Moving cross country can be quite tedious and more so when you’re doing it for the first time. For first timers and inexperienced movers, moving can be quite expensive, here are some tips to help you move across the country easily and at the lowest costs possible.
Best Ways to Move across the Country
There are a number of ways through which you can move cross country, the best ways to move cross country in the United States are:
1. Trucking
If you own a car with a big trunk and don’t have a lot to move, you can save a whole lot by driving your stuff to your new location. If you don’t own a car or have a lot of stuff to move, you can employ the services of relatively cheap cross country moving truck companies such as U-Haul, Enterprise and Budget if you can afford their prices. Trucking works best if you are moving to a location not so far away from your current one.
2. Shipping
It’s easier and cheaper to ship everything if your new location is quite far from where you are moving from. The major problem here is the fact that you have to wait for a longer period than if you were to fly or truck your stuff, shipping might take as long as 1 full month so it might not be a good option if you are moving in a hurry. Popular cross country shipping companies include UPS, DHL, U-Box, uShip, Amtrak, etc.
3. Flying
If you have the money, you can fly some or all of your stuff through Air Freight companies such as UPS, DHL, FedEx and others. It is expensive but less stressful and you are assured of timely delivery.
4. Selling
If you don’t mind selling your stuff for low prices, you can choose this option. You can sell some or all your stuff easily online on e-commerce websites like eBay and Craigslist and move empty to your new location. This option is perfect if you don’t have a lot of valuable stuff, you can also sell stuff that you don’t need and move with only the valuable stuff.
You can also use a combination of any or all of these options to move depending on your needs.
Other ways include:
5. Using a moving container
6. Using a freight trailer
7. Having your new company pay
8. Using friends and family members
9. Finding discounts
Cheapest Ways to Move across the Country
One of the cheapest and best ways to move cross country is by flying with airlines that have low charges for extra luggage, some Airlines such as Virgin America allow up to 10 bags weighing 50lb each at a fee of just $25 per bag while bags weighing over 50lb/22kg are billed at $50 per bag. Driving yourself is also very cheap as mentioned earlier.
Another cheap way to move across the US is by using very cheap cross country moving companies such as the ones mentioned below.
Cheapest Cross Country Movers
1. uShip
uShip is an ecommerce website which offers users the ability to ship anything through a bidding process and offers very cheap prices using the services of private movers.
To use the platform, visit uship.com, register and create your package for bidding (a list of everything you want to ship), enter the location you want to ship from and the location you want to ship to e.g. Florida to New York.
Listing is free but you have to wait for up to 14 days to get a bid from a shipping company, there is an $8 Priority listing option which enables you get shipping bids faster.
However, you have to be careful when using the uShip service because the private movers are not recognized companies and as such even though they might offer the lease expensive cross country moving services, a lot of things might not turn out as good as if you use a trusted shipping company.
2. BusFreighter
BusFreighter is a cross country moving company which offers to ship a whole room full of stuff from New York to LA for just $160. The only disadvantage is that it moves only items in boxes so you cant move large items such as furniture or vehicles with the service.
Have you moved cross country before? Please share your experience and tips to help others.