I know how stressful moving can be. I've moved 7 times within the heights and one time from the Heights to NJ, and I've had a few different experiences - and some PTSD. Like serious PTSD. Like when I return something to Amazon, and I have to seal the box with packing tape, and I hear the sound of the packing tape, I get very anxious. So really, my best advice is to never move. I'm never doing it again. But since you've already made your decision...
Here is my long post about all my experiences. Hopefully it will help make your moving experience a little bit easier. It's a long post, but in my opinion, worth reading, so please continue...or feel free to ignore this. Except for the last paragraph. That will save you sooooo much time. But really feel free to ignore me if you want. No skin off my back.
When I moved out of my first apt, I didn't have so much stuff, I didn't own any furniture except my bed and two dressers, so I got friends and my parents' car and it was fine. With every move, I got more stuff. One move, I got friends and a u-haul and it took aaaall day (I think actually 16 hours), and it ended up being fine, but I felt really bad about it and bought them all dinner. After that, I started hiring movers.
As far as moving companies...
One general point - it's really hit or miss with these guys. I can have a great experience and you can have a horrible one, and vice versa. The following were my experiences, as this is my blog, duh. Take them as you will.
I used Dumbo once. The head mover convinced me to pay by the box rather than by the hour. His argument was if you pay by the hour, the workers will move slower and take more time to make more money. So I listened. That was a huge mistake. Everything counted as a "box". A lamp was a "box". My little George Forman Grill box counted on its own as a "box" - if I had known that, I would have packed it into a bigger box with other things. And you really don't realize how much stuff you have until you're paying per every single piece. At a certain point, we told them to stop and we would just move the rest ourselves b/c we didn't want to rack up a hugeungous bill. But that meant we had to now move a lot of things ourselves, which involved many trips with dollies and cars and bubby carts back and forth. What a pain!
I used Dumbo once. The head mover convinced me to pay by the box rather than by the hour. His argument was if you pay by the hour, the workers will move slower and take more time to make more money. So I listened. That was a huge mistake. Everything counted as a "box". A lamp was a "box". My little George Forman Grill box counted on its own as a "box" - if I had known that, I would have packed it into a bigger box with other things. And you really don't realize how much stuff you have until you're paying per every single piece. At a certain point, we told them to stop and we would just move the rest ourselves b/c we didn't want to rack up a hugeungous bill. But that meant we had to now move a lot of things ourselves, which involved many trips with dollies and cars and bubby carts back and forth. What a pain!
I used OZ twice. They are Amazing! All I did was open the doors and offer water. I didn't lift a finger. They even set up my bedroom on the first move b/c I had no idea where to put things. On the second move, I had even more stuff, so I ended up paying them to pack some of it - mostly stuff I didn't care as much about and that wasn't breakable. On both moves, they put together my bed, which they had to take apart to move it, and they put furniture wherever I told them. By the time they were done, I didn't have much to do in setting up my apt b/c they had done a lot of the setting up. I just had to unpack the boxes. And the guys were nice and friendly and pleasant to work with both times. They started at 8 or 9 am (I don't remember) and they finished at like 3. So I still had the rest of the day to do whatever. They are expensive, but worth every penny for the peace of mind.
In my most last move to a new apt., my husband thought we'll save money and not hire movers - we'll get the worker guys from his store to pack and shlep everything in a rented U-haul. That was such a hugeungous ginormous mistake. Do NOT do that. (You can skip this purple part, b/c it's more of me ranting than advice, but just if you're curious - They are not movers so they don't know what they're doing - like how to properly wrap furniture so it doesn't get scratched up or chipped or broken altogether, which did happen to a lot of my stuff. My rationale for this was you don't go to movers college and learn how to be a professional mover, and anyone can wrap a table, so who cares. But movers really do know what they're doing and they come with supplies, and these guys did not. Also, they don't come with insurance like real movers do, so when they broke our new building's elevator, we had to pay for that ourselves ($800). They were totally irresponsible and did not return the U-haul truck properly like I instructed them. The guy drove around at 3am looking for a parking spot - which cost us extra mileage on the truck and wasted gas. He then parked the truck illegally, which earned us a parking ticket. He also did not refill the gas tank so we got penalized for that as well. The only reason I didn't return the truck myself was that they didn't finish moving us until 3am even though they started at like 9am. Meantime, they didn't even finish with all our stuff and I had to make a few trips back to our old apt with a bubby cart and the broken elevator they caused. It was such a nightmare. B/c of the broken elevator, the parking ticket, and the extra mileage and gas on the truck, we ended up paying double what I had paid OZ. This happened in Sept 2015. All these years later, I'm still angry about it. Rant over.)
