Movers for a smallish move from SF to Seattle?

December 14, 2014 2:03 PM

What moving companies or services should I consider to move a limited amount of furniture from San Francisco to Seattle? Moving from one apartment to another. We'll have boxes for clothes, dishes, etc., but we're only moving the "nice" furniture: a dining table with six chairs, a mattress and frame. I don't want to waste money, but I'm willing to spend for the convenience of not having to do heavy lifting or driving.

Would also much appreciate any advice on pricing, negotiation, stuff to think about.

posted by CruiseSavvy to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Since it's an Interstate Move, the quotes you get won't be that far apart, the industry is heavily regulated. It goes by weight. Movers will send someone to your house and they'll look at your stuff and then give you a SWAG as to what it weighs.

Check out ABF U-Pack. They're made for this sort of thing. Only problem, can you get the cube onto your street at both ends?

So here's the $64,000 question. Knowing that moving will cost as much as re-buying all of your stuff....do you still want to do it?
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:19 PM on December 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, the movers I can recommend are Bekins and Mayflower. Don't go for any secondary folks, and check reviews, some movers are downright cheats.

Buy the replacement value insurance!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:20 PM on December 14, 2014

You could also try the rideshare section on Craiglist...I've often seen people post that they have extra space on a truck they've rented, and you can share the truck with them. Of course, this requires a little more trust than the usual moving company. But anecdotally, I've used rideshare multiple times with no issues.

If you're not attached to the furniture, especially the dining table, it might be worth selling it (also via Craigslist) and just repurchasing...on a recent cross-country move to and from NYC, I bought near-new furniture on CL, then sold it a few years later for more than I'd paid for it. You may be able to sell/buy without a loss.
posted by three_red_balloons at 3:16 PM on December 14, 2014 [1 favorite]

How old is the bed and how nice is the dining set? Often it's comparable to just get new stuff when you move.
posted by radioamy at 5:51 PM on December 14, 2014

Response by poster: The problem is the dining set is really, really nice. (Months to find the right set. Many weeks waiting for it to be made. Also many dollars.) The bed is pretty nice too, though easy enough to replace -- I figure if we're moving the dining set may as well move the bed. Yes, all other furniture will be disposed of via friends and Craigslist.
posted by CruiseSavvy at 8:43 PM on December 14, 2014

Rough estimate is $1/lbs of your stuff.
posted by saradarlin at 9:27 PM on December 14, 2014

i would look at packing it all up, as tight as you can, in a crate... and then just shipping it LTL. the service i usually use is freightquote. Their phone support is pretty legit too, i'd call them up and blow them up with questions.

i've shipped a few large, and very expensive, items via them over time(they're just sort of a carrier aggregator that pulls quotes, like priceline but for shipping things), and shipping from seattle to the bay area was really cheap. Like, it made me realize that if i ever move interstate i'm just crating as much stuff as i can and sending it as freight.

I could see shipping just the dining set being worth it, for the reasons you provided. I would never bother with the mattress/frame. Maybe just the frame if it's something really cool and unique and not easily replaceable. But a mattress? nah.

I don't really think this is something worth handling as a "move", it's more of a shipping question. And i'd start figuring out crating that stuff, and just shipping it as a generic thing-to-be-shipped. It's like generic lamp cord vs speaker wire. If you insure it, and it's cheaper, why does it really matter?
posted by emptythought at 3:34 AM on December 15, 2014

We used an ABF UPack moving cube for our move to MA to CA and it was about $1600. I imagine your move would be quite a bit less. We rented a uhaul at both ends and loaded/unloaded at their local transfer depot instead of having the cube delivered to our apartment because that shaved off some costs too. It was very smooth and easy, on time, and the only problem was we didn't secure our bed frame and it damaged some boxes and the books inside them. It was great for a move with mostly boxes and a bed.
posted by apricot at 5:20 AM on December 15, 2014

Sorry, I was remembering wrong. It was $1300. I think the $1600 included two days of uhauls on each end.

I looked into freight services and the cube was way less complicated and less expensive.
posted by apricot at 5:52 AM on December 15, 2014