How do I get there from here?
May 16, 2010 7:24 PM Subscribe
Moving to New York. How?
I'm moving to Manhattan from Boston in about a month. Great! Except now I'm in a deadlock regarding how to move.
Aside from clothes and kitchen stuff, I basically just have bedroom furniture. It's all Ikea, but it's less than a year old, in good shape, and I like it. I can't for the life of me decide whether I should sell it or bring it, and if I bring it, how to do so. Extenuating factors: I need to spend as little money as possible ($1,800 for a real mover is just way too much for me; I can budget maybe $600 tops), I'm small and weak, and I have to move on a weekday, so I can't rely on help from my stronger friends.
As far as I can tell, I have three options:
Option 1: Rent a Penske truck, load it up with my (generous, but also small and weak) 50-something mom, and move that way. That would cost about $200, plus several hours of difficult labor for me and my mom. Did I mention we're both really weak?
Option 2: Go with a mover from CityMove. Right now, I have an offer for a flat rate of $475 for a highly-rated guy and a truck. I'd still have to help some with packing and unpacking the truck, but it would give my mom a break and we wouldn't have to deal with managing a large truck on I-95.
Option 3: Sell my furniture for whatever I can get for it, move the rest of my stuff in my car, and buy new Ikea furniture when I get there.
Please hope me? I'm basically lost in the woods here.
I'm moving to Manhattan from Boston in about a month. Great! Except now I'm in a deadlock regarding how to move.
Aside from clothes and kitchen stuff, I basically just have bedroom furniture. It's all Ikea, but it's less than a year old, in good shape, and I like it. I can't for the life of me decide whether I should sell it or bring it, and if I bring it, how to do so. Extenuating factors: I need to spend as little money as possible ($1,800 for a real mover is just way too much for me; I can budget maybe $600 tops), I'm small and weak, and I have to move on a weekday, so I can't rely on help from my stronger friends.
As far as I can tell, I have three options:
Option 1: Rent a Penske truck, load it up with my (generous, but also small and weak) 50-something mom, and move that way. That would cost about $200, plus several hours of difficult labor for me and my mom. Did I mention we're both really weak?
Option 2: Go with a mover from CityMove. Right now, I have an offer for a flat rate of $475 for a highly-rated guy and a truck. I'd still have to help some with packing and unpacking the truck, but it would give my mom a break and we wouldn't have to deal with managing a large truck on I-95.
Option 3: Sell my furniture for whatever I can get for it, move the rest of my stuff in my car, and buy new Ikea furniture when I get there.
Please hope me? I'm basically lost in the woods here.
When I moved about that same distance, I chose Option 1A. I rented my own truck, but hired some dudes off of Craigslist on each end to load and unload it. I paid about $100 on each end for 1-2 hours of labor moving boxes and furniture. Still well within your price limit, and I didn't lift a finger (other than the horror of packing and unpacking, but you'll have to do that either way).
posted by decathecting at 7:46 PM on May 16, 2010
posted by decathecting at 7:46 PM on May 16, 2010
I had a much longer response, but on preview, I want to nth what has already been said here. Hire help to load and unload and drive the rental truck yourself.
Based on my quick google-mapping, it looks like Boston is just about a 4 hour drive from Manhattan (barring traffic, of course). For just clothes, kitchen stuff and bedroom furniture you won't need a very big truck - it should be totally manageable on the freeway. I think the bigger challenge would be finding a place to park the thing once you get to your new place, but my knowledge of the Manhattan parking situation is based entirely on Seinfeld episodes.
posted by jeoc at 7:48 PM on May 16, 2010
Based on my quick google-mapping, it looks like Boston is just about a 4 hour drive from Manhattan (barring traffic, of course). For just clothes, kitchen stuff and bedroom furniture you won't need a very big truck - it should be totally manageable on the freeway. I think the bigger challenge would be finding a place to park the thing once you get to your new place, but my knowledge of the Manhattan parking situation is based entirely on Seinfeld episodes.
posted by jeoc at 7:48 PM on May 16, 2010
What kind of place are you moving into? Do you know that all your furniture will fit? You may be better off selling it and getting new (or new used) furniture once you arrive since most apartments in NYC are a bit, shall we say... smaller than apartments elsewhere and sometimes to take advantage of the space you need very specific furniture. I'd lean toward option 3.
