moving furniture across country

[katrana]

I have a relative getting rid of some really nice furniture that they have very generously offered us (and that we really want/could use).

They live about 12 hours from us by car. I looked into PODS/ABF/U-haul pods/etc but they are all really expensive, even for just one pod it is at least $700-$1000! The other alternative is to drive down there in our regular car, and rent a truck for the ride back. That would only be around $300 plus gas costs ($100+ each way, so 300+ total). PLUS, then we have to deal with driving all that way and back!

Anyone else know of any other ways to inexpensively get this furniture home? It is just a dining room set (table, chairs, buffet).

Having people around to physically move or load the furniture is not an issue at either end, just getting it from point A to point B. We are also very flexible on dates and there is no rush to get it.

[heygrey]

do you have a friend with a truck you can borrow? can you take the seats out of a van and load it all in? anyone with a cargo trailer? i'd exhaust those options first.

depending on the quality and how long i planned to keep this furniture, i'd consider the $500 an investment. that could be upwards of 90% off considering retail value of good dining room sets.

[WOT?*]

What about checking into moving companies or "white glove delivery" companies such as those furniture stores use?

How much would it cost to fly down and drive back up? That would cut transit time if you U-Haul it back.

[Deleted]

Have you looked into Door To Door Storage? We used them for 2 cross country moves and they were really cheap compared to PODS but work in the same way. They are plywood instead of metal, but aside from a dent in the top of an ikea bedside table (i.e. really cheap) nothing was damaged or even jostled, really. I paid around $650 to move a 1 bdrm apartment worth of stuff from San Francisco to Seattle and then again from Seattle to Minneapolis. They were great both times.

[lindyanne]

Uship.com it's kinda like a reverse eBay. Carries bid down the price of what they'd be willing to move your furniture for. So swine starts out and it gets cheaper and cheaper. You can see ratings on people and don't have to pick the cheapest one. Being flexible with timeline will help a lot too bc then a carrier can add it to a shipment they're already hauling rather than make a special trip.

[sillygoosegirl]

We recently turned down a similar offer because it was going to be so expensive to move it. We'll buy something local off Craigslist instead.