pick three and have them come and talk to you...

You have to weigh the cost of moving to the cost of selling your furniture and starting a new! I sold half of my belonging before moving lowering the cost substantially when I moved from Chicago during the pandemic. Give some thought to selling some of your more heavier items you really don’t need as this will go a long way to reduce costs for transporting . You can also go to UHaul and they will provide you with a proper size truck and packers!

Village mover in Fruitland Park and dont confuse them with The Villages Mover in Ocala which is a scam company. I dont know about their pricing for out of state but a move from TV to Ft Lauderdale was $2200 to pack up your entire house, dishes, knick knacks, furniture everything. The move itself was also $2200 and they will unpack, put all furniture together and they provide all boxes for free. Ithink it was way worth it. If you dont have alot of things, the packing price will be lower.

Ping me. Mgs@mgsnet.net

Thumbs way up for U-Pack
 

My wife and I recently moved from Cleveland, Ohio to TV and had a fantastic experience with U-Pack. They were extremely easy to work with, had friendly, helpful people in both Cleveland and Ocala, and most importantly, kept every promise. The trailer was delivered precisely on time. I was able to track its progress to Florida online. They gave me a guaranteed delivery date, and fulfilled it. A big added plus for me was that they allow motorcycles in the trailer, which saved me the additional expense of having to ship it separately. I give U-Pack an A+

USHip dot com, which I found on the UHaul dot com website. They broker your LTL (less than truckload) shipment to subscribing shippers who bid the job. You choose which bidder. Could be a couple of guys with a Penske rental, or a full service mover with some empty space on the truck, or a specialty hauler with empty space. We had good luck with three shipments, though one guy dropped off my table saw at the wrong location. He showed up a few weeks later with it.

If you’re game for moving yourself, and you have some reason to return to NE after you’ve unloaded at this end, check into price of u-haul rental with drop-off at the same location you picked-up. I recently rented a trailer to haul some things from Mass. Rental cost one-way to TV was over $1k. Alternatively, it cost about $300 to pick-up in TV haul it empty to Mass., and return with load / drop-off at TV. Good luck

I can't help you much with advice on moving companies and I'm not going to give you moving advice (like most of the comments above) but I just wanted to let you know that if you have a car that you need driven down here, that's what I do. I drive snowbirds, renters and just any car that people need relocated anywhere. You can put anything in your car and I will usually drive it here (or there) in a day or 2. I'm a fulltime Villages resident and if you want more information please call Tim @ 810-691-5085.

We moved down 20 years ago and only brought a few pieces of furniture that were my parents or hers plus some luggage with some clothing. If you have the money bring what you want but again and again you will do what this service to yourself if you don't donate everything up north first and just pack some luggage and some photos. PS there is so much used furniture down here already you can pick up some very nice buys at the thrift shops or buy brand new and make your wife happy

We have been professional vagabonds, having moved 27 times. The Navy and my second job (worked for a packaging manufacturing plant) moved us frequently. We have done major household van lines, pods and UHaul. With the latter 2, it is entirely on you to securely pack all the items. Four recommendations .... (1) rent many more packing pads than you think you'll need. They're cheap to rent but they will save your valuables and furniture from damage. The extras can be used to separate fragile pieces from the other furniture or the wall of the truck/pod. (2) If you purchase packing boxes, make sure they are "double-walled" cartons. If you do not know what they are, look at the cut edge on the flap. A double-wall has two distinctly corrugated (i.e., wavy) plies. A single-wall carton has only one. A double-wall carton is a bit more expensive, but is much, much stronger and protects your valuables better. When buying cartons, inspect each one. If you see a crease in the panel or a dent in a corner, don't buy that carton. Likewise, don't use previously used cartons. They are most likely damaged. Dents and creases significantly reduce the weight bearing capacity of the carton. The bottom carton in a vertical stack carries all the weight from the loaded cartons on top of it. You don't want it collapsing and damaging its contents. (3) When loading the truck or pod, place as many of the heavy cartons on the floor. Even the best cartons can collapse with too much weight on top of it and/or the thumping it takes over the road. (4) When stacking cartons, place the same size carton on top of the one below it, aligning the corners above one another. This isn't always possible but it is the best way to load them. If the carton is misaligned or a different size, the cartons above may cause the bottom carton(s) to collapse due to disproportionate weight distribution. Hope this did not scare you about self-moves.

Relative to professional movers, my wife and I were always at the truck and checked each piece of furniture and all boxes for their numbered stickers. We had our list, and the mover had the manifest. Then at the end, we compared the numbers against one another. You obviously want an exact match. (This helps with your insurance claim should a box of valuables or piece of furniture does not show up at the other end.) It also gives you an opportunity to check the coding for dings and scratches on furniture (get familiar with the coding symbols). In one move, we had just purchased a new chair. It was pristine. The mover's manifest was coded for 2 or 3 scratches. I contested the coding. They had a choice of unloading the truck to find the piece or removing the coding. They chose the latter. Lastly, do not ship any valuable jewelry or other expensive items. Pack them in your car, or rent a small trailer and tow it behind your car. In that trailer, pack boxes with a small amount of bed linens/pillows, kitchen utensils, pots, pans and dishes you may need to live in the house while waiting for the shipment to arrive.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I second that.

We pared down what we had to what we thought was the bare minimum before our move (mainly boxes and sundries as the house we purchased was turnkey), only to find that we had nowhere near the storage space that we needed to comfortably store our belongings when we got here. One of the reasons was the difference in homes: up north basements are common, and much of our stuff resided in our finished basement. Haven't seen many basements in Florida, and those huge walk-in closets get pretty small when boxes take up 2/3 of the space.

We used uhaul ubox and hired local packers on both sides of move, uhaul can supply the packers. They saved us $$$$ and did a great and timely job.

It’s expensive to move stuff to discard later. Why have an attic full of stuff your kids will throw away when you’re gone?🤔

UPACK was great and easy Saved a bundle of money

We also used U-Pac for our move from Nebraska and would use them again if we ever decided to move. Prompt, professional and did not price gouge us at all. you save alot by packing/unpacking yourself, but you can also hire day workers to do this. We were lucky to have strong kids and friends who helped us on the Nebraska end and 2 came with us for the drive to Florida to see our new home and help unpack.
As for new furniture we had no problem getting new living room/dining room, there are lots of furniture stores and also alot of second hand stores that sell nearly new also.

Good luck with your move, its a stressful time for sure but you will be happy moving to Florida- no more winters!