[jacRI]

Pods are the way to go if you are capable of loading yourself. Pack everything very tightly and use blankets and bubble wrap. PODs has takedown spots at midway points. Stood matress up to cushion and secured seperating space in half before adding remainder. Unless you absolutely love what you have bring as little as possible. They are spot on with their pickup and delivery. Nothing broken except a small dent on my toaster oven. My lock, my keys. Moved from RI in 2017. About $3000 if I recall.

[VickiF]

Originally Posted by bsloan1960

Quoted $7,000 to move approx 1200 square feet from Mass. to TV by a moving company. A Google search says to expect to pay $7-8,000 so this about right. I'm aware of PODS and Pack Rat but I don't want to get bombarded by emails and phone calls if I use their online quote tool.

So with the 1200 square feet and the $7,000 in mind, can anyone give me an idea of how much I will save using PODS or Pack Rat? Also- what would it cost to hire people to load and unload the container.

Thanks!

We used one of the Villages moving companies and it was just under $7000 from SE Pennsylvania, near Amish country in Lancaster. We packed ourselves. We’re so glad we did! Our buyers wanted our dining set with 10 chairs so I had to buy that here. Took 6 months to get it and it’s not the quality we had and was overpriced, but I do love it. We brought down everything else. Our bedroom suite was $5000 alone and I can’t imagine trying to replace it here with the same solid wood and craftsmanship we have. What we had works perfectly here but if your furniture is heavy, large, dark and dated, then I would consider just buying new. But - If you love it, bring it. You won’t replace a house full of furniture here for that moving cost. Best of luck!

[FREDDYD83]

Sell the old furniture buy new here . The old won't fit the new home .

[banksupply]

Sell EVERYTHING...furniture from your last home will not sparkle like buying new. I think for $7000 you can furnish one of our homes if you just know where to buy and it's all new an fresh. We brought nothing here and love the updated look of our place.

[jcreason5616]

Originally Posted by bsloan1960

Quoted $7,000 to move approx 1200 square feet from Mass. to TV by a moving company. A Google search says to expect to pay $7-8,000 so this about right. I'm aware of PODS and Pack Rat but I don't want to get bombarded by emails and phone calls if I use their online quote tool.

So with the 1200 square feet and the $7,000 in mind, can anyone give me an idea of how much I will save using PODS or Pack Rat? Also- what would it cost to hire people to load and unload the container.



Thanks!

Do yourself a favor and leave it all behind. We brought nothing and outfitted our whole home from silverware to beautiful furniture at the dozens of estate sales and consignment shops here in a few weeks time. Best thing ever.

[Rsenholzi]

Cost me $7000 - 7 years ago and the only furniture I brought down was a dining room table and a few end tables. The rest were boxes . Suggest you only bring what you actually use on a daily or weekly basis and buy new furniture when you get down here. Check out the thrift stores like Bargains and Treasures or Furniture Barn who sell practically new furniture. snowbirds rent their homes out and then sell the furnishings after they move her. Some even still have the tags on them . Then go to places like big lots who actually have some pretty good stuff . I bought a table and chairs for one room and everyone comments on how nice it is. I paid only $500 for the whole set - table and 6 chairs. If you want all new, then go to Altamonte Springs. There is an entire road that has every furniture store on it in one spot. It’s about an hour away and has a mall , Christmas tree shop ( got a great hand painted dresser from here) , and every other store you can possibly think of there

[Vivian Haberfeld]

This is about what I paid in 2021 for a half truck from NYC suburb to The Villages. Highway robbery I know.

