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1. 

   milanion
   

   Novice
   Joined: Dec '11
   Posts: 3

   My wife, I and our 2 kids are in the process of planning on moving from the Chicago area to the Denver area.

   My question is which of these moving options would you recommend:

   - Rent a truck and move the stuff (traditional way). Cost for truck rental excluding gas is $1100.

   - Buy a moving truck, get insurance and plates on it, sell it after we are done moving.

   - Buy a pickup truck with a trailer and downsize our stuff to fit in the pickup truck/trailer. Sell the trailer once we are done moving.

   - Forget it all and just take enough to fit into 2 cars we have right now, picking up items we need at the other end. We'd then dispose of one of the cars when we arrive (it's on it's last leg).

   Here's where we're at:

   - We've been donating a lot of our stuff, it's been helpful for my wife to see what we really need and hopefully get us to ERE faster by making future choices easier.

   - We made a list of items to be moved, which includes our year supply of food, beds, clothes, misc kitchen items, etc.

   - We're moving in with the in-laws since they have 2 extra bedrooms and we can help each other reach retirement faster.

   - I'm going through the second round of interviews this week, salary will be almost 6 figures, which we'll save 2/3 of.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   mikeBOS
   

   Master
   Joined: Nov '10
   Posts: 556

   I'd say it depends a lot on the quality of your stuff. Top notch stuff, you can lose a lot selling and rebuying it with strict time constraints. If it's lower end stuff, donate/fire sale/throw it out.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Scott 2
   

   Journeyman
   Joined: Feb '12
   Posts: 193

   You have two major life stresses right now - moving cross country and changing jobs. Don't add to them.

   I would sell/donate everything you won't replace, then pay movers to move to the rest. If your stuff is valuable, insure it.

   This is a one time expense and worth every penny. Focus on arriving rested and calm, setting your family up to enjoy their new life.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   Chad
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 1,056

   I agree with Scott. I recently did exactly what Scott outlined for a move and have zero regrets. And, I don't even have kids, which would seem to make movers an even better idea.

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   LiquidSapphire
   

   Master
   Joined: Jul '11
   Posts: 436

   You are moving into two bedrooms and everything else is virtually fully furnished so anything that doesn't go into the two bedrooms I would sell/donate, unless it's something you truly love or is irreplacable. Yeah in 5/10 years you might have your own place, but then you can scoop your hand into the Craiglist stream of used things and grab what you need then, rather than store everything (and paying for it) for that length of time. When in doubt, throw it out.

   So, considering you only need two rooms of stuff, depending on the size of the two cars, I'd opt for the 2 car move, or the truck+trailer move. Craigslist is very active in Denver. Virtually everything is replaceable. I mean, moving a year's supply worth of food? Where are you going to keep that in the new place? I would donate that to a food bank.

   Welcome to Denver!

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   jacob
   

   Expert
   Joined: Jul '10
   Posts: 3,364

   Our stuff is worth just about what it cost to move it across country. This was a source of endless discussions both before and after. (In particular if we had had a bit more than 14 days to make the move, we could have sold the bikes, ditched the rest, and then rebought everything at the destination and come out better). In the end, we decided to use a moving pod (about as costly as renting a moving truck and way easier!)

   Something which I would seriously look into for next time is USPS. Essentially sending all the books via mediamail, packing the bikes up and sending those by mail, etc. I bet it's cost-effective as long as you don't have to move furniture.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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