Hiring a few extra helpers to load up the U-haul at one end, and then unload it at the other end, I can see! But I've never been more than the length of a van from my stuff during a move, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
So I hired a moving company. Boy, I will never again move myself. Best service I could imagine. Everything done in half a day. No bothering of friends and relatives. No heavy lifting at all for me. Everything insured, so if something breaks, it will be replaced. All furniture in place in the new appartment. And it wasn't that expensive after all.
I guess it is fine while you are still young and poor, and have few possessions. But as soon as you can afford it, you should pay the professionals to protect your friends from harm.
My wife worked for a company who did this. The packers were dedicated packers, it's what they did. The movers were dedicated movers, moving boxes and large furniture. They were able to do things we wouldn't have thought of - protecting corners and doorways. They also had all the equipment they needed to move heavy/awkward stuff.
I'll personally never move myself again - too much stuff that's still good and would cost too much to replace. And I'm getting too old to want to move a 3BR (aka 1 br and two offices) worth of stuff again. Standing desks are fscking heavy.
I’ll pack and move all my stuff as long as I can. U-Haul ftw.
For a move across the country? There is zero chance I'd trust someone driving an 18 wheeler; too many friends have had their possessions disappear for weeks on end in a warehouse. If I were under a restriction similar to yours, I would rather move the boxes into the truck myself, and pay for the extra time it would take.
One major one being that people don't/can't drive a massive truck to haul their possessions and would rather leave it in the hands of a professional.
Another one being that they're not driving to the place they're moving to, but instead taking a plane/boat/train/foot/bike to get there. Unless they charter private planes or boats, or pilot them on their own, it's a little unfeasible.
</satire>
Have you tried telling your friends that they can call you if they need help moving?
Any also unfortunately it can end in less than ideal circumstances: during our move from UK to Croatia 2 boxes went "missing", one I couldn't have cared less about (except for the cost of replacing it), the other box however had irreplaceable items contained within.
And before you say "Well, just sell it and re-purchase it!", I personally have so many items that I want to keep that are not re-purchasable, either due to being out of print, or due to being limited edition, that they would never fit into the checked baggage allowance I'd get on a plane.
this is what i do:
i hire the movers
i go to a restaurant to dine and work
i then go straight to the new location where things are getting unloaded
i even went on a 3 day trip once. i went to the airport and when i came back everything was moved to the new house.
this carried over to my cleaning lady. she almost always comes around when nobody's at home. the feeling that you get especially after a long trip coming home and everything's clean and tidy is priceless.
things like these are totally worth it imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0RX59G2jaA
Seeing their rigour and discipline is like a visual ASMR video.
I didn't really want to drive a U-haul that far towing the car, and worry about stuff getting stolen at overnight stops, we took the scenic route and spent over a week, we had to cut our trip short by a day when the driver called to say he was there already and would be delivering tomorrow.
It was a pretty painless process, we used a service that gave us a few quotes online, and the company we chose supplied all of the labor to load/unload and hired a smaller shuttle truck because the apartment complex we were moving into couldn't fit an 18 wheeler.
No real loss or damage, just a few scratches on a couple pieces of wood furniture, didn't even bother trying to make a claim.
We priced one of the storage pods (they drop a container off, you load it yourself, then they take it to your destination), but it wasn't much cheaper than the moving company and we didn't really had a convenient place to put the container.
I always used to move myself. I had a small Toyota pickup (hilux type) and my method was anything that didn't fit in the bed to allow me to move in one trip was tossed. That was my way of making sure I didn't accumulate too much junk.
Then I took a job halfway across the country and relocation was part of the deal.
They came to my apartment, packed everything up in a few hours, and put it all in a moving van and then drove my truck onto the van. I got on a plane and my stuff arrived a few days later and was put into storage until I needed it. The entire process was so seamless, that I'd happily do it again.
Living in a hotel for a month while my stuff was in storage really drove home the point that I really had no attachment to my "stuff." The only thing I missed was having my weights, so I got a temporary gym membership instead.
Getting sufficient boxes, tape, packing materials; wrapping items and putting them into boxes; loading boxes via elevators into a van, reversing the process; taking away all the packing materials ... so stressful and physically strenuous.
I'd throw money at that problem all day and all night.
In other countries it is pretty common to hire people to do your move. Even Japan does that. Or, don't bother with stuff and rent furnished places.
> all your worldly possessions to some unseen third party
You mean like those storage facilities where people lock (and abandon) their stuff frequently? Yes, I wouldn't ship valuable stuff with them, for the most part, your furniture and posessions are valuable (in practice) only to yourself.
And while help from friends is cool, they're not "free work" per se you know. And there's a limit. I'm not helping you take a 3-seater sofa down a flight of stairs, sorry.
But it's also pretty common here to think that if you can do something yourself, you probably should, and save the money. So most people think "I'll move my stuff myself" before either doing that, or looking at their stuff and deciding it's worth paying someone instead.
A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to help move. My wife and I helped him, but afterwards she said that she was never doing that again and that next time we'd just offer them some money towards the movers.
I didn't argue at the time, but I enjoy helping people move. It's a lot of work, which means it's good exercise, and you spend time with your friend on something that matters to them.
Also, I'm not sure how I'd offer that money without feeling like I'm looking down on them. It feels like a hand-out, not help. So I'll probably never do this, unless they straight up ask for money for a move.
I didn't understand why a friend with a good job wanted his friends to drag all his furniture across town and up 4 flights of stairs.
I'm invited to "help move" someone's stuff in September. He has booked movers, and says we'll drink beer while watching them unload, then have a party. That sounds like a good non-student version.