Originally published Nov 7, 2016
When we were planning our move of 1,500 miles across the country to go to law school, I looked into just about every possibility of getting our stuff from point A to point B. We weren’t surprised that a full service moving company was out of our small budget. As frugal DIY-ers, we didn’t mind doing it ourselves.
I got various estimates for one-way rental trucks, thinking they would be the most economical. In addition to the rental price, I made sure to estimate the fuel cost. At less than 10 miles per gallon, those gas-guzzlers are expensive to drive!
While we were willing to do whatever method was cheapest, we also considered reliability and convenience as we made our decision. We wanted to drive together if at all possible. We had a 9-month-old baby at the time and the idea of driving across the country separately was not an attractive option.
We also didn’t want some fly-by-night moving company running off with our stuff.
I was surprised (and thrilled) that renting a one-way moving truck and driving it ourselves was not the cheapest option. As it turned out, the cheapest option in cross country moving was also the most convenient and reliable. Let me explain!
We went with U-Pack, which we now consider our secret weapon to saving money on long-distance moves. After our very successful first cross-country move with U-Pack, using U-Pack again for our 2,000 mile move after law school was a no-brainer.
I’m excited to tell you about our experience with U-Pack. It was definitely a money (and sanity) saver for us.
U-Pack basics
I’ll get into more detail in a minute, but in a nutshell, U-Pack delivers a trailer to your home and you load it up within three business days. The driver picks up the trailer and drives it to your new location where you have up to three business days to unload it.
The obvious perk here is that you don’t have to drive a cumbersome, gas-guzzling moving truck. Since we were traveling such a long distance, it was really nice to be able to drive together in our car and stop along the way.
The less obvious (but equally awesome) perk is that you get (and only pay for) the perfect size. No over-estimating the size of truck you need and over-paying. No underestimating and running out of room.
It really is the best of both worlds– the affordability of DIY with the convenience of not having to drive!
How U-Pack works
The process is smooth and simple. It goes like this:
–> They deliver a 28-foot trailer or a 6 ‘x 7′ x 8’ Cube (or several Cubes) to your residence.
Pro-tip– ReloCubes are perfect if you live in an apartment or somewhere that a trailer would not fit. The Cubes fit in a normal parking space! You can get a quote for them just like you would for a truck.
–>You have up to 3 business days to load it.
Pro-tip— If you want more time for loading, order the trailer on a Thursday or Friday, so you get the weekend days included for free.
–>You tell them when you’re done and a driver will come take it away.
–>Professional truck drivers bring your trailer to your new location.
Pro-tip-– If you haven’t found somewhere to live yet, don’t worry. You can just tell them the city to deliver it to and you can update the address when it’s time to be delivered. (That’s what we did!)
–>You have up to 3 business days to unload.
–>You also have the option to store your trailer or Cube on a monthly basis.
Pro-tip-– This isn’t an economical long-term storage option. If you need to put stuff in storage, you can have your trailer delivered to a self-storage place. That’s what we did after law school when we weren’t sure if we were going to rent, buy, or live with the in-laws.
How much does it cost?
The price for moving with U-Pack depends on where you are going and how much space you use. You can get a quote online really easily. All you need to enter is where you’re leaving from, where you’re going, and what size residence you have.
They have calculators to help you estimate the amount of space you’ll need.
Don’t worry if your estimate is off. It’s mostly for your own budgeting purposes, as the actual amount you pay will be determined by the actual amount of space you use in the trailer.
All quotes include a price per foot that will either be added to or subtracted from your quote if you end up using a different amount of space.
There is a minimum or base price for using 5 feet of trailer space. That number is clearly indicated in your quote.
Is your stuff safe?
Your stuff is absolutely safe. They always bring a completely empty trailer. After you have packed all of your belongings, you put up a wooden barrier wall (that is provided) to block off all of your stuff.
No one else’s personal stuff will be in that trailer. The “wall” that you install after loading your stuff will remain in place until you remove it at your destination.
After your things are loaded and the wall is installed, the truck may be loaded with other freight that has a similar destination (never another household), which is why U-Pack can offer such affordable rates.
The only concern with the safety of your stuff is how well you pack it.
Making U-Pack Even Cheaper
My number one tip for keeping your cost down is to pack that trailer strategically! And of course that starts with packing your stuff well in the first place.
If you think packing the car for a family vacation is fun or enjoy a good game of Tetris, you’ll love packing your U-Pack trailer. I think my husband secretly loves this task.
With U-Pack you only pay for the space you use, so the less space you use, the less you pay. It’s like a game to us to see how little space we can use in the truck.
With our move out to law school (as a family of 3 living in a 1-bedroom apartment) we estimated that we would need 8 feet of trailer space and ended up using 9 feet.
After law school (as a family of 5 living in a small 3-bedroom house) we estimated that we would need 14 feet of trailer space and only used 13 feet.
In order to use fewer feet of trailer depth, you need to pack high! Plan to pack from floor to ceiling. As you can see in my pictures, a ladder was an important packing tool. For size reference, my husband is 6’7″!
My husband likes to start with uniform size boxes that stack nicely and then end with our mattresses creating a wall before the wall.
There are convenient tie-off loops all the way through the truck, so my husband would tie off the load periodically so that nothing would move in transit. As you can see, he is pretty amazing. Our loads arrived just how they left thanks to his mad packing skills.
