Pony

Well Mrs TD has decided 8 years of study is not enough and she wants to do at least one more, maybe 4 more
We just submitted her choices of internships to 'Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program'. The scary thing is we won't know if she matches until March, just 6 weeks before school ends and our lease expires.
As a result we are looking at PODS (www.pods.com) to move our belongings. It appears to be the most cost effective way to go.
We still need to ship both horses and our 5 house pets, but thats a different story.
UHAUL would work out really expensive due to the distance between some of the potential moves. As the move will likely be for just one year, and then maybe another area for 3 years, before settling down, paying a removal company will eat away at our deposit we are saving for a home.

Has anyone used PODS. Do we need to be aware of anything. Can anyone suggest a better way to move.
The key considerations are:
we only get 6 weeks notice and could end up in any of 14 states
we have two horses to move (I am sure we are just going to use a shipping company for this - I don't fancy hauling our horse box with two horses thousands of miles).
we have a full house of goods, enough to fill the largest 'PODS', and the horse box, and still have to gift some things. We are taking both cars. Sue's SUV with the cats and mine with the dogs.


We could be at any of these locations:

University of Tennessee

North Carolina State University

Auburn University

Colorado State University

Ohio State University, The

University of Georgia, Internships

Washington State University

Michigan State University-Small Animal

Oregon State University

Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine

University of Illinois

Kansas State University Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine: Veterinary Clinical Sciences

Louisiana State University


If I am honest I am scared witless. Its a huge undertaking, full of the unknown. We haven't entered in to this lightly, but it is important to Sue. We need to keep the cost of moving to a minimum. Sue will earn a meager salary as an intern, and I will need to find another job - difficult to do when it could be in any of 14 states

Muswell Hill

I used PODS in 2004 to move to Charleston, SC from the upstate in SC, a distance of about 250 miles or so. I had to POD delivered to my house, loaded it myself, and had it stored for 6 weeks, then it was taken to Charleston and i unloaded myself for $800 all in. I thought it was great, if not a little backbreaking. The PODS staff were very reliable, and the POD was delivered when they said it would be. Their largest 'interstate' POD was about 15x9x9 (tall) approx, and i was able to fit my whole 3 bedroom house into it, except my king size bed and bike (and all applicances which we sold), which went into storage and i moved in a uhaul.
I would recommend PODS 100%, but take into consideration how much stuff you have, because you might need 2 PODS. This could be a good time for a clean out and yard sale.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Pony

Thanks for the info.
We used NC as a sample quote, as its about the farthest we would be going. When you get to that distance the price virtually doubles for another POD. So a yard sale is a good idea.
We even looked at buying a shipping container, having it hauled across country and then selling it in the state we went to. The containers were between $1,500 and $6,000 though, so this idea was quickly abandoned.
We worried we may not be able to sell it once we got there. You are considered hill billy if you have a car on your front lawn, imagine a 40ft shipping container.

blaze

[QUOTE=Texas_Dave;4304888]Well Mrs TD has decided 8 years of study is not enough and she wants to do at least one more, maybe 4 more




I don't envy you at all! You're right, that is a big undertaking and not even anything you can plan at this point as you don't know where you will be going!
I've always wondered if the pods are a good idea or not. We ended up hiring a Uhaul from SD to NY when we last moved for the things that we needed straight away (this included furniture). Obviously moving a whole house this way would be literally impossible but it is very inexpensive compared to some of your other options. How about you get one pod for half of your stuf and Uhaul the rest yourselves to save some money that way. You can tow one of your vehicles (I think?).
Just a thought, good luck!

RoB1833

We moved from NC to Massachusetts a couple of years ago using U-Pack. The pods sounds like a similar type of thing except we paid for the linear footage on a potentially shared trailer. Worked out resonably cheap for us.

penguinsix

As in any move, the packing probably more important than how the stuff actually gets there. If you are going to use PODS (which I have no problem with) I would strongly recommend giving what you are packing and how it goes in some serious thought. So many people that DIY a move end up throwing stuff in sort of haphazzardly and end up with some broken items. With a pod (which I think gets crane lifted on a truck and then off again) you need to prepare for a variety of movement of your goods. You'll really want to give it some thought (what goes where) and try to make it fit as close to a TETRIS puzzle as you can, minimizing shifting areas that might lead to damage.

I use PODS for on site storage of stuff and an occasional short move, but nothing long haul.

Good luck.

britchicknyc

I spent a semester at Colorado State and absolutely loved it! Would be great for the horses too!

Fort Collins was voted the best place to live in America last year!

vegas

Used 3 large PODS in Sep 2005 to move from Florida to Texas cost $5500 plus $450 per month rental. They were very efficient and pods were clean. It suited us because we sold and moved into a hotel in Dallas whilst we looked for a house. They delivered when they said they would. The only down side was that it was back breaking.

Bob

I haven't used, so couldn't really comment, but have seen plenty of people around here use them, so that must be something going for them...just make sure the cost is all in because tolls can get stupidly expensive if you have to pay that on top.

And if your looking at vet'ing...well it's a killer out for you and your line of work (unless you want to work for t-mobile) but, there's a few good places in Maine for it, and also quite well priced, they get good sponsorships and the like...they love vets and nurses.

Big Vern

I used GoSmartMove to get my stuff from WA to NC, and they were really good. The pods themselves are smaller (7x7x7) so they're easier to pack, and they seemed to be more sturdy than PODS. They also has a GPS tracker in each one so you can even track your stuff online.

It worked really well for me, I managed to get everything into 5 pods (the max amount you can get on a truck) and it saved all the potential headaches with movers. At the destination I hired a team of heavies for a hour to move all the big stuff out of the pods into the house and we were done...

Bob

oh, another vet'ing place that is bit out there is UConn...bit out there in CT, and no idea what the tech field is like there, but it's a good college, massive too, with their own farm.

Pony

I hadn't heard of these guys, and just called and got a quote. I like the idea that I can book 7ft cube containers. My stuff from the UK came in 4 of these (the 4th only half full), so it gives me an idea of how many we need.


Not knowing exactly where we will end up until the match results come in March I used NC as a final destination for the price comparison.

2 Pods giving a total of 2,048ft cubed
$4,177.22 (using a promo code I googled)
$4,397.07 without the discount code

5 GoSmartMove containerts giving a total of 1,715ft cubed
$5536

So the PODS work out cheaper and provide more storage. I'll run the figures again when we know exactly where we will be.


Thanks

ironporer

I was rather surprised at the cost of the PODS...seems about triple of doing it using UHaul or Penske.

Pony

Thats a damn good point. I hadn't appreciate the distance, and vastly over estimated how many miles the drive would be, and my perceived cost of using UHAUL. I presumed it would be 69c a mile. I won't tell you what I estimated the journey to be, but I was a very very very long way out

I just ran the quote through UHAUL, and its only $1100 for a big 1500 cu.ft. van and a 400cu.ft. trailer. I'd have to fly back to get my car and the horsebox but that may work out better. The horses are at a friends, and don't need moving at the exact time we move.

It looks like its UHAUL for sure.

Bob

thought about looking at a car hitch as well and towing the car?