There are several Ikea locations near NYC and one in Brooklyn now, and they will deliver, we had good experiences with the service.
posted by jardinier at 7:53 PM on May 16, 2010
There are several Ikea locations near NYC and one in Brooklyn now, and they will deliver, we had good experiences with the service.
posted by jardinier at 7:53 PM on May 16, 2010
A coworker of mine was in a similar situation. He ended up renting a U-Haul, finding guys on movinghelp.com to help him load/unload, and moved that way. He recommended the site to me, and I'll probably end up using it when I move this year.
posted by gchucky at 7:59 PM on May 16, 2010
posted by gchucky at 7:59 PM on May 16, 2010
Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Get a quote from All Out Moves! They've moved me and friends around Boston, *and* specialize in Boston-NYC moves (which other poor-grad-student friends of mine did, and they were very happy with the service). Save yourself the stress and just have someone else do it for you -- it'll be the best money you spend.
posted by olinerd at 8:25 PM on May 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by olinerd at 8:25 PM on May 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
Option #2 sounds most feasible to me. I'm naturally tempted to cheap out on stuff when I figure I can suffer through something myself rather than pay a professional, but moving to a new city is so fucking stressful that you'll want a hired individual to take the reins. This will still be much cheaper and less annoying than buying brand new Ikea furniture once you arrive. The only way I'd consider sloughing off all your furniture and purchasing it anew is if your new apartment is a five story walk-up and you have pipe cleaner arms.
posted by zoomorphic at 8:34 PM on May 16, 2010
posted by zoomorphic at 8:34 PM on May 16, 2010
You don't say if you already have an apartment lined up or not. If not, I'd nth what others have said regarding your furniture -- Manhattan apartments are notoriously tiny, and may very well not accommodate your existing setup. Not all bedrooms, for example, can fit a full-sized bed and have room left over for anything else.
Assuming you DO have an apartment lined up, measure everything and sketch a layout of the space you'll have and where you want to put your furniture. Even if you decide to keep most of it, you may find that you can't fit ALL of the bulkier pieces, and it would suck to haul them across Connecticut only to ditch them on the street in New York.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:56 PM on May 16, 2010
Assuming you DO have an apartment lined up, measure everything and sketch a layout of the space you'll have and where you want to put your furniture. Even if you decide to keep most of it, you may find that you can't fit ALL of the bulkier pieces, and it would suck to haul them across Connecticut only to ditch them on the street in New York.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:56 PM on May 16, 2010
I'd sell the furniture.
As others have mentioned, you don't know it'll fit in the new place. Also, Ikea furniture isn't the most durable stuff on the planet. Between carrying it, navigating doorways and bouncing in the truck you can sort of expect some damage or chipped veneers. Even with strong, professional movers damage happens. Save yourself the expense and the bother, sell it.
posted by 26.2 at 9:11 PM on May 16, 2010
As others have mentioned, you don't know it'll fit in the new place. Also, Ikea furniture isn't the most durable stuff on the planet. Between carrying it, navigating doorways and bouncing in the truck you can sort of expect some damage or chipped veneers. Even with strong, professional movers damage happens. Save yourself the expense and the bother, sell it.
posted by 26.2 at 9:11 PM on May 16, 2010
I would hire the movers, especially if you are at all worried about driving a truck on the highway or in the city.. it's nothing like driving a car. I don't think it would be very cost effective to ditch your bedroom stuff for such a short move.
posted by shownomercy at 10:29 PM on May 16, 2010
posted by shownomercy at 10:29 PM on May 16, 2010
Response by poster: I do already have an apartment, and my furniture will fit (although I wouldn't really mind downsizing to a full bed to have more empty floor space if I ditch the furniture). It's on the second floor, and there's a small elevator.
posted by oinopaponton at 4:47 AM on May 17, 2010
posted by oinopaponton at 4:47 AM on May 17, 2010
Given that I spent around $500 on truck-and-guys moving from Queens to Jersey City, I would say Option #2 sounds like a pretty good deal.
posted by Remy at 7:16 AM on May 17, 2010
posted by Remy at 7:16 AM on May 17, 2010
I recently moved to Manhattan by shipping all my stuff via UPS, but I wouldn't recommend it. You have to decide if it is worth spending the money to have an easier move. (My place was furnished, so I sold all my furniture on craigslist. That can be a lot of time and work too.)
Also, I wanted to add that an Ikea $25 off $250 coupon was included with the USPS mail forwarding confirmation packet.
posted by aloysius on the mixing boards at 8:57 PM on May 17, 2010
Also, I wanted to add that an Ikea $25 off $250 coupon was included with the USPS mail forwarding confirmation packet.
posted by aloysius on the mixing boards at 8:57 PM on May 17, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I think I'm going to go with the movers (who, for better or worse, have a 48-hour cancellation policy, so I have plenty of time to cancel if I have an epiphany).
posted by oinopaponton at 8:11 AM on May 18, 2010
posted by oinopaponton at 8:11 AM on May 18, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by AlisonM at 7:45 PM on May 16, 2010