souls canuck

Hiya

I am sure I am not the first to do this so maybe someone out there has come up with a (somewhat) reasonable way for me to get my belongings from Toronto to Phoenix, AZ?

U-Haul truck one way runs about $4000.
at that price I should probably just sell everything and buy it again

Will look into freight or maybe slow boat to.. the desert? hah... I could always pick it up someplace.. I am thinking I need to be with my stuff whn it crosses the border though. I originally came with a car load and left the rest for later.. now it's later. May see if someone else is moving and piggyback on that..


There are some things that are irreplaceable..

any advice is appreciated.. I do have months to figure this out so it's not urgent..

Elenfair

Hey kid.

I hired a moving company back home in Ottawa to move my stuff to Minnesota. I wasn't in a rush, so I had them find a shipment that was coming in my general direction. Piggy-backed on stuff that way - part of what was on the truck was an estate's worth of stuff coming down to Iowa. Go figure.

It was expensive, but they did take care of everything, including all the paperwork. They sent me what I had to fill out, the copy of my I-90, all that fun stuff. There's a declaration for unaccompanied "goods", in there.

It's not too hard. I dealt with an "Atlas" affiliate.

Good luck!

E.

ian-mstm

It cost me about $3200 to rent a 17' one way U-Haul truck with a car carrier (the full size one that the whole car sits on... none of that hook up to the front axle and let the rear tires rack up the miles crap) from Halifax to Kentucky. Mind you, this was in 1998 and things were a bit less expensive then. I moved my car, books, music, videos, and furniture. Had the furniture not been (mostly) solid oak, I wouldn't have bothered... but it was nicer than the stuff Sheila had, so we got rid of her old stuff when I moved there.

If I was to do it again, I'd have sold the car and the furniture in Canada before moving and rented a one-way U-Haul van instead. Not only would it have been less expensive, it would have provided an opportunity to pick out new furniture with my new wife... priceless!

Ian

Rete

It is called consolidated shipment. Jim used this method to bring his 65 boxes and dining room table, 10 chairs, breakfront and stereo equipment from Ottawa to NY. The truck, of course, arrived after him (for those entering for the first time until the OP) you have to have entered the US with a valid visa and that information has to be given to the trucking company in order to get your belongings through without having to pay customs. The cost for all of that was under $1,500.

Bob

if you've got a 4x4 you have to use one of those anyway or you'll spend around $3K fixing your motor after all the teeth sheer off

Mh

In article <[email protected]> ,
Rete <[email protected]> wrote:
    >> Hiya
    >> I am sure I am not the first to do this so maybe someone out there has
    >> come up with a (somewhat) reasonable way for me to get my belongings
    >> from Toronto to Phoenix, AZ?
    >> U-Haul truck one way runs about $4000.
    >> at that price I should probably just sell everything and buy it again
    >> Will look into freight or maybe slow boat to.. the desert? hah... I
    >> could always pick it up someplace.. I am thinking I need to be with my
    >> stuff whn it crosses the border though. I originally came with a car
    >> load and left the rest for later.. now it's later. May see if someone
    >> else is moving and piggyback on that..
    >> There are some things that are irreplaceable..
    >> any advice is appreciated.. I do have months to figure this out so
    >> it's not urgent..
    >It is called consolidated shipment. Jim used this method to bring his
    >65 boxes and dining room table, 10 chairs, breakfront and stereo
    >equipment from Ottawa to NY. The truck, of course, arrived after him
    >(for those entering for the first time until the OP) you have to have
    >entered the US with a valid visa and that information has to be given to
    >the trucking company in order to get your belongings through without
    >having to pay customs. The cost for all of that was under $1,500.

True enough, but remember.. The distance from Bytown to NY is not that
great.. Hogtown to Phoenix is another thing altogether.. Figure double the
distance, double the price, and these days, probably close to her $4K quote.

MH

Mh

In article <[email protected]> ,
souls canuck <member15831@british_expats.com> wrote:
    >Hiya
    >I am sure I am not the first to do this so maybe someone out there has
    >come up with a (somewhat) reasonable way for me to get my belongings
    >from Toronto to Phoenix, AZ?
    >U-Haul truck one way runs about $4000.
    >at that price I should probably just sell everything and buy it again
    >Will look into freight or maybe slow boat to.. the desert? hah... I
    >could always pick it up someplace.. I am thinking I need to be with my
    >stuff whn it crosses the border though. I originally came with a car
    >load and left the rest for later.. now it's later. May see if someone
    >else is moving and piggyback on that..
    >There are some things that are irreplaceable..
    >any advice is appreciated.. I do have months to figure this out so it's
    >not urgent..

My advice:
-sell all but the absolutely irreplaceable stuff.
-make trips, take stuff with you on planes, pay the $75 or $100 extra
luggage fee, etc..
-consider Greyhound cargo services for smaller, non-fragile stuff
-if you really need a U-Haul, look into prices from Buffalo instead -
when I looked, staying within the country was a good chunk cheaper - and get
friends/family to move stuff to Buffalo for you.

I moved from K-W to Fremont, CA. U-Haul 2 years ago was going to run $1.5-2K
without gas or motels, etc. Don't forget - you probably won't be going 80-90
mph in a fully loaded U-Haul, they guzzle gas, and you have to think about
motels too. Figure at least another $1K on top of your $4K, IMHO.

I found a shipping company that would do $1500 for one load (probably
would have only fit 1/2 of my stuff). You might want to try that.

Situation was this: my parents had enough furniture (some nearly new, all in
good shape) to furnish any house, and WANTED us to have it. However, no way
to get it 2600 miles across the country. I see you're about 300 miles
shorter :-)

How did we furnish our house here?
-we found some good deals here on not-top-of-the-line furniture
-we found more good deals on used furniture
-we should have bought Ikea stock before we started decorating :-)

Good luck!

MH

Rete

Perhaps. However, I would rather spend the $2-3,000 on someone doing the carting and loading and unloading and driving them doing it myself. And it is not just the distance, it is the size of the load that is being transported. If they have more than one delivery on that run the cost to you might be lower.

Elenfair

Consolidated shipment! Yes!

That's what I did. I couldn't remember the right term for it. Best decision I ever made - they moved the stuff for me, took care of things, plopped it in the right spots when they got here.

It was worth the expense. Most of what I had shipped were boxes, some furniture we wanted to keep (family heirloom style).

Rete

I remember your asking about it when you were making the move from Ottawa and I told you about Jim's move to NY and the consolidated shipping.

When it comes times for us to finally move from NY, believe me when I say it will be in the same manner. I have not moved in 30 years and will not be the one to lift that bale and tow that barge ;-)