We moved from Atlanta to The Villages. We packed our boxes ourselves and hired a local moving service in Atlanta to load our U-Haul rental trucks. (We moved over a period of months and loaded two large trucks.) My husband drove the trucks and even hauled one of our cars behind the truck in the last move. We made arrangements with Mitchell Moving Service to unload our trucks in The Villages.
Mitchell Moving arrived on time, with at least three people and took two to three hours unloading each truck. They got paid an hourly rate, placed the furniture, assembled a couple of bedroom pieces, swept out our rental trucks, cleaned up the moving trash and in our last move took our empty boxes we had unpacked. We were very pleased with their services and their rates were quite reasonable.
Contrary to the sage advice to come with no furniture and buy everything in FL, we brought a full household with us. (We had floor plans and good measurements, and, prior to the move, we did sell off pieces that knew weren't going to fit into the new house.)
The best thing we did was find a professional moving company at the front end (in Atlanta) that took great care in loading our truck and wrapping our large furniture in plastic and moving blankets. Each truck was packed tight like a geometry puzzle, using every nook and cranny. They packed the trucks as if they were moving the goods themselves, which meant the load was evenly distributed and there was no room for shifting around.
We bought insurance from U-Haul while making the truck rental arrangements.
This moving method was cheaper for us than PODS or having a full service mover. You have to be comfortable to drive the truck yourself, but this was a good exchange for us, doing none of the lifting, plus we were in possession of our property at all times.
It all turned out perfect. Nothing was broken and we could even get the cars into the garage when we were finished!
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