Moving services from DC to Colorado?

December 13, 2005 8:01 AM

Help me choose moving services for my DC small condo to Colorado?

I’m moving from Washington DC to Denver CO. I have a 1 bedroom condo in DC with furniture that I’m not sure if it’s worth it to keep for the move.

I have:
2 couches**
Coffee table*
Full Bed*
Reclining chair
8x12 foot rug
Dresser**
2 shelves**
Treadmill*
2 kayaks
3 snowboards
Flat screen TV and stereo
Various other stuff in a 6x8 foot storage room *
Lots of books
Dining room table*
Kitchen appliances and dishes

I’ve marked the items I’m totally ready to get rid of with 2 ** and the ones I’m planning on replacing w/in the year with a 1*.

A 10 foot truck from Uhaul is $1450 and a 14 foot truck is $1570. A POD from pod.com came in at a whopping $4300.

I will have no problem packing a truck but I would rather not drive a truck. I know there are shared truck services but I’m not sure which ones are safe and reasonably priced. Would I be able to fit my stuff in one of those shared trucks? Would my TV/Stereo and kitchen stuff be safe?

Finally, I do have an old car I can drive there but I’d rather replace that also when I get there as I don’t really drive now but I would have to in Denver. Neither car would be able to pull a trailer.

Any comments on how much space it sounds like I need? Recommendations for specific types of services or specific companies?

posted by hokie409 to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

I had a good experience using Broadway Express when moving from San Diego to Raleigh. For less than $1,800 they moved 10 cubic feet of stuff. With Broadway Express, you load and upload and they drive your stuff. I have also heard good things about ABF U-Pack, a larger company that does the same thing.
posted by JuliaKM at 8:09 AM on December 13, 2005

Check out the message boards at Moving Scam - they are full of people who have both great recommendations and horror stories. I found the people on there to be incredibly helpful when picking Chicago to DC movers recently.
posted by echo0720 at 8:36 AM on December 13, 2005

$4300 is way higher than my friend is paying for Miami to San Francisco. I dropped her an email and she had this to say.

This time and the previous move I used www.door2door.com

When I looked up the pods.com service from MIA to CA they were like $7000!! Door 2 door is a similar concept. I think the container things are a bit smaller... so it's taking me 2 of them this time... the 1st one is $1700, for 2 it's $2500. That includes bringing it to me, getting it across the country and then about 2 weeks of storage on the other end of the move. If I need them to store it longer it's about $3/day for each container.

She used them to get from Long Beach to Miami Beach a little over a year ago and was quite happy with them.
posted by phearlez at 10:30 AM on December 13, 2005

Five years ago when I moved from Detroit to Seattle, I had a little more stuff than you have and it cost about $2500. Call up local companies that are agents for well-known interstate van line (e.g. Atlas, Mayflower, NorthAmerican) and have them come out and give you quotes. I ended up going with an Atlas affiliate (DMS of Canton, MI) because they had the second-lowest price and because they gave me free (used) boxes so I could pack my own stuff, which more than made up for the price difference. They will pack up your stuff onto a big semi with a bunch of other people's stuff, but you don't have to worry about that. Any such company will be bonded and insured so you don't have to worry about them losing any of your stuff. Atlas did lose my bedframe, but DMS offered to pay to replace it (I didn't bother because the replacement only cost $30 and I just wanted the moving to be over). The really valuable stuff (computer, my CD collection, etc.) I took with me in the car, of course.

Beware of companies that have names similar to, but slightly different from, major shipping companies. For example, Atlas Line rather than Atlas Van Lines. Stick to agents for the major names.
posted by kindall at 11:43 AM on December 13, 2005

rule #1: whatever you do, don't use internic moving. what a fuckin' disaster.
rule #2: do your research before you agree to anything with a moving company. the last thing you want is to be stranded somewhere, with no idea where your stuff is.
rule #3: don't look for cheap quotes online, unless it's for a large, well-known and established company.
rule #4: if you do it yourself, stay the fuck away from uhaul. their trucks are disasters on wheels. you've never known bitterness until you have to unpack the entire fricking truck and move your shit from truck #1 to truck #2 on the side of the road. seriously. gawd.

ABF u-pack worked great for me - loaded and unloaded on my own schedule, for relatively cheap ($USD 1600 for a move from san francisco to toronto). you could track the trailer online and they were totally reliable. i recommend.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2005

When I moved from Portland to Louisville, I used Forward Air freight service. The only trick was renting a moving van at both ends and bringing my stuff to their hangar at the airport. All in all, I shipped about as much as you're planning to for $1000. Beat that.
posted by cior at 2:24 PM on December 13, 2005