How to Save Money on a Move

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I started WalletOnFire to "get better" at saving money, optimizing investments, side hustling and having a healthy relationship with money overall. In 2014 I started building websites and online hustles for passive income and this snowballed into a media company. I write about things I have experience with & hustles that interest me!

Declutter Beforehand

Paying for an all-inclusive moving service seems easier, and it can be, but you could also end up just like me; carting around at least a dozen boxes across three moves and never opening them or even knowing what’s inside.

All-inclusive literally sends professionals to your home to throw anything and everything you own into boxes, and if you don’t declutter first, that includes stuff you really don’t need or want.

Pro tip: As soon as you know you are scheduled for a move, dedicate at least two weekends or weekdays each month to going through stuff and getting rid of it. Consider taking a load (or several) to your local dump.

If you can plan ahead of time, you’ll be surprised how much you don’t actually need to take with you, like:

Years of gifts you never even opened, let alone used
Old clothes you swear one day you’ll be thin enough to fit back into
Foldable camping chairs that you bought that one time you took a trip with extra people but have since been damaged (yet you hang on to them “just in case…”)
The items that may have been purchased for a specific area in your home, a specific place, but do not serve a purpose where you are moving

I’ve purchased things specifically for odd nooks or corners in older homes and apartments, and I was intent on taking them with me because I had paid good money for them. But I knew there wouldn’t necessarily be a place for them. After five moves I learned that if something was purchased specifically for a physical space in an old home, I should either leave it there as a gift to the new renter or owner, or dump it.

Get Lots of Quotes

With sites like MoveBuddha, you can compare quotes based on where you are going and the size of your house. I like this site because it doesn’t require you to enter your personal info before receiving a quote, so you won’t end up on a million call lists.

These quotes make it easy to see all of the different moving options available to you like PODS, DIY solutions where you rent a truck and drive everything yourself, or full service moving companies that help you from start to finish. If you have unique items that moving companies have to move separately or in a special way, like pianos or guns and ammunition, you can get quotes for those items as well.

Pro tip: When you reach out to moving companies after you get your quotes, full service or partial service moving companies that handle the packing, loading, and shipping for you will send someone to your house to do a walk-through. The quote you get after the walk-through is your actual estimate.

Why get lots of quotes?

Because the way you want to move can vary from one move to the next or based on your circumstances. Maybe you are pressed for time and you are looking for an all-inclusive service but you still want one that can handle your special requests without overcharging or maybe you are on a tight budget so your goal is to do as much as you can by yourself but still find affordable movers to drive your goods across the country.

Check on Accessibility

One of the things that greatly increases potential costs for a move no matter where you are going is if you have an elevator or stairs that they have to use.

I have friends who live in a condo and the condo association requires that anyone using movers has to put up notices and pad each of the elevators they are using. This means more time and resources from the moving company.

By comparison, those same friends can move their own goods and not have to pad anything.

Pro tip: If your current or new home has an elevator or stairs, negotiate the move so that you bring everything up or down yourself; this can save thousands as compared to having the moving company do it.

Be sure to check the accessibility for your new home and if possible, navigate the stairs yourself.

DIY What You Can

The last time I moved across the country I ended up ordering moving supplies at least six times.

Why?

Because I didn’t use a moving box calculator to estimate exactly how many boxes I would need for the sheer volume of junk that I possessed.

With MoveBuddha, you can also access a packing and moving box calculator that makes it easy to determine not just how many boxes you will need if you are trying to DIY your packing, but the volume and weight that those will likely contain so that you can get a more accurate estimate.

When and where you can, you will save a lot of money doing things yourself. This might look like:

Buying packing supplies yourself and packing up the majority of your goods so the moving company only has to show up and load them in the truck.
Investing in a POD where you are responsible for packing and loading/unloading at both legs.
Renting a truck and driving your goods to your new home yourself.
Buying a cheap car trailer and building a modified box on top so that you can haul your goods yourself (speaking from personal experience).
Buying a very old, very used moving truck from a rental car agency or a moving truck company, using it to haul your goods and then selling it when you get to where you are going (totally had family do that).

