cross country moving

[CatVet2Be]

I'm really excited to be moving to Ohio but getting there from California with a household of stuff + pets is a little daunting. So far we've looked into getting a pod that we pack ourselves and ship, the cheapest my husband found was ~$2500. Then we'll take our 2 cars cross country with the pets so we figure around another ~$1000 in gas and miscellaneous travel expenses. To those that have done this or are about to, do these estimates sound right? Is there a cheaper way to do this? What are you planning on doing and any tips, advice, etc....? We have less than 4 mos to do this.

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[karmapple]

I really have nothing to offer except sympathy and the hope that someone else has some magical answers. My husband and I are moving to Ohio from Texas, so not as daunting as from California, but the numbers I have come up with are also in the thousands.

 

[jglovicz]

I moved from Vermont to California a couple of years ago (and in all likelihood will be moving from Cali to Iowa this summer). I spent more than $1000 in gas (BUT I drove my truck and trailer with my 2 horses across the whole country...gas prices were also cheaper). I drove 12-14 hours per day and did the trip in 5 days. The best way to decrease the cost of your trip is to make it in as few nights as possible. Also, do you know anyone along the way that you can stay with for the night rather than getting a hotel? If you will be stopping at hotels, be sure you book them ahead of time (and that they allow pets). My vet told me that if my cats were really upset and stressed, I could give them a half tab of benadryl (I didn't need to do that, but I had some with me just incase). I think it's a good idea to bring along some food in a cooler for breakfast/lunch/snacks, but after a long day of driving, it is nice to sit down to have dinner at a restaurant. Finally, if you have AAA, they will print off a personalized map with truck stops/detours/etc marked (it's free for members and they had one ready for me with 2 or 3 days notice). Good luck!

 

[cateyes]

I moved from NY to Ohio last September, and did the move with a Pod.
I paid 1750, I think, for the POD, so the price seems about right. They were really wonderful about dropping it where I told them to, when they were supposed to and picking it up as well. Everything got out here in perfect condition, nothing broken, and it was a really smooth move.
Oh, and I made the trip with two cats and a dog- best advice I can give is to plan everything out in advance- and jglovicz has great advice for traveling with pets!

 

[VAgirl]

I moved from NY to Ohio last September, and did the move with a Pod.
I paid 1750, I think, for the POD, so the price seems about right.

Wow, that's a fantastic price for PODS. I got an estimate for PODS before we moved and it was like $3,500!! So we went with a similar company, but not that one.

We got our shipping container (from VA to CA) for about $1,700. Our total trip (including the shipping container that I just mentioned) cost us a little over $3,500. But then we drove cross country when gas prices were near their peak ($3.50-$4.00/gallon) and we made the trip in 10-11 days basically making it a vacation, too. We definitely tried to stay with family and friends often, as well. So we probably only paid for hotels for 4 of the nights.

Oh, and we flew the cats (2 of them) on Delta for right around $330.

To give another point of comparison.

 

[sumstorm]

I have moved cross country several times. Often, I have gotten rid of everything except the pets and what fits in the car, but once that becomes impractical, I have used the same basic method; rent a box truck for the household, packed the pets in a vehicle, hubby drove the truck, I drove the vehicle, and off we went. cell phones/radios very helpful for this. We found the pods were more expensive for us
(cost varies greatly by your origin and destination) than hauling stuff ourselves.

The worst move we had was the last one...the only one with professional movers. never again. I am still unpacking boxes they labeled misc over a year later. It is so aggravating and exhausting. The worst part of it was that we had just moved, so everything was neatly packed, but they wouldn't insure it unless they packed it, so they took 3 neatly packed/labeled boxes, dumped them in a big box, and wrote misc. I nearly cried when we arrived! We only went pro because hubbies company paid for it.

Oh, if you are ok with it, it is possible to camp out/sleep in vehicles with pets to save hotel costs. I actually prefer this then trying to deal with hotel rooms with pets (most are smoking rooms which irritates my eyes a lot.) I have used camp grounds (tents and xpens are amazing) as well as laying down the back seat and sleeping in the car. Big shepherd keeps anyone from disturbing us. Do that a lot when I travel cross country for SAR.

 

[twelvetigers]

But then you have to deal with dog breath in a small enclosed space...

Perhaps your dog has better breath than mine. I would die.

 

[flyhi]

I'm really excited to be moving to Ohio but getting there from California with a household of stuff + pets is a little daunting. So far we've looked into getting a pod that we pack ourselves and ship, the cheapest my husband found was ~$2500. Then we'll take our 2 cars cross country with the pets so we figure around another ~$1000 in gas and miscellaneous travel expenses. To those that have done this or are about to, do these estimates sound right? Is there a cheaper way to do this? What are you planning on doing and any tips, advice, etc....? We have less than 4 mos to do this.

I definitely feel your pain. I moved across the country 1 year ago (SC to Las Vegas) and will do it again in 3 months (Las Vegas to VA to Grenada). I cannot comment on the price of pods, but it does seem to be in the ballpark given what i did last year. I used a professional mover - i boxed everything myself with the exception of my breakable valuables (about 5 boxes) and my artwork and mirrors - (about 7 boxes). I moved a 4 BR house and motorcycle for 6k. This included them doing a transfer too... i lived in a community in which the 18 wheeler could not make it in the gate and the first turn due to the live oak trees, so they had to park it outside of my community and use a smaller truck to shuttle everything back and forth. I think it added about 800 bucks to the deal. I then drove out to Vegas in my SUV with my two small dogs and Dad.

