Moving: hire movers or DIY? (Portland, Bangor: truck rental, rental, insurance)

[StephC]

Hey everyone,
I have a question. My husband and I are moving to Bangor in Dec. right after I graduate. I am debating between hiring professional movers and doing it ourselves. (As a former military wife, I can pack our house in a day and have us out of here.) My concern is the distance. It is going to end up taking us at least three days. So, to all those who have moved across several state lines using movers, how was it? I realize it will cost a little more than doing it ourselves. Also, who did you use? It is so dfficult trying to decipher who's reliable, cost effective etc...when looking on the internet, b/c they all make themselves sound so sweet. The plan is to hire professionals if the difference in moving ourselves to using the professionals is not too steep.
Thanks in advance!
~Steph

[bigchuckie]

Upack and ship is kinda reasonable you pack they drive 2k from ME to NC also try pods
bout the same price They are both more thansay Uhaul but your not paying for fuel

[BacktoNE]

We used United Van Lines when we moved from ME to WI nearly 18 months ago. It cost $2000 and was well worth every penney. We did our own packing and unpacking, but let the movers do the heavy lifting and the nasty driving.

For short local moves, we DIY.

When we move back to ME, hopefully next year, we will once again use professional movers.

[Bydand]

Never have used professional movers, but have moved from Michigan to Texas. Texas to Michigan. Michigan to Maine. With helping others move from Maine to Texas, Kansas, California, Oregon, and North Carolina (When you have many friends in the Air Force and they close a base, you get to travel a bit helping others move if you want.) If you decide to DIY, the best equipment I have used was Penske, the worst is U-Haul. The others are about the same in between these two extremes. Top notch is the Penske cross-country equipment, bar none, and they were cheaper than the others last time I used them (February 2006). Plus I just LOVE to drive, and have driven almost everything that is legal for on-road use so a "big" moving truck is just another vehicle for me.

I was going to try PODS last time, but there wasn't a PODS location close to where I was going so returning the stuff would have been a royal PITA.

[Elcarim]

I'll second that one on Penske vs. Uhaul, and DIY, definitely! I've already gotten price quotes on our move from TX to ME. $6000+ for movers compared to a $1000 truck rental and $500 in fuel. Do the math!

[corgis]

We also like Penske - we'll be using one of their trucks for the final move. We've already taken a truck up to our house in Maine twice - UHaul was horrible, especially when the truck broke down on I-81 in Penna. Took over a day to get someone to come and fix it and then it broke down again on I-95 just outside of Bangor. Next truck we used was Budget which was more reliable but more expensive. We are moving our stuff a small truckload every other year from WV to Eastport so that final truck should be no more than the essentials to stay here until the move.

[strawberryfield]

If you have the money, hire movers! We've moved a ton--the first several times with U-Haul, and the last 4 or 5 times with movers packing everything for us, moving it, unpacking it. I would NEVER do it myself again! Some of it depends on how much stuff you have. If you can pack up in a day, you must not have very much stuff, so maybe it's not a big deal to do it yourself. Certainly cheaper.

Also, with professional movers you can purchase insurance on everything. Depends on the value of what you own, but if you have a lot of expensive furniture, antiques, crystal, etc. it is well worth knowing it is insured.

Bottom line: professional movers make it much easier, but you pay for that. My favorite part of the professional movers is them packing everything up before the actual move.

[Bydand]

Actually I had insurance on everything as well through Penske. Even though it was a trip from Presque Isle area back down to the Bangor area to return the truck, they gave us plenty of room on the mileage.

[90077]

I've had the same experience trying to decide who to use when I expect to make the move from the West Coast to Portland next spring.

A relative moved from Florida to Portland several years ago and while service may change over time, I like to believe that overall the quality of Maine workers is above average. Long story short they were impressed with the service of Noyes out of Portland (Welcome to Earle W. Noyes & Sons-Moving Maine and New England) and highly recommended them. I have recently spoken with Noyes and plan to use them as well.

I have not compared their fee structure with the competition, but I doubt that they could survive all these years if their fees were significantly above average. And at the risk of incurring some negative response with that statement, FWIW I don't trust movers originating in Southern California and will happily pay a small premium, if necessary, for the peace of mind I will have using Noyes.

Good luck to you.

Originally Posted by StephC

they all make themselves sound so sweet. The plan is to hire professionals if the difference in moving ourselves to using the professionals is not too steep.
Thanks in advance!
~Steph

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

I'll second that one on Penske vs. Uhaul, and DIY, definitely! I've already gotten price quotes on our move from TX to ME. $6000+ for movers compared to a $1000 truck rental and $500 in fuel. Do the math!

I agree! I have moved a LOT... mostly just me, myself and I, and I ain't gettin' any younger, but still will DIY over having movers.

The ONE time I had movers, they managed to break -- and not just break, but make into more pieces than it had been originally!! -- a solid birdseye maple desk that my dad had built. You don't know my dad, but he built stuff TOUGH. I use to joke that if I asked for an apple crate I would get something an elephant could stand on, if I could find one skilled enough to balance on one foot on it. This particular desk easily held my 250 lb dad when he stood on it to work on the light fixture in my room, in lieu of getting out the ladder. I think they backed over it... and I got $50 or something like that for it.

So I learned my lesson. I have moved around the corner (literally... the kids moved their own stuff, one red wagon-load at a time, we used a pickup and didn't really pack anything, just carried it out of one house and into the other) and across the country (CA to MD, MD to CA -- by air... everything I owned in one max allowed size trunk... length+girth = max size minus a HALF inch!) CA to CO, CO to WI, WI to WA, WA to TX, TX to NC all with a rental truck, sometimes towing my rig (RENT A TRAILER folks, not something that pulls by the bumper... on the CO to WI move we did that and lost the car in the middle of the only 4-way-stop intersection on the whole trip... someone flagged us down a few miles down the road to let us know. Car was too small to SEE in the mirrors and the drag from the bumper -- which had come off the car, felt about like we were still towing!) and sometimes I didn't HAVE a rig to tow.

If I am close enough, I will gladly come help you pack your truck. I am a Tetris master and can do a "no air allowed" load like you wouldn't believe!