Cross-country movers are Bekins, Mayflower, Allied. Moving brokers quote much lower rates because they arrange packing, unpacking, and transportation. But you may not find out until moving day that they could not actually contract a mover. They are also often fly-by-night operations who may or may not stand by their agreements, reimbursement for lost or damaged goods.
Even genuine movers have fairly mixed reviews. My experience over the years has been pretty good but these were usually employer-paid moves.
PODS vs. Movers
Sone of you report good experience with use of PODS where you or some else packs your stuff in a shipping container in your driveway. Company moves shipping container to new driveway where you unpack it.
Upside: seems to be cheaper. As with moving companies, getting a direct statement of cost without a sales critter on the phone is hard. Figuring out how many containerd you will need is also a struggle.
Downsides: ammunition cannot be shipped. Guns are not insured. You could put them in there but if damaged or stolen, oh well. Movers will move guns although with a much more meticulous verification scheme than the last time I had a mover do this. Movers will not move ammunition.
Ammunition can be shipped UPS. Guns can be shipped UPS as well. You can even ship to your new home without an FFL, as long they are going to you. You can ship to friend or family as long as they do not open the box.
Of course, we could stuff the guns and ammo in my car. My wife does not want to drive cross-country. To me, this sounds like an adventure. But we have two cars and two dogs. One will need tranquilizers. (Dog, not car.) Our son volunteered to drive her car and the dogs for us. Ship my car and fly there.
Shipping cars is about $2/mile. Actual cost of driving it including gasoline, depreciation of the car, maintenance and tires, motel and meals on the way means this is probably not more expensive.
What Goes?
We will move no appliances and no large furniture. We can buy new beds and appliances when we get there. New appliances will be under warranty. Beds have no sentimental value.
Books are the big headache. We have way too many books. Some are easy: we bought the Encyclopedia Brittanica in the 1980s and have seldom opened them.
There is no market for encyclopediae today. I suppose if I worried about collapse of civilization and loss of internet this would matter. I suspect I would worry more about food and water than researching what was the purpose of the Wilmot Proviso.
Shop: this is more nuisance than anything else. The mill disassembles into several small flat components easily boxed. The lathe is small and easily boxed. The desktop, cables, and control box are again small and easily boxed. The drill press is big and clumsy. It might make sense to sell here and buy new there.
There are many dozens of little plastic drawers with fasteners of great variety. Each drawer needs to go in a plastic bag. All bags go in a big box. The cabinets are light and easy to move once empty.
Telescopes are a booger. Take mirrors out of the reflectors and box them separately. Bubble wrap the fiberglass tube reflector. Boxes thst big are hard to find. The Dobsonian disassembles into mostly small parts. The single big part can go into a 2' x 2' x 2' box. The refractor needs a large box bubble wrapped.
The telescope mounts require big boxes after disassembly. They are not terribly fragile. Just a lot of work disassembling and boxing before moving day.
This sounds less worrisome as I talk myself through it.
Finance
I would prefer to sell this house, have movers store everything at far end while we buy a house cash. I hate applying for what will be a temporary mortgage while waiting for current house to close. Having cash to buy outright also gives a competitive advantage when buying. But, the missus does not want to spend a month or two in temporary housing with the dogs while this place sells.
Buying a house contingent on sale of this house is less attractive to seller. Having even a temporary mortgage is unattractive. This last time, we were able to pay off the temporary mortgage four days before first payment. But we were under pressure to accept an only okay offer on old house to make sure.
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