Tips for Moving from the East Coast to the West Coast
Moving cross-country is expensive. With the cost of packing, shipping, and equipment, added with the additional cost of your sleep and sanity, if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself broke and exhausted by the time you make it to your new home. However, when done with adequate planning, a cross-country move can go according to plan.
Preparing for the East to West Coast Move
There’s nothing like starting a new life in a city far away from home. However, actually getting to a new city across the country will take some serious strategizing. Worried about your upcoming move to the West Coast? Whether you’re moving from New York to California or Massachusetts to Washington State, scroll down to check out four key tips to make your move as successful as possible.
1. Always Request Multiple Estimates
A lot of East to West Coast companies are nationwide chains. These companies tend to lowball potential customers on the first estimate. If the price is too low and too good to be true, you can be sure that it is.
On the other hand, your local moving company might also perform interstate moving services. In fact, most do. If you’re moving from the New York area, check out long distance moving quotes from Imperial Moving & Storage, Oz Moving, or Flat Rate – all provide moving services from New York to California and other West Coast cities. If you’re moving from the Boston area, try Stairhoppers or Pony Express Movers. If you happen to be making the shorter move from NYC to Boston, Imperial can help with that too.
When moving cross-country, you have to accept the fact that the move will be relatively expensive. While you should shop around for a good price, don’t take the lowest price possible. Companies offering the lowest prices shouldn’t be trusted with your valuables and will almost always misplace or damage your items.
2. Opt for an Exclusive Move
An exclusive move may be more costly but is generally the best solution to moving cross country. Short of driving all of your belongings yourself, an exclusive move ensures that the moving company of your choice transports only your items. With other moving companies, moving trucks will carry multiple loads, making it more likely for them to damage your belongings.
3. Most of Your Belongings Don’t Need to Make the Move
After the initial decision to make the trip across the country, you’ll need to make some hard decisions about what should stay and what should go. While you may feel sentimentally attached to certain things, when it comes down to actually making the move, you’ll soon realize that most of your belongings don’t need to make the 3,000 mile trip with you.
4. Consider Shipping Certain Items
Depending on the pricing of a moving company and how many boxes you plan to take with you, shipping some of your belongings may be another good option. Be sure to look at local shipping companies to get an estimate for shipping your items. Ideally, you’ll be able to simply fly across the country and have your belongings neatly shipped to your new home on the East Coast.
The best way to make sure your long-distance move doesn’t end in disaster is to tighten up your moving plan as much as you can. Use these four tips to help make your West to East Coast move as smooth as possible.