Sometimes, it's worth buying the cheaper brand, but some things, you just don't skimp on - like Reynold's foil, Pampers diapers, and good movers.
In our most recent move to a house, we used M. Bakin & Sons. They came in the cheapest after getting quotes from many companies. They were cheapest b/c you pay in cash. I posted around facebook and they came very highly recommended and since they were the cheapest, we went with them. They were fine. I wasn't there for the actual move, but my husband said they were amazing, efficient, they worked so quickly and well. He tipped them very nicely b/c of how great they were. After we unpacked most of our stuff, I've found random chips here and there in our furniture. One bookcase that has a cabinet on the bottom, the bottom shelf, which is the roof of the cabinet, broke around the peg holding it in place, so it's not really usable as a shelf anymore. I would probably hire them again based on my husband's glowing recommendations, but I'm not happy about all the little chips in my furniture. I did not have that with Oz or Dumbo.
In our most recent move to a house, we used M. Bakin & Sons. They came in the cheapest after getting quotes from many companies. They were cheapest b/c you pay in cash. I posted around facebook and they came very highly recommended and since they were the cheapest, we went with them. They were fine. I wasn't there for the actual move, but my husband said they were amazing, efficient, they worked so quickly and well. He tipped them very nicely b/c of how great they were. After we unpacked most of our stuff, I've found random chips here and there in our furniture. One bookcase that has a cabinet on the bottom, the bottom shelf, which is the roof of the cabinet, broke around the peg holding it in place, so it's not really usable as a shelf anymore. I would probably hire them again based on my husband's glowing recommendations, but I'm not happy about all the little chips in my furniture. I did not have that with Oz or Dumbo.
I've heard good things about FlatRate from many people. I've never used them. I've also heard good things about Schulgasser. Also never used them. Same with Sachs, good things, never used them.
I've heard terrible things about Schleppers, although I've never used them, and they came in pretty expensive.
In terms of cost, I will say that moving is one of the worst stresses in life so I would happily spend a little more money for a good company. We ended up packing ourselves. If you can afford it, I would pay the movers to pack for you. But that seems to be a nice luxury.
In Dec 2019, here are the prices we were quoted, not including tips:
Schulgasser - $1,800 to pack everything; $2,500 to move everything; Total = $4,300
Oz - $3,860 total for packing and moving.
FlatRate - $990 to pack everything; $2,769 to move everything; Total = $3,759
Schleppers - $933 to pack everything; $2,550 to move everything; Total = $3,483
M Bakin & Sons - $1,376 to pack everything; $1,5?? to move everything; Total = $2,9??
I've heard terrible things about Schleppers, although I've never used them, and they came in pretty expensive.
In terms of cost, I will say that moving is one of the worst stresses in life so I would happily spend a little more money for a good company. We ended up packing ourselves. If you can afford it, I would pay the movers to pack for you. But that seems to be a nice luxury.
In Dec 2019, here are the prices we were quoted, not including tips:
Schulgasser - $1,800 to pack everything; $2,500 to move everything; Total = $4,300
Oz - $3,860 total for packing and moving.
FlatRate - $990 to pack everything; $2,769 to move everything; Total = $3,759
Schleppers - $933 to pack everything; $2,550 to move everything; Total = $3,483
M Bakin & Sons - $1,376 to pack everything; $1,5?? to move everything; Total = $2,9??
Just on the point of paying movers to pack your stuff vs packing yourself, if we could've afforded it, I would've paid the movers to pack up our stuff. It's so much less stressful that way. However, if you pack yourselves, which we did, you will know where everything is when you unpack, and you can pack in the order you want, like milchig dishes in one box, fleishig in another, bathroom things in a different box, etc, as opposed to movers who will just put whatever they grab into whatever box. You will also know for certain that you packed everything and nothing got left behind. In the end, I'm glad we packed ourselves, b/c even though packing is so stressful and frustrating, and annoying, I know my plunger wasn't with my dishes (which happened to my friend) and I know we got everything. And I know where everything is.
