Diary of a Move: Part 1

The move to Maine has become a reality and we have been busying ourselves with plans for the move. Since leaving my job in July, I have been slowly packing our belongings, sorting and cataloging, organizing everything so that it can be easily unpacked. Every time we've moved in the past, we have had countless "junk" boxes, filled with random things that remain lost until years into settlement in a new home. I wanted everything, this time, to be neat and orderly, a catalog move so that I can unpack a catalog house.

We have several options at this point:

1. Hire movers: This is, by far, the least stressful option. We got several quotes online from different movers where we estimate the amount of things we have. They take your phone number and other information and then call you within 3-7 days with a quote. All of them were in the $5,000-$8,000 range for our 3 bedroom house. We had one of the van lines do an in-house quote which was likely more accurate. They walk through your house, room-by-room, closet-by-closet, with a laminated sheet of paper with bar codes assigned for different types of furniture. The estimator scans each bar code for the things they see. We have such an odd assortment of items that some of it was difficult to determine and the estimator kept making astonished remarks about our collections and unwieldy antique furniture and appliances. In the end, their estimate was in the range as all of the online quotes. That's an enormous chunk of change when you're moving on a budget but it takes nearly all of the effort of moving out of the process.

2. Rent a U-haul/Budget/Penske: We've done this several times and we could hire laborers to do the heavy lifting for us so that we wouldn't have to load and unload the truck ourselves. U-haul is typically the cheapest of the three moving companies but I believe Budget and Penske have nicer equipment. For a move from Detroit to Maine, U-haul quoted us nearly $2000 for a 26' truck and we calculated the gas to be approximately $500 at $4/gallon. Local movers could cost us as much as $1000 in Detroit and another $1000 in Maine. We could spend as much as $4500 on the high end and $2500 on the low end.

3. Storage + Truck/Trailer Rental: Another option would be to rent a smaller truck or a trailer and take only what we absolutely need for the short-term. We could store everything else in Detroit and come back to get it when we get settled in New England. A truck would still cost us at least $1350, a trailer would cost us between $350 and $850, depending on size. In the long run, this option would likely cost us more because we would have the monthly storage fee ($100/month) plus another truck rental or moving company charge to get the rest of the household later. I'm a little concerned about towing a trailer because our car, while it is an SUV, is only a 4 cylinder and it has a good many miles on it. We could, potentially, find ourselves stranded somewhere in between without enough money for major repairs.

4. U-Pack/PODS: Our final option is to use one of these shipping companies to transport our belongings. We would still have to do the loading and unloading (or hire someone to do it) but we wouldn't have to worry about driving a truck or towing a trailer. PODS, unfortunately, does not deliver within the Detroit city limits so they aren't a possibility, but U-Pack not only will deliver to our house, we can save extra money by loading and unloading at their facility. We were able to get our U-Pack quote down to around $850 plus $64 for each additional linear foot we use (the quote was for 12 feet). They have a calculator on their site that helps you determine how much space you will need. You do have to rent a local truck and so it means twice as much loading and unloading but the cost is tantalizing.

Our primary concern, when making a decision, is cost. If money were no object, we would certainly hire movers. When we hired movers for a local move, it was the most painless experience we'd ever had, but it is so expensive to do it cross-country that I can think of a good many better uses for that kind of money.

Apart from deliberations about how we'll be shipping everything, we're feeling very lost as to our future. We feel as though we have to move back to New England because of my mother's health but we really love Detroit and I honestly don't want to leave it. At least, not for good. I always thought that, when we left the city, we would be leaving for Europe. Now, yet again, travel plans are put on hold and I'm beginning to think that they will always be on hold. I do love New England, as well, but I wanted to experience something new, something not done before by me. I wanted an adventure and moving in with my family in a tiny town in Maine just doesn't get my blood pumping. I simply don't know what to do or how to feel.