Moving Companies & What We Thought | Moving To Florida

Just about as soon as we started considering a move to Florida, we started looking into how we would be moving our personal effects. Right at the start, we knew that there were 4 options we could go with; moving ourselves using the cargo van we owned, moving ourselves using a rental truck, hiring a moving company or using a POD- type moving service. Of course, there were a lot of details we had to work out in order to make the decision that was going to be right for us. Fortunately, we had plenty of time.

In the midst of all this discussion, we were also in the process of moving from our house to an apartment closer to the city. We were making this move ourselves, using our cargo van, which gave us a good opportunity to see how much of our stuff we could fit into the van and determine whether or not it would be a feasible option. Unfortunately, it was not. This quickly eliminated using our cargo van as an option and we ultimately sold it.

Next on the list, we considered using a moving company. This was an option that Russ and I didn’t quite prioritize in the same way. For me, having someone load, drive and unload everything was a great option. This would allow us to forego the heavy lifting and focus on other things like the dogs and drive down. On the other hand, there were concerns from Russ that the cost to use this type of service would outweigh the benefits of not having to do the heavy lifting ourselves. This was a legitimate concern, especially because we were still in the process of trying to see how we could make this move in the most affordable way possible. What had this option being taken off the list for us was customer service. Yeah. . . I didn’t see that one coming either. We had a good size handful of moving companies that we were looking into and it was the same experience with all of them. Either they didn’t respond back to our calls/requests at all or they did and couldn’t be bothered with us. In fact, there were 4 separate moving companies that hung up on us when we were trying to inquire about the service they provide. Quite frankly, we do not have time for this nor did this blatant disrespect give us faith that our personal effects would be in good hands.

[NOTE: Under normal circumstances we’d be letting you know what companies we had negative experiences with so that you can make informed decisions and/or share your own experiences using those companies. Unfortunately, in this case, I didn’t end up keeping a running list of who we spoke with. Sorry about that.]

Having knocked a few options off the list, this left us with only a few more to consider. The first would be renting a moving truck and driving it down to Florida ourselves. We also had the option of using a POD-type moving service. The only thing we had to do was figure out which option would work best for us.

Credit: PODS

Unlike the first few options that we considered, these next 2 would require us to look into more than pricing and whether or not our stuff would fit. Now, we were going to need to take logistics into consideration and figure out what the actual process of making the move would look like. So that’s exactly what we did. Over the course of what turned out to be a few months, we came up with a few different plans as to how we would move and what each of those plans would look like. There was a lot of deliberation involved, but we eventually came up with a plan that made the most sense for what we needed to do and started to pull that plan together as best we could.

As far as moving personal effects was concerned, that plan involved utilizing PODS. In a nutshell, PODS are storage containers. They are dropped off at your address, you can fill them at your leisure and then they will be picked up, stored and/or simply delivered to your new address. Fairly simple and straightforward. Based on the tentative plan that we had come up with, utilizing PODS was going to be the way to go. Not only could we pack the POD at our leisure, but we could do it well in advance of our move and put it in storage until we were ready to receive it at our new home in Florida. This would allow plenty of time for me to make my way down to Florida and set up living arrangements while Russ tied up all loose ends in Minnesota then drove down with the dogs.

Having worked out the particulars on our end, it was time to call PODS and finalize some details. Talking to the people at PODS was a very positive experience. We ended up making 2 separate phone calls and speaking to 2 different people, both of whom we found to be helpful and informative. We were able to get clarification at to the size of the container we would need and figure out the other need-to-know details. This was all very helpful and in stark contrast to what we had experienced trying to get information from other moving companies.

Now that we had all of the information we needed from PODS noted down, we took a couple weeks to think about everything and make final decisions on specifics. This is when those abovementioned logistics and plans came into play. Up until this point, most of them were theoretical, but now we were trying to determine how everything would plug and play into the timelines that we came up with or were provided with by PODS. Simultaneously, we were also starting to think about the where portion of the move. This isn’t something we going to talk too much about today, because it’s an entirely different discussion altogether, but it’s important to note that this was our new focus. Of course, as so often happens in life, the new focus on the where would end up shining a light on a few important questions; one of which was when.

Originally, our timeline had us moving out of Minnesota at some point between the middle of May and the end of June. This was an ideal timeframe for a number of reasons, one of which being the lack of snow and ice. While there might not usually be a lot of snowfall in Minnesota during this time of year, piles of snow and ice that have accumulated during the long winter sometimes stick around. Maneuvering around these snow and ice piles can be less than fun, so our goal was to move when they would more likely than not be melted. However, this timeline would end up moving up based on the availability of housing options in the areas we were considering.

