U-Haul is good for small, in-town moves, or longer moves with only a little stuff. I used it to move from Illinois to Louisiana (no furniture to mention) and towed it with a Pinto. Which survived.
Company paid moves across the country used real movers.
And PODS and the U-Haul equivalent are great for a bit of smaller stuff. We got furniture from my in-laws when they were simplifying their house. And they are excellent for stuff like when you are getting new floors and have to move all your stuff.
The big advantage is that you can spread packing and unpacking out over multiple days.
Don’t forget the extra, hidden expenses. Like beer. And pizza.
I think the professional movers may be very professional (if you’re lucky) and very time-consuming. They will carefully catalog and pack every item into cardboard boxes, even wrapping items in bubble-wrap that might get damaged. That can get expensive to have them doing that with all your stuff.
In the past my family would pack everything they were able to pack on their own and have the pros move those boxes, as well as anything we couldn’t pack, which minimizes the time the pros are on the clock.
We used Benkins for a cross country this past summer. We packed some , The sent a crew and backed a three bedroom house. Did an excellent job. We’ve move a lot . When we were in college and younger no problem doing the UHaul. Now being seniors we’ll pay the price. It cost less than we thought. The weight wasn’t as much as they thought. ( no appliances) they in packed and took away most boxes. Bought them McDonald’s and Culver’s , supplied water. I would not recommend a non chain if you go the movers. Used them twice and were ripped off.
Yes, even “volunteers” like friends and family are not free. I had breakfast (doughnuts and juice) when they arrived, bottled water for the day, and I bought lunch (pizza). I even gave out some gift cards.
I found the best way to move it, is dont.
Sell, donate, give away, or trash darn near everything. Only keep personal items and clothes. Maybe set a limit like if it wont fit in a very small truck you wont move it.
When you look at all the costs your putting up for moving anyways, makes sense.
I’ve had so-called professional movers damage and even lose (or maybe “lose”) some of my stuff and managed to weasel out of paying for it (I was young and unskilled in the ways of the world, and didn’t protect myself properly in the paperwork. which I’m sure they counted on.). I moved myself two other times and nothing got damaged or “disappeared”. So you should factor that into the equation.
Are you my youngest son? Moved from MO to CA, and it drove his mom nuts that he didn’t want to move much of his stuff. He sold/gave away most everything, and then replaced it (generally Craigslist) when he got to Cali. Pretty sure it save us quite a bit on the move expense (he ended up using about 5 feet (measured from the back wall) of a shared moving van. Took a while for his stuff to wend its way across the country, but he was in no real hurry for it, having packed the essentials like his Xbox into his car.
We’re selling and giving away stuff that’s low value, but it costs about $0.60 a pound to move our stuff with the professional movers. If your furnishings are worth less than that, then, sure, don’t move them. But most of our stuff would cost a lot more than that to replace.
One of them needs to because he needs to drive the truck.
If I were a moving company owner, I’d probably want to send my other guy(s) that I’ve vetted & know will do a decent job rather than go thru the effort of trying to find a person & hope they’ll show up & be good on the other end. Sure, it’s costing you more, but I gotta worry about my reputation.
If you’re working with one of the big national moving companies (United Van Lines, Bekins, Allied Van Lines, etc) they have people on staff (or contractors on standby) all over the place. Certainly if you’re moving all the way across the country, they’re not sending the whole team with the load. Only if this is a local move might I expect the same people at both ends.
Is that estimate of $1600 to rent a 26’ U-haul actually the one-way cost, or are you using the ‘local’ estimate? If you’re going the ‘wrong’ way, one-way rentals can tack a lot on the price. Also, does that include insurance? A 26’ truck may not be covered under your regular auto policy, and your homeowner’s insurance may have an inconvenient deductible for moving damages. I would make sure that’s the real price for the move. Also, does their moving quote include boxing/unboxing? That could add a significant amount if it’s in the estimate. And then… yeah, you’re paying for a reputable company to move your stuff (really easy for a shady place to disappear stuff on a cross-country move) across the country, there’s going to be a significant markup for the convenience (no coordinating movers) and not having to drive an ungainly truck 800 miles. I also would not be surprised if there are discounts you could get, a lot of moving quotes are really built for people who are expensing their move to a company.
And people in this thread are grossly estimating how much it costs to have movers load/unload a truck at the end, your estimate of that seems fine to me. Companies like Two Men and a Truck will send a pair of movers out at an hourly rate who will just grab boxes and put them onto/off of a truck. I would say the $1000 is a better estimate for a local move than just unloading a truck, I paid about $1200 for a local A to B move for a 2000 sq ft house worth of stuff (starting house was smaller, but it had an extra person’s worth of stuff crammed into it). That’s basically both ends of your trip plus an extra hour of getting from the old house to the new house, so I think assuming $1000 at each end for a smaller house is reasonable.
I have also moved several times with just what would fit in my car, but I am no longer at the life stage where that is reasonable or where things like an Xbox count as essentials 
Every time I’ve moved (not often), I’ve packed up myself, gotten a u-haul, and hired guys to load and unload the u-haul. I drove it myself. It was considerably less money than, say, Mayflower.
I might have too much stuff to do that now, but i haven’t thought about it that much.
Wasn’t there a U-Haul commercial a few decades ago that had a family loading a truck for a move, and constantly chanting something like, “We’re saving $600”? There’s nothing new about this conversation.
Another thing to take into account: what’s the largest truck you are licensed to drive?
The most signif expenses are potential damage to your property, and/or yourself. Self moves are most appropriate for people who do not own a lot of pricey/large stuff. Drop one breakfront, and there go your savings.
One benefit of doing it yourself is packing sensibly. The last time we were packed and moved professionally, I swear the guys just threw things in boxes at random. A rake, with a frying pan, and a desk lamp. For months, it was like a protracted scavenger hunt. Which of these zillion identical unlabeled boxes might X be in?
Driving a big-ish truck would not be a big problem - except for on the ends - especially if mountains are involved.
Final consideration - do you have the extra $3-4k? How much of a difference will that make in your life - especially tied into all of the costs of relocation? Just saying, you don’t want to pursue a false economy, and regret it later.
Instead of scrounging around or buying boxes, what I did was go to say WalMart and buy dozens of those big plastic tubs. They are still stacked in my basement 20 years later. I lend and still use some on occasion.
Benefits over boxes:
- Standard size so easier to stack
- Handles.
- Somewhat waterproof and rodent proof
Instead of scrounging around or buying boxes, what I did was go to say WalMart and buy dozens of those big plastic tubs. They are still stacked in my basement 20 years later. I lend and still use some on occasion.
And the cost is roughly the same.
Benefits over boxes:
- Standard size so easier to stack
- Handles.
- Somewhat waterproof and rodent proof
I’ve been (very, very slowly) moving some of my possessions into large totes for years, for storage and against some move in the future.
I discovered that you have to be wary of stacking the big ones; because they are intended to sit inside one another they put their weights on the lids, not the sides, when stacked, and if packed at all heavily they can stress and threaten to break the lids and smash into the contents of the totes below. I got some wooden sheets to put between each level so that the weight would be distributed to the parts of the totes that could actually support weight.