Pro tip: Check out packing company training videos on YouTube. You can find some really great content, especially from Canada, that serve as company training videos on how to properly pack an entire house as an employee. Watching those videos changed the way I packed things despite my decades of experience and not a single thing broke on my last cross country move as a result.

Consider PODS or Another Moving Container Company

PODS and similar offerings were my latest find. During my last move this is what I used and I (almost) couldn’t be happier.

Under normal circumstances it works like this:

Step 1: POD is delivered to your home and left for a set amount of time (usually 3 days)
Step 2: You box and load your goods.
Step 3: POD is picked up and driven to its destination where the process is reversed.

Pro tip: If you can, have your boxes packed well in advance, and sorted by size. Watch more YouTube videos on how to safely load a shipping container so your goods don’t go flying during transit; you are responsible for securing all your goods inside, not the company. Also, learn how to tie really good knots.

Now, I say I (almost) couldn’t be happier simply because the driveway and street were so steep that our shipping container wouldn’t fit. So, the company left the shipping container in their local shipping yard about an hour away which meant I had to drive back and forth to that shipping yard during normal business hours to load my personal goods instead of having the comfort and luxury of being able to burn the midnight oil as it were. That said, this was highly accommodating of them and it was, despite the gas money and travel time, a huge success.

I think shipping containers have a reputation for being a pricier moving option, but you might be surprised. Compare the cost of one with a few traditional movers for your next move. For certain people, it could save you some money and offer flexibility.

Drive Some of Your Goods

As mentioned, there are several ways that you can DIY your move to save money, one of which includes renting a truck yourself and another includes driving your personal goods in whatever capacity you can.

If you have a partner or spouse and only one vehicle, one way to save money is to rent a second vehicle with a towable trailer. You can spread your items out between the two vehicles and potentially avoid needing a larger moving service or only rely on the larger moving service for things like heavy furniture. This can make it possible to use a small POD for the furniture while everything else gets carted in your vehicles.

Pro tip: If you are renting a truck, bought a truck or trailer, or are otherwise driving some of your own goods to save money, avoid the weekends. Gas prices universally increase over the weekend, so if you can choose to drive during the week only, you will save money at the pump.

If you are choosing any route that involves driving some or all of your personal items yourself, take the time to plan this trip wisely. This means checking that you drive during the week, honoring that 55 mph speed limit if you are towing anything (I know, I know, it sucks and it’s time consuming and boring, but it will save you a lot of money on gas and save the health of your vehicle).

Pick Your Move Date

You can’t always pick your timing but if you can then opt to move in the fall or the winter when most people aren’t moving.

Military, for example, get put on a schedule and they either move in the spring or the fall and that’s basically the time of year they will move for the rest of their careers. So you don’t always have an option, but even if you can’t schedule your move outside of peak moving months, aim to schedule your move during the week.

You can use the weekend to declutter or pack your own boxes.

Pro tip: If you can, schedule your move for the time of year that no one really wants to move: winter. Moving in November will get you much lower rates as compared to September or October and will certainly yield better rates than moving in the summer.

If you are moving for a job, see if they can hold off on your start date until you get a slightly less expensive move quote.

Schedule Your Timing

Equally important is that you manage your timing so that it aligns with the delivery of your personal items.

There are a lot of moving companies, even PODS and other shipping container services that will happily hold on to your goods for you but it will typically come at a cost.

So, if you are trying to save money, make sure that no matter what you do your arrival date at your new home is before that of your personal items.
Pro tip: If you are using a POD or shipping container service, talk to them ahead of time about the delivery date; sometimes they will hold a container for free at their shipping yard if the difference is only a couple of days, and some will store it longer term for a fee.

Summing Up

You can save money in a lot of ways depending on how much effort you put into being frugal and the type of move you are doing. My top ways though are to absolutely start by decluttering and getting rid of as much as possible, and handling the packing yourself. You will save a lot of money by simply purchasing moving supplies and boxing up your own goods.

Once you have decluttered and you have a better idea of how many things you have, get quotes from a lot of companies.

If you can, consider a POD or other shipping container service where you load and unload your goods yourself, or try driving some of your goods on your own, especially if you can afford a rental truck or buying a used truck and then selling it at your destination.