Moving Van Vs PODs
 

Good Morning Ladies! I sure could use some input about the pros & cons of moving with the POD system vs the moving van. We are moving from Atlanta to Mt Dora Fl where we will have to rent until our house is built. That will mean two major moves in 6 months. Has anyone used the PODs? Any advice on this whole moving thing would be appreciated!

I have used PODS three different times moving from IL to CO and was very pleased with them. Never any problems and they were very professional.

just ask about bed bugs. are their vans or pods cleaned, etc.

You have to decide how much work you want to do yourself. My main advice is to pack differently than you would if you were moving straight to your new home since you're renting for 6 months while it's being built. Pack the things you can live without for the 6 months really well so they can just stay packed. Label everything well and use color coding to mark things for storage.

What moving co have any of y'all used & were you happy with them. The cleaning question was a good one to ask & I would not have thought of it, thank you!!!

I work for a storage company, and would suggest that you buy the plastic mattress, sofa and chair covers. They run under $6 each, and are like huge plastic bags. Seal your mattresses and any upholstered furniture in these covers, close with a stong tape to make them airtight. This will keep dirt, dust, and unwanted little critters out of your furniture.

My best friend used a pod for moving from Chicago to Las Vegas a couple of years ago...the only thing I can really advise is to utilize the stabilizer holes attached to the walls...you can feed either a rope or clothesline across the pod after packing the front end. You can do this every couple of feet while filling to the front/back of the pod.
My friend had zero breakage/no shifting of the boxes due to this extra step.

You've gotten some good tips. I work for a storage facility which is also Oregon's largest independent Uhaul dealer. We rent the trucks, and also rent the Uboxes. (PODS).

When you talk about a moving van, are you talking about the semi trucks and trailers or a Uhaul/Budget/Penske truck?

Things to consider. The more your items are handled, the more opportunity for damage. After doing this job for the past nine and a half years, and being a trucker before that, I've learned that I would NEVER let my things go via the "big boys" aka, Allied, Mayflower, etc. To start with, unless you order (and PAY for) a "dedicated trailer" your things will be moved along with someone else's. Not only that, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen one of those trucks in a truck stop with someone's furniture and boxes out on the pavement while they transferred from one truck to another.

With a moving van (Uhaul, Penske, Budget, etc), you are looking at packing, loading the truck, driving to your destination, unloading into storage, and then when you find your home, loading back into a truck, driving to the new home, unloading and unpacking. Each of those steps has it's own potential for damage.

Choosing a POD or a Ubox (they're the same thing), you load the POD, they come get it, truck it to the location, store it, deliver it to your new home, and you unload it. Fewer steps, less potential for damages. It would be more expensive than a do-it-yourself with the Uhaul/storage/Uhaul/home, but IMO, would be worth it in the long run.

I can send you our company's packing/moving/storage tips if you'd like...PM me with your address. :)

I think Charlee gives you some good tips.

I've not used either system, but I had a good friend who recently moved. She used a POD, and the benefits I saw were that she was able to store a lot of stuff in the POD while her house was on the market, so she was able to present her house without clutter and valuables. Once the house sold, she packed the rest of her stuff, moved it, and was able to unpack the POD at her leisure, instead of cramming everything into her garage and unpacking everything in one day.

I used a pod for my last move and will use it again if I ever move again. My two favorite things were no lifting, you just walk onto the pod and being able to have it ahead of time so you can load the pod as you pack. Also with the pods, you can have them store it for as long as you need. So if you had a lot of things you don't need during the time you are renting, pods would store it and deliver it to your new home when you are ready for it. The only disadvantage I see is if you have a lot of stuff to move in which case it might be cheaper to use a mover or of course you could just rent two pods. They were very professional.