I’m moving stuff from the east coast to the west and I don’t wanna go broke doing it

When we moved cross country, we sold everything we could, stuffed our minivan with essentials, and shipped about 20 large flat rate boxes of special items & keepsakes.

the more stuff you have, the more it cost to move.

if you are driving, rent a trailer from uhaul or try to fit everything with trailer carrier and rooftop box?

If it’s small enough to fit in a minivan, are you able to tow a small uhaul trailer? Usually cheaper than the full truck anyway. If not, PODs-type boxes can be a good idea and fairly cheap. I moved cross country a couple years ago and I think we paid $2k for 2 boxes through Uhaul, but it also meant we didn’t have to tow anything. Fit a 2 bedroom apartment in 2 boxes, so a 1 bed/studio might fit in one.

Really, moving cross country is unfortunately hard to do frugally, and flat rate boxes are out of sight now. I think the mediums (what used to be small) are like $20, and the larges (old mediums) are like $30. They fit hardly anything, so unless you can significantly pare down your items, you’re probably looking at a few hundred dollars in shipping, and potentially broken items, which happened to my sister who shipped fragile items cross country.

You could also look into renting a van/SUV one-way from Enterprise et al, or even a box truck from Budget or Penske, sometimes they have specials on one way rentals if they really need to move a vehicle. Somebody else might have driven something one way to your area, and they’ll discount your rate so they don’t have to pay someone else to drive back.

Did you try a pod? The price for most of the shipping methods I looked at was insane for only a 12 hour drive.

Towing will be cheapest option.
– Rent a trailer from uhaul.
– Buy an enclosed trailer, move, sell trailer when done.

When I moved east to west I rented a U-Haul and it was expensive. When I moved west to east I bought a car, sold everything, and crammed everything I didn’t want to sell in it. When I got to where I was going I sold the car for more than I paid for it.

Sell off, move, replace from FB market place.

ABF moving is cheaper than pods. Used them for long distance twice… Tape out a space equal to the pods in your house, organize all your boxes of stuff into that space, so you’ll know it fits. Hire movers to come and pack the pod for you.

My real estate agent told me to get rid of everything when we moved half way across the country, and we didn’t. He told us that’s what his family did, it’s not worth moving it. We got rid of a lot but moved so much stuff still.

Honestly, a few years after we moved we basically got rid of most of the furniture and so much stuff as we moved yet again!! It was really stupid not to listen to him in the first place.

Amtrak will also let you ship things that are luggage-esque, even if you are not traveling yourself. Suitcases/duffel bags, etc. Back in the day, my dad would use jute twine to tie carrying handles on boxes up to the UHaul definition of a medium sized box. Just like with suitcases, strategize the contents so that you don’t exceed 50 lbs per item. It’s been *mumblecough*decades since I last did this, so definitely check to see how this compares with the UPS per suitcase price mentioned in another comment.

If you pursue the LTL freight shipping option, palletizing things is likely the most cost-effective.

The frugal secret to obtaining actual pallets is to find the warehouse where a local high-end furniture store assembles their products and loads their own in-house delivery trucks. Politely ask one of the warehouse workers (or at the Customer Will Call desk) when they aren’t engaged with another customer; chances are excellent that they are paying to dispose of perfectly good pallets, and they’d be happy to help you load a few into your wagon/truck/SUV.

Pro tip: If possible, avoid interacting with a furniture salesperson unless you have questions about items they actually sell – most are paid on commission and operate under surprisingly strict rules about whose turn it is to interact with the next customer. Your entirely-pallet-related conversation might consume their “up”, and they might not get another turn for *hours*, depending on what the store’s traffic flow looks like. If said warehouse is at a different location, the sales team might not even know how such things are handled (particularly if they’re new). The receptionist at Will Call isn’t almost-literally losing money talking with you and is more likely to have a useful answer readily available.