Moving In Wintertime

October 23, 2009 2:10 PM

My wife and I are moving from NYC to Denver in the middle of January. We'll likely be shipping some stuff and then driving. I've never moved during the winter, so I'm looking for advice from people who have moved through snow or know of any issues getting to Denver around January. Best routes?

I've moved often, but it's always been in the summer. We plan on taking things slow - no reason to get into an accident - but I want to be sure there's not some other salient feature that I won't know about until it's actually too late.

I know what I want to do, so if you've advice on how best to do it, please be my guest!

Previously, about winterizing cars in Denver

posted by scrutiny to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

If your possessions will be exposed to freezing temperatures, make sure you drain any of them that contain liquids (like the boiler on your coffee/espresso machine).
posted by bizwank at 2:13 PM on October 23

The best advice I can give is to hire movers that will take care of everything. Box everything up and unpack it for you. We moved to colorado springs last year and did this for the first time. It was kind of pricey, but well worth it. I think we used united movers.

As far as other practical things, winters here aren't nearly as bad as the east coast. Ice is very rare and snow doesn't last nearly as long. I would suggest getting studded tires if you drive alot, but they aren't always necessary, just very helpful.
The most straight forward way for us was I 40. It looks like 76 to 70 would be the quickest, most direct route from NYC.
posted by TheBones at 3:04 PM on October 23

That trip in the winter shouldn't give you too much trouble. Now if you were going any further West than Denver, that might be a very different thing, but seeing as it's pretty flat the whole way, you should be fine. You'll be going through a lot of snow in the midwest, but as long as you stick to the interstate, which is usually cleared first after a storm, you'll be set. The only place to watch our for is Pennsylvania, as there can be some pretty big pile-ups in the winter when going through the mountains.

Oh, and make sure you take some supplies with you just in case-some food, blankets, first-aid...The stretch from Omaha to Denver is really pretty desolate, and should something happen, there probably won't be a town within any sort of reasonable walking distance.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:09 PM on October 23

One big pain to watch out for in the winter is tracking mud snow ice etc... In and out of the house. It can be a pain to take off shoes and If you hire some one to move you they may not be allowed to take of their shoes (I have had this happen with Lowes delivery before). It may be a good idea to buy a roll of the sticky plastic carpet covering and line the high traffic areas so shoes don't have to come off each time someone comes in the house.
posted by jmsta at 3:22 PM on October 23

A couple of useful options for the snow and mud problem -- stages or teams. You can have some people delivering things from the truck to the front door, and another, inside team, moving things around in the house itself. Another option is to move a large number of items to a moderately clean area, like the garage, and then everyone can sort of clean up the worst of the snow and mud from their shoes and move the items again into the house.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:08 PM on October 23

Several years ago, I moved from South Carolina to Denver in January. We drove a rented U-Haul truck with all our stuff. We deliberately too a southern route through Texas and then up through New Mexico, so didn't really have any trouble. Made one oversight. Arrived in Denver in the evening on a night that the temperature dropped well below freezing and didn't take the houseplants out of back of the truck. Pretty much killed all but one. That was pretty much it though.

I didn't find the weather in Denver in the dead of winter too bad and my experience was that even when it snowed they did a pretty good job of clearing the roads. If you're going to somewhere farther out of town, it might be trickier, but we didn't have any trouble.
posted by Noon Under the Trees at 9:28 PM on October 23