[CALiz]

Save your money, don't spend so much on moving. We sold/donated all our old furniture. What we did keep, fit in a small pod. We got a storage unit up north and put the things we wanted to keep in it, as we emptied the house. A former co-worker needed furniture, and she bought most of my living room furniture, sold or gave to friends, and Habitat for Humanity truck picked up rest. We decided we would by "florida summer like" furniture down here and online. Before we moved down here, we got a storage unit down here in Florida, and furniture I bought online, we would ship to the storage unit. Before we were to drive down, we arranged for a mover to move and assemble everything in the storage unit in the house. We arranged for a POD to be delivered to our storage unit, loaded it ourselves, moving items in the north storage unit into POD, then we were there for the POD truck pick up. Everything worked great. Once down here, we shopped for what else we needed. We have a bright Florida summer feel (mostly white furniture, which we never would have done up north) to our new home and love it. Good luck.

[mikeycereal]

I sold all furniture and just stuffed my Accord with books, & dvds, family photos, 2 35 lb dumbbells, desktop computer, large screen tv, clothing, various other items. Over 100 1lbs.
Cost $1.2k for car move (Mercury Auto Transport) from Vegas to Brownwood hotel.

Paid under 3k for everything in my new home. Bought furniture and other household items from:

Amazon

Facebook Marketplace (great deals!)

Walmart

Sam's Club

Goodwill

Home Depot

Target

Dollar store

[damille]

Not sure if this will help as the info is old. We moved from RI to Florida in 2009 with the same housing description as yours.

We used Mayflower Moving and they used Hills Van Service of Marion County for the actual move as they are a Mayflower provider. (352-622-7101. We booked our move through Jenn Carpenter (agent code MO531) who is / was the national accounts coordinator. Not sure if she's still there.

Our estimate was around $6,800. Jenn was great to work with and the move went off on time and without a hitch. Mayflower carefully loads and then unloads the furniture. Surprisingly a few weeks after the move, we received a check from Mayflower for about $1,500 which was due an overage on their weight estimate. I never would have known if they hadn't sent the check.

I realize it's 14 years later and costs have gone up. But their refund check told me they were a good and honorable company to deal with. Hope your move goes smoothly.

[Eagle06]

$7,000 to move a 3 Bedroom Home? Sounds reasonable if they are packing everything, moving it to The Villages and Delivering it. We had a "VIP Move" (due to valuable artwork, etc.), and it was $18,000 for our household goods.

[mtdjed]

You get the benefit of experience in previous posts. We moved from Marblehead to The Villages 16 years ago from a 4 br 3500 sq ft plus an attic and full basement. Moved into a 2000 ft home with essentially no storage areas. We ended up with a single 16 ft POD and it was still too much. You seriously need to be real selective as to what you bring.

Clothes- We wear Bermudas all year round. Maybe 1 coat and several Jackets. Maybe 1 suit , several pairs of long slacks. No boots, few formal shoes, no gloves, scarfs, few sweaters/sweat shorts.

Carpets won't fit , match or be required. Pictures , wall hangings won't match. Perhaps time to dump some old mattresses/box springs. Huge clunky furniture should be discouraged.

Kitchen storage is limited. Several sets of dishes, glasses, cups, pots, pans, appliances etc should be limited to i set.

No huge garage collection of tools, be selective. I've gone 16years with no wheelbarrow , lawn mower, band saw etc. No big extension ladders needed.

We made several car trips before our final move. Brought card table , chairs, set of kitchen ware etc. Sleeping bags worked first few days and then bought new mattress and box springs (No Bed). Found some bargains while on these trips. Helped us decide what not to bring.

If you have old sofa's and furniture, make the hard decision to dump now.

Make the decision now. Sell what you can. Start with a new slate

[MikeVillages]

One scam that may happen is 3 days before the pickup in MA, they said they looked at a satellite map and our street is too small so they will have to unload the big tractor trailer truck and reload it onto a smaller truck. We told them that is not what the contract said and we insisted the key the original price. We live on a cul-de-sac and it was amazing to see that big tractor trailer back all the way back to the main road when he left. Some of a neighbors in TV said they fell for the same scam and pay the extra money to unload to a smaller truck.

They also stated our load was xxx cubic feet but my wife took pictures of the volume markers inside the trailer, send them the picture. They gave us a refund after the delivery for the volume incated by our picture.