a few yrs ago i used College Hunks hauling Junk. they charged me $100.00 to haul off two old recliners. Long time later i found my trash pick up company would haul off one chair for $15.00. Anyway, a well known company would be my suggestion after you clean house a lot. give to charity, etc. Weight is the cause of most of the high cost of moving.

I have a lot of antiques and collectibles and I've always packed the china and small things and moved them myself. I hired North American to move the big furniture and they were outstanding. They moved all my antique furniture without a scratch. They were good to work with and worked very hard. I've used them twice for short moves and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I've never heard of any problems with large moving companies, but I have heard of a lot of people doing online research instead of talking to anyone and getting taken by a "company" that isn't licensed or even really a moving company. I stick with the large moving companies and check credentials when they arrive. I've always had good luck with my 3 moves in the last 20 years. Five if you count helping my mother move into and out of assisted living.

Also, be sure whoever you use it insured and bonded. If they are, you have recourse should anything go wrong. Insured companies will cost you more, but they're worth it.

"Two Men and A Truck" also get my vote. They moved us a year ago, full size house with 14 years worth of hubbys stuff and another crapload of stuff I brought from my house of 17 years. I loved not having to take everything out of the dresser drawers and stuff. They wrapped everything in saran wrap type stuff and moved them as they were. They were very efficient.....picked up really heavy items and walked them to the truck like they were paperweights. If I ever have to move again.......I will definitely use them again.

I agree. The biggest problem with just hiring a couple kids is that if they damage your tv or $1800 sofa, you're never going to see a dime. If you get someone who is bonded and insured, you'll have to file a claim but you'll be compensated for the damage.

From what many have said - the first thing to do is decide what you really want to take with you - and then get rid of the rest of the stuff.

Probably much easier said than done.

We moved less than 5 miles from home to home we found a local company that offered a a few different options. We chose to pack and label everything ourselves. They came in packed the truck drove it to the new home and unpacked it. I had gone through and put signs on the differnt rooms...and they unloaded each box into the proper destination, and placed furniture where I wanted it. It worked beautifully. With my company I could buy packing and moving supplies from them I did a few things that I wanted heavy duty protection for. All the other boxes I bought used from Craig's list and garage sales other I got from the home improvement store.

Biggest thing for us was to start packing very early and clearly label everything what room it went to for us anything without a label went straight to the garage. We also really looked at stuff do I love this? Will it fit in our new house? No to either of those questions it went into a garage sale anything that didn't sell went to good will...maybe I didn't make any money on it but atleast I didn't pay to move something I'm going to end up getting rid of anyway. We figure the money we saved on dr's bills and time off work was worth the cost of the movers...we recouped some of it by reselling all the moving boxes when we were done.

We've used Two Men and a Truck for single large items, like a piano or dining room set. For our big move (from one house to another a couple miles away), we used a national company. They provided all the boxes, and more boxes were available anytime I went over there and asked for more. They had specialty boxes for dishes and clothes, etc. I started a couple months ahead, going from room to room, filling boxes and stacking them. Got rid of a lot of stuff. I marked the boxes with their appropriate room, and then provided the house diagram the day of the move so all boxes ended up in the appropriate room. I don't recall how much it was, but it wasn't super expensive, probably around 800. We had one slightly damaged piece of furniture, but it wasn't a big deal to us.

My daughter has always used movers that come in and pack up everything for you. That would drive me crazy as things just end up in whatever box has room in it. The packing was semi-organized if your belongings were all organized, otherwise the remote control ends up in a box with bath towels and dirty laundry and stuff from the junk drawer.

We just moved recently and eventhough the company paid to move us i would recommend many tips others have mentioned.
1. Have a yard sale
2. Declutter as if you are having your house ready to show. Meaning pack early and get it out of the way.
3. Do not bring more stuff into the house than what is leaving. Ex. If you buy 5 bags of stuff at target 5 bags of old stuff needs to go out.
4. Start finding home for your plants. Amazing how much space they can take.

These days you can have someone pack you, then move yourself.
Or you can pack yourself, then have someone move you.
And, you can have estate sales type places come give you evaluations and bids for the items you can part with after all these years, especially if you are moving into smaller housing.

I moved self=packed a one bedroom house with no sofa, w/d, stove or refrigerator, from Austin, TX, to central VA, 7 years ago and the cost was over $2500. My father help with move financially, but I'd have felt it was worth every penny to have full, good help so I didn't have to exhaust myself at 62 years old.

Best to you.

Jan in VA

My friend used Graebel and was very happy with them. Not cheap but they packed attic and all cabinets and stored stufff in pods for a few months.