Pay less and stress less
Not only were we paying less with U-Pack than if we had rented a one-way moving truck, we were comfortable on our cross-country journeys. In fact, we look at them more as family vacations than moving trips.
All in all, we were able to relax more and stress less about our moves thanks to U-Pack. If you have a long distance move coming up, I whole-heartedly recommend U-Pack (my real-life friends can attest to that!).
How about you?
- What’s your biggest struggle with big moves?
- What do you look for in a moving company?
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Hi! Did you have to buy some sort of rope to tie your stuff or does it come with that?
It is rope we already had. The trucks don’t usually come with rope, so you’ll want to get some.
Did you have washer, dryer, frig and any patio furniture?
Hi Nancy! We included the major appliances like the washer, dryer, and fridge with the sale of our house. We did bring our chest freezer with us. We sold our patio furniture before we moved.
How long does it take for them to drive the trailer to your new destination? Can you specify a time 3-4 weeks out or does it have to be more quickly?
Hi Kristel! You can, but there is a storage fee (per month) for storing the trailer. They also have an option that is like PODS, but much more reasonably priced. It’s called relocubes. That might be a cheaper option than paying to store the trailer, which can get expensive because it ties up one of their trailers for a month. I would get a quote for both the ReloCubes and the Trailer + 1 month storage. When you get your quote they will give you an idea of the time frame, too.
We’re moving over 700 miles in about 6 weeks (with two kids, a dog, a cat and my huge 7 month pregnant belly). We were planning on renting a truck but this is actually cheaper. My problem is that we live in a… Well… Not-so-nice area… And I know its going to take us a couple days to load up so dh was planning on driving the truck to my parents house overnight (a much safer area) and then bringing it back the next morning to finish packing… My question is, is this securable overnight while you’re packing it?
Your tips are useful. I think moving with helps movers is better than our self. These tips are really helpful for me. I appreciate the efforts you people put in to share moving tips and tricks blogs on such kind of topics. Keep Posting!
We moved from a small Northern California town to the MidWest. There were no U-Pack places nearby; but I did price them out…definitely a positive choice. One of my things we did to save money was put all the camping stuff in last, along with a cooler, and we camped to our destination…not always pretty either!! But we made it.
Money and stress are two factors that are usually involved during the course of relocation. But still there are plenty of opportunities to cut down the moving cost . Some of the tips for saving money on long distance move are given below.
1)Schedule the move wisely, that means choose the right time to move by avoiding the crowd.
2)Go for frugal moving options which includes finding affordable mover, consolidate the shipment etc.
3)Book the moving service as early as possible.
4)pack wisely by optimizing space and materials. Etc.
Your blog also tells about some money saving ideas on log distance move which I find very useful. That is why I am appreciating your blog.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Terminal to Terminal option! Perhaps it isn’t always available, but we recently used the Relo-Cubes to move across the country and the cheapest option was to load the cube at one of ABF’s transit centers and unload it at the transit center closest to your destination. Obviously this would require a truck rental at either end, but the savings can be considerable! We were moving from Colorado to Florida, and the cost for a single cube door-to-door was about $1800 and the cost to use the transit center was $1100.
I hadn’t seen this option on their website; it wasn’t until they emailed me my quote that I saw the terminal-to-terminal option.
I’m glad you brought that up Casey! The terminal to terminal (or just doing the terminal on one end) was an option with our quotes (and always a great price). We always opted for the door-to-door, though, because hauling our stuff across town (think piano, computer desk, several beds, etc) and then packing it up again didn’t sound like much fun. However, if you have a small household and don’t have lots of furniture, then it would be a great option and would save even more money! Thanks for sharing!
Ah! Wish I’d heard of them before we just moved across the country. I will keep this in mind for next time! We calculated the cost of moving in one of our posts and it honestly makes me feel sick. Glad to see companies like this fulfilling this need for cheaper, easier moving.
Yes! Moving can be expensive and a huge hassle. I’m so glad we heard about U-Pack when we did. It was seriously the best!
What a great resource! I wish I had known about this when we made our move from California back to Colorado. That was expensive, long, and cramped!
They are great! It was nice to only drive with the stuff we wanted to have with us and it was super nice to drive together!
This is so cool! We have not had to move anywhere long distance, but I will totally be keeping this in mind if we do. It definitely beats packing your stuff into your own cars and driving them across town about 30 times if you are just moving locally.
I think they only do long-distance or inter-state moves actually, at least with the trailers. You might be able to do local moves with Cubes though.
We used U-Pack for our move to law school too! The only thing I would add is that we had to get a permit to have the trailer parked on our street (you know how picky parking police can be in California!). But once it was there, it worked out really well!
Good point Jenni! We moved from a house to a house, then from a house to a storage unit, so we didn’t have to get any permits, though we obviously had to let the storage place know that the trailer would be coming.
That’s fun that you used U-Pack with your law school move too! 😉
We’ve never done a long distance move before, but when we recently moved, we found that even two men and a truck were really expensive. We ended up going with a local mover and ended up saving us a lot of money, plus they did all the heavy lifting for us! They brought everything down from our third story apartment and up to our new third story apartment. I would use them again in a heartbeat!
Oh man! A third story apartment! That’s rough!