Long distance storage/moving suggestions? (New York)
I moved cross country last year and my friend offered to store 22 small boxes in her basement. Family photo albums, equipment, hard drives etc. She is now moving! And I need to find a new home for my stuff. Any suggestions? I live in a small one bedroom apartment in Oakland and may not be here for more than a few years, so I can't accommodate it here. Also a single parent so flying back to New York to handle all of the stuff seems expensive and exhausting with a 3 year old. Does anyone have very affordable ideas for how to handle this? Has anyone recently researched the rates? Know reliable movers/freelancers for a one day/one medium sized car job (I did it all in one trip on my own last time). Should i just put it into storage in New York? I travel more to Boston and Maine, is storage cheaper there? Is pod storage even affordable? I don't need to access it often but could scale it back if it were somewhere I was traveling more often. Any suggestions? Thank you! Seems like there are endless options so hoping someone has researched it recently.
Parent Replies
I would look into Gentle Giants Moving for BOTH if you want to have items shipped, or if you want to have them stored. GG has helped me with I think 6 or 8 moves, starting from 2011 all the way to 2023, the last move being international. They have a few offices around the country, NYC being one of them. I have dealt with the SF, Seattle, and Boston offices and everyone we've encountered working for Gentle Giants have been competent and nice.
If you want them to do the move, they can take care of everything. They can pick up the boxes from your friend, repack if needed, and get it on a truck and shipped to you.
If you want to store them, ask if the NY location offers storage. The SF location that we worked with had paid storage that was a better deal than Public Storage. To give you an idea, we stored a 2-bedroom (approx 1100 sf) apartment worth of stuff with the SF branch, and it was $470/mo.
You can also look into using USPS to ship the boxes. As long as it's taped and secured and does not contain hazardous materials, the USPS will accept and deliver. This is probably the cheapest option for moving, but with potentially some risk to your boxes.
Public Storage would be my ABSOLUTE LAST choice. They lure you in with a $0.99/month deal, and tell you you need to have insurance (so either get your homeowner's or renter's insurance policy to cover the unit, or you have to buy theirs). We used them, bought their insurance, and our unit along with half the units on the same floor were broken into over a weekend, our lock was cut and stuff stolen and tossed into the hallways, and the staff had a good idea who did it (every customer has a unique code for access the building), but they didn't have concrete proof because there are no cameras, so we were SOL. And then every half year or so they shamelessly raise the rent.
I would offer to pay your friend who has the boxes to go through them and donate,throw away and then send you the items you really want.You will be wasting a lot of money storing items and might even be cheaper to just rebuy a lot of it if you even actually need them.
I used Veteran Movers to pick up boxes at my son's small apartment in Chinatown (NYC) and store it all in a small storage pod that they keep. Why not give them a call and discuss what it would cost to pick up and store for you at their facility? Good Luck!!
PS you could also have them take it to Boston or Maine ... but storage fees might not be that much less there once you factor in the moving part.
Veteran Movers Inc.
Phone # 718-383-8400
www.veteranmoversnyc.com/