3 Things to Consider When Planning to Move Across the Country
From a Couple that Moved States Twice in One Year
New series alert! I am compiling pages of notes (with lots of help from Darrell) about moving… basically what I would tell my sister if she called me up and wanted to know everything we’ve learned by moving twice in one year! 😅 Today, I want to start from a bird’s eye view: what to consider as you enter the planning process for a big move.
It can be overwhelming and I remember when we decided to move to NYC at the beginning of the year, just thinking where do we even begin?! Luckily, there are several “checklist” articles that will walk you through everything you need to do. But what we needed when we were planning for the first move, and thankfully had wisdom entering a second move, was a breakdown of what to consider and tips and ideas for how to plan. So let’s start with a few things to keep in mind as you prepare for a move across the country, out of state or just a general long distance.
Be prepared to spend more than you think.
When we were researching the cost, Darrell read somewhere that it costs an estimated $4 a square foot. Meaning if your home is 1,000 square feet, you’re talking at least $4,000.00 just to move your stuff. Then you’ve got gas, lodging, food, deposits for turning on utilities and signing a new lease or the expenses involved in buying a new home. And if you’re ending your lease early, it could become costly to terminate that contract too. If you’re changing jobs, think about when you’ll receive a final paycheck from one job (and your spouse if applicable) and when to expect the first check from the next. With so much overlap, cash flow can get crazy quickly.
Obtain movers insurance.
Find out if insurance is required by your residence (the apartment you’re leaving and the apartment you’re moving into), as well as what liability insurance your moving company provides for any damages incurred to the structure or common areas of the buildings. I’m not sure if it is federally required or different among states, but the department of transportation at some government level typically requires moving companies have liability insurance. Some property management groups (like where we lived in NYC) require proof of liability insurance from moving companies to cover any damages that may occur to common use areas as your belongings are moved in or out of their building.
Outside of liability insurance, you may also wish to obtain additional personal property insurance to cover damages or loss of your items. This additional insurance isn’t required and you may wish to forgo this coverage. A lot of times your moving company will offer a very basic premium insurance for your items as part of your moving expense and you can “upgrade” to a higher premium. You’ll have to decide if you want to risk not acquiring the additional insurance. The personal property insurance can cover damages to your belongings (think more than just scratches or dings when something is riding in the truck or being unloaded… What if the truck transporting your items were to be in an accident and everything was destroyed? Or if your items were to burn in a fire between leaving your residence and arriving at your destination? Or what if it just all got lost? Or someone hijacks the truck??) Again, you’ll have some basic coverage but when everything you own is handed over to someone else for their safekeeping, things can just happen and you’ll want to decide if it’s worth the additional cost for a little more peace of mind. Just know that it is insanely expensive and think about what you can physically transport yourself versus what you’re comfortable turning over to a moving company when it comes to irreplaceable items. (And consider how long your items will be in limbo, because very rarely will you get lucky in a situation where your items are on a truck with other families’ items and your stuff goes directly to your new home - it will likely visit other stops and be on a separate path for multiple days, sometimes more than a week.)
Beware of possible hidden fees.
When we moved to NYC, we were charged an extra $100 to move our couch up the stairs because it wouldn’t fit on the elevators. This is sometimes called a stair fee.
When moving to NYC, we listed a certain number of boxes on the quote and then ended up having more – it was more expensive to add to the number of boxes day-of than it would have been had we added to the quote prior to moving day. They do this because (if you go the route of having your stuff on the truck with others, which by the way is a lot more affordable) they have to plan how to efficiently pack the truck based on the information provided from quotes. If you add more without warning them, it’s a lot harder for them accommodate everyone and therefore it will cost you more. We were unaware at the time and in that instance thought we agreed upon a set cubic footage of items and that as long as we stayed in that amount of space, we were paying the same price. Low and behold, it was some weird combination of space and amount of boxes/items and we were extremely frustrated to have to pay significantly more day-of than we originally anticipated. There can be so much gray area in these agreements and it is important to understand what you’re signing up for, especially when choosing a moving company that seems like a “great deal” because it can turn into a scenario where they’re essentially nickel and diming you with all these fees.
When moving to SC, we used a different moving company and it was solely based on number of items. So in that case, we were better off to pack really large boxes full of items than to have a ton of small boxes. It is all so weird to me how the different companies operate but again, just do your homework to know what kind of situation you’re getting into.
There are so many more things I want to share with you about long distance moving that we’ve learned through our experiences over the last 7 months and I’m happy to share I’ve got a few more posts in the pipeline on the subject! Stay tuned and please let me know if there are any specific questions you have that I might be able to answer in this series!