Just as another poster advised - I had AAA map out the trip - i only wanted to drive around 8 hours a day (otherwise we would have beaten the movers) and booked a room in the dog-friendly Marriott's. I really like the Marriott Residence's that are like a small townhouse and they were reasonable. This way if they bark, you don't feel like you are bothering anyone. I wanted to give my dogs as much of a 'normal' experience as possible to try and eliminate or reduce their stress. They ended up doing absolutely fabulously and traveled so much better than i ever could have imagined.

I will be making the trip back East in 3 months . This time i am selling/donating everything other than my sentimental furniture pieces, clothes and personal belongings. I have a very large SUV and will rent a U-Haul type trailer to tow. It will be just me and the two dogs this time, so a lot more stressful to do all the driving, take care of the dogs (much more difficult to go into a restaurant to eat or the bathroom when it will be the middle of summer) and to be towing a pretty heavy trailer.

The pods do seem to be a good way to go. I am not sure you can do it cheaper if you have a houseful of stuff to move.

Good Luck . 4 months will be here before we all know it!

 

[CatVet2Be]

Wow, that's a fantastic price for PODS. I got an estimate for PODS before we moved and it was like $3,500!! So we went with a similar company, but not that one.

We got our shipping container (from VA to CA) for about $1,700.

Are shipping containers different from pods? And can I ask which company you went with. We're still in the process of getting quotes but if anybody knows of any good companies I could definitely use the suggestions.

I think we'll look into hotel rooms that allow pets so I can give the cats a chance to stretch out. I'm worried about cooping them up in the cars for days at a time and having them not use their litters. I'm going to take them in large kennels and will have a litter in there with them but the last thing I need is to end up with a blocked cat.

The hardest part about this is getting rid of things. I'm an emotional pack rat so I have an attachment to all my stuff which is the opposite of my hubby.

 

[VAgirl]

Are shipping containers different from pods? And can I ask which company you went with. We're still in the process of getting quotes but if anybody knows of any good companies I could definitely use the suggestions.

We used Store to Door, which I think was a local company in VA. They contracted with other companies in other places to do out of area moves, though. I think in CA our stuff got handled by At Your Door Self Store. But I don't think any of those are going to be helpful to you.

Shipping containers are basically the same as PODS, except PODS is a company. The shipping container we used was basically wood with a water proof cover rather than PODS metal structure. But I think that's why they were cheaper. Still, our stuff came through just fine.

 

[soxbox]

Hey I moved from MA to CO a couple years ago and used a POD... it was fabulous!

Here are some previous threads about the same topic from a couple years ago with some helpful info... The middle one is about moving 2000 miles with 2 cats in the car!

Good luck

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=420116&highlight=cross+country

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=381912&highlight=cross+country

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=386344&highlight=cross+country

 

[CatVet2Be]

karmapple, when are you guys moving up there and how long is your drive? The amount of money it costs to move is just plain depressing

 

[twelvetigers]

Just a general FYI, but I'm fairly certain that most/all La Quinta Inns are animal friendly. That isn't to say that they're all nice places... but ya know.

 

[sumstorm]

LOL about dog breath.... my dogs actually have nice breath...may be the raw diet with some herbs in it! Even so, when we sleep in the car, some sleep in the front seat and the big shepherd sleeps at my feet, so nobody is in my face (I am a restless sleeper, so they have learned to sleep away from me.)

The residence style places are the best ones for taking pets....and yeah, if your cats aren't use to travel, it may be important to give them stretch options (you can train a cat to go on cue, just like a dog, using a clicker....had to for my well-traveled cat...lots of flights with transfers.)

If you can figure out how to get to pet friendly hotels in the same chain/corporation, you can sometimes make discount deals through central office.

 

[lazyjayn]

Also, most super 8's and some motel 6's allow dogs/ other pets. You can drop by one near you and pick up a little book with all the locations, which will also have pet info. Or you could just be bad and sneak them in.

Personally, I tend to do the "Is it cheaper to move it, or sell it and pick up 'new' stuff" thing. My last (non local) move ended up being a backpack, golfclubs (wrapped in socks and thin stuff) and a bike(padded with some clothes). Since then I've added a mattress, end table, and a ton of food/ kitchen stuff. The move before that was a back pack and two duffels, I think, and the one before that was a car load of crap.

-j.

 

[robeezy08]

I moved from Vermont to California a couple of years ago (and in all likelihood will be moving from Cali to Iowa this summer). I spent more than $1000 in gas (BUT I drove my truck and trailer with my 2 horses across the whole country...gas prices were also cheaper). I drove 12-14 hours per day and did the trip in 5 days. The best way to decrease the cost of your trip is to make it in as few nights as possible. Also, do you know anyone along the way that you can stay with for the night rather than getting a hotel? If you will be stopping at hotels, be sure you book them ahead of time (and that they allow pets). My vet told me that if my cats were really upset and stressed, I could give them a half tab of benadryl (I didn't need to do that, but I had some with me just incase). I think it's a good idea to bring along some food in a cooler for breakfast/lunch/snacks, but after a long day of driving, it is nice to sit down to have dinner at a restaurant. Finally, if you have AAA, they will print off a personalized map with truck stops/detours/etc marked (it's free for members and they had one ready for me with 2 or 3 days notice). Good luck!

Couldn't have said it better! 2004 I traveled from CA to Philly and in July will take the trip back again. I drove a truck - me, my sister, my cat and dog (<25lbs) - and stuffed everything in the vehicle. BTW, your car will be heavier so keep that in mind when traveling. If you haven't done so, get your cars checked out. Depending on your route, you'll be traveling through desert regions so your radiator/AC/tires/oil and whatnot should be given a clean bill of health. When traveling w/ animals, def make sure the AC is working b/c they can get very stressed in the car. I've got costs for my trip somewhere; will find it and get back to ya.
OK good luck!