The other few things I've learned in general about moving:
1. Movers are significantly cheaper any day after the 1st of the month. Everyone moves on the 30th, 31st, and 1st of the month b/c that's when leases usually start and end and people have to be out of their apts by then. If you can move on the 2nd or 3rd of the month or later, you'll save a lot of money. If they're going to renovate your apt after you move out, or do any work like repaint or whatever, it shouldn't matter if you leave a couple days later. If new tenants are moving in right away, not much you can do. But they usually paint or do something, so it's very much worth asking the landlord if you can stay a couple extra days, b/c it will save you hundreds of dollars. Or you can tell them you couldn't get movers before the 2nd, which can definitely happen. Whether it's true or not is on your own conscience.
1b. We moved out of our last apt on the 9th. Our last landlord told us to pay the full month's rent and then he refunded us the rent from the 10th-31st so we ended up only paying rent for the 1st-9th. It's worth asking your landlord if you can do that also. They might say no, but it's definitely worth asking.
1b. We moved out of our last apt on the 9th. Our last landlord told us to pay the full month's rent and then he refunded us the rent from the 10th-31st so we ended up only paying rent for the 1st-9th. It's worth asking your landlord if you can do that also. They might say no, but it's definitely worth asking.
2. Also, always buy the moving company's insurance. It's not that much more money, especially in the grand scheme, and if something happens, you'll want it. Like when we moved and our fake movers broke our building's elevator (that's the part in purple, in case you skipped it) and we had to pay the $800 to fix it b/c they were not real movers and they didn't come with insurance. Good reputable movers will have insurance for things like that and you won't be on the hook and it will be their problem. And also if anything of yours arrives broken, their insurance I think will help with that too.
3. If you have a choice of when to move, it's definitely easier to move in the warmer seasons without a threat of snow. Snow can definitely increase the time it takes movers to drive and to park the truck, and schlepping furniture over snow can also take longer, and that's time you're paying for - unless you made a different deal with the movers. Snow can also damage your furniture and boxes. If you get really amazing movers who wrap everything in plastic to protect from the weather, that's great. Also time you're paying for. The one thing to keep in mind about moving in the summer, especially when it's super hot out, is that unless you have an A/C set up in both locations, it can be really really unbearably hot on either end. Keep that in mind when tipping your movers. You might want to tip them more if it's too hot. And the extra tip money for moving in hot weather could cancel out the extra money spent on time b/c of the snow in the winter.
3. If you have a choice of when to move, it's definitely easier to move in the warmer seasons without a threat of snow. Snow can definitely increase the time it takes movers to drive and to park the truck, and schlepping furniture over snow can also take longer, and that's time you're paying for - unless you made a different deal with the movers. Snow can also damage your furniture and boxes. If you get really amazing movers who wrap everything in plastic to protect from the weather, that's great. Also time you're paying for. The one thing to keep in mind about moving in the summer, especially when it's super hot out, is that unless you have an A/C set up in both locations, it can be really really unbearably hot on either end. Keep that in mind when tipping your movers. You might want to tip them more if it's too hot. And the extra tip money for moving in hot weather could cancel out the extra money spent on time b/c of the snow in the winter.
4. This last point is the most amazing advice ever. When you're packing boxes, use different colored duct tape for the different rooms you have. You can get rolls on Amazon. So for example, all boxes that are packed with kitchen supplies can be sealed in blue duct tape. And all bathroom boxes can have yellow duct tape. And all bedroom stuff can have pink duct tape. This is another advantage of packing yourselves, vs having movers pack for you. They probably won't do this, and if they do, it might not be reliable. It saves sooooooooooo much time when unpacking. First of all, you can tell the movers to put all blue boxes in the kitchen, and all pink boxes in the bedroom, etc. They will NOT read what you write on the boxes, probably b/c that takes too much time, but they can all figure out the colors (unless they're color blind...which would stink, but what can you do.) Also, when you're unpacking, you know which boxes go where, in case the movers are colorblind or didn't bother listening. And you'll know if you're looking for your favorite mug, it's in a blue box, and you don't have to open every box to find it, so it saves you so much time looking for things. Also, when you're unpacking, you can be more organized and like if you decide you want to unpack all your bathroom stuff today, you know to unpack only yellow boxes, and you don't have to open a million boxes to guess where things are to find bathroom things and then you have a huge mess. I can't praise this system enough. It was a former coworker's idea, and it has made my life so much easier through a few moves. You just need to remember what room each color is.
I hope this was helpful. Good luck!
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