With our timeline moving up, we now had to consider the real possibility that we’d be maneuvering around piles of snow and ice. Inconvenient as this might be on its own, this also presented a potential problem with the delivery of the POD. According to the PODS website, for containers of the size we would be required to rent due to the out-of-state nature of our move, we would need to have 3 consecutive parking spots reserved and available for the POD delivery. This is not something we were positive we could manage. With the combination of unmoving cars along with the piles of snow and ice, we were looking at the real possibility that the POD delivery would be impossible or would be require to park in the overflow lot of our building, requiring us to rent a truck to move from our building into the pod. Needless to say, this was not going to work for us.

All things considered and timelines being what they were, we decided that the best route was to rent a moving truck and drive it to Florida ourselves.

As far as planning is concerned, renting a moving truck was the easiest and most straightforward process to gather information on. Unlike all of the other options we looked into, gathering all of the information you were looking for about renting a truck could be done online without having to fill out forms and wait for a representative to contact you back .This made the process a breeze, regardless what company we looked at.

Of course, there are a lot of different companies to choose from when it comes to renting trucks. We looked into a few different companies, but decided to go with UHaul. The choice to go with UHaul was fairly simple. Not only did they have a deal running for the dates of our move that would save us a considerable amount of money, but we’d also have access to a slightly larger truck than the alternatives. This wasn’t something that we’d considered to be a necessity or a deal breaker, but it was nice to get a slightly bigger truck for less than the smaller alternatives.

Working with UHaul to get the truck rental set up was a breeze. We started off on the website and was contacted shortly thereafter by a representative who was able to lock everything in, including the deal on the truck. We were also to book movers through UHaul. We opted not to book movers for the move out of Minnesota, mainly because we wanted to work on our own timeline and have access to an elevator. However, we did schedule movers to help us get everything into our new place down in Florida.

With all of the decision making and scheduling out of the way, the only thing left to do was wait until our move date. Of course, this felt like it took the longest time. . . . but there was no shortage of things to do!

Though the process of scheduling the UHaul went relatively smoothly, we did encounter a hiccup about 24 hours prior to picking up the truck. Originally, we were scheduled to pick up the truck about 30 minutes away at a predetermined location. However, this changed 24 hours in advance. We were notified of this change via phone, which was a bit confusing at first due to the way that the UHaul representative was communicating. [In a nutshell, she never communicated a “change” to an existing reservation. Rather, she had made it sound as though they were confirming a new reservation. After a couple minutes on the phone this was resolved, but it was a bit confusing and a little stressful considering it was within 24 hours of when we planned to pick up the truck.]

Admittedly, we were a bit stressed out by this change. Not only we were headed to a new location, but we would also be picking up at a later time. Fortunately, it would all work out! The time may have been a bit later, but the location was also significantly closer.

Finally, it was moving day! We kicked things off by picking up our truck around 8:00AM. The process of picking up the truck and inspecting for damages [which was done easily with their online system] was relatively smooth. The entire process took less than 20 minutes from start to finish. Soon, we were back on the road heading to our apartment to start packing.

In terms of packing the truck, it was a breeze. . . . . or as much of a breeze as it can be with 2 people. The truck was set up to make the process as convenient as possible with tie-down points, a lower entrance [which makes things much easier to load] and an easy to use loading ramp. While there’s no getting around how much work it was to load the truck ourselves, it was certainly easier having the ramp and the lower entrance.

The 1500 mile drive in the truck also went about as smooth as you might expect. Of course, there’s no getting around the fact that driving a 15 foot box truck is different than a car. As a bigger and broader vehicle, it’s going to be a bit more difficult to drive and will take some getting used to.

Like the pick-up process, returning the truck went smoothly. We confirmed our drop-off location and made our way over a day early to turn in the truck. Dropping off the truck did require a bit more time than thank pick-up as the UHaul employee did an inspection before we could leave. This only took about 30 minutes total though and we were on our way.

Overall, this entire process was a very positive one. While there was a hiccup at the beginning, everything was resolved quickly and the process went smoothly. Would I do it again? Yes! While I’m not eager to move again and certainly not 1500 miles down the road, I would consider going this route if I had to.

Have you ever used any of the moving companies we talked about here today? We’d love to hear your experience! Join the Jamboree and let us know your thoughts, tips trucks and what you would [or wouldn’t] recommend to fellow mortals like yourself!