 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

what's the fee for mother's that come to help clean up the new house? (Or Mother in laws, as I'm going to be at work and it's my wife and mother that will be cleaning The cost for that is too great to bear; giving anyone in your matrilineal line that kind of emotional IOU is like living with the sword of Damocles hanging above you, and eventually hoping it just falls.

Ceetar Aug 13 2013 09:06 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

dgwphotography wrote: Ceetar wrote: So beer and pizza for friends that help you move is standard, but what's the fee for mother's that come to help clean up the new house? (Or Mother in laws, as I'm going to be at work and it's my wife and mother that will be cleaning) Grandchildren. I'm approaching the point where this is the response to "Pass the sugar".

batmagadanleadoff Aug 13 2013 10:20 AM Re: How Much Does It Cost To Move?

Ask him to help you. He's experienced in this matter.