Moving a single large item without any car.

April 16, 2008 10:00 AM

Moving a stove or shelf across a large city without owning or renting a car. Is it possible?

I'm getting into freecycle lately and I'd like to take some shelves, a stove, fridge and dishwasher that are on offer. But is it possible to do this without a car or renting one?

Are there services where they drive to a location you choose and pick up your item to move it somewhere for you? Yes I'm aware of movers but would they bother to move just 1 item for me sometimes?

If anyone has any solutions then tell me please. I can't exactly take public transit or bike these things around :)

posted by Jack Feschuk to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

Do you have a friend with a truck? Does your city have something like Zipcar? Could you rent a truck or small moving van for the day?
posted by LolaGeek at 10:06 AM on April 16, 2008

I did something like this recently (although I have a car, it's not suitable for transporting large objects), and just went onto Craigslist and contacted a few people running "man with a van"-type services. There tend to be a lot of them in most major cities. Some people bill by the hour, some based on an hourly rate + mileage, and some just do a flat rate for the afternoon. (Paid in cash, naturally.)

That's the route I'd recommend going with. You could also go to U-Haul and rent a van or small truck, but I've yet to have a good experience with U-Haul.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:09 AM on April 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Home Depot rents small flatbed trucks by the hour.
posted by probablysteve at 10:10 AM on April 16, 2008

Man with a van.
posted by dersins at 10:13 AM on April 16, 2008

Home Depot and Lowe's both have hourly truck rental, and that's definitely the way I would go. They're both (I think) $20 for the first 75 minutes, just enough time to drive to one place, load, drive to your destination, unload, and drive back to the store. Hiring movers is going to cost a lot more than $20.
posted by Dec One at 10:14 AM on April 16, 2008

When my boyfriend moved in with me, he borrowed a bike trailer from the San Francisco Bike Coalition and moved all of his furniture, including a queen sized bed and a dresser on it. Luckily, my place was downhill from his. :)
posted by bikergirl at 10:33 AM on April 16, 2008

I'd ask one of my buddies for his keys.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:56 AM on April 16, 2008

Carshare Toronto
posted by arnicae at 12:49 PM on April 16, 2008

I heard that Depot changed it's policy recently that you can't just walk in and rent a truck without buying something " truck-worthy" I'm not sure if this was nationwide, or just in some local stores.

some taxi services use minivans, so if it will fit in a van you might call around for taxi's.
posted by Mr_Chips at 1:19 PM on April 16, 2008

I can't exactly take public transit or bike these things around :)

You might be surprised.
posted by harmfulray at 1:38 PM on April 16, 2008

Do you have Zipcar where you live? I used to rent a Flexcar van for this purpose.
posted by waylaid at 5:14 AM on April 17, 2008