Today, I’m going to talk about our move to Colorado. It kind of popped up out of nowhere but now we are right in the middle of it all. I can’t believe how quickly everything is moving along and I am extremely excited.
Out of all of the moves we’ve done, this one is definitely the largest. We’ve moved a few times now, but they have all been fairly cheap and short distance moves.
However, after collecting, hoarding, and buying things over the last 5 years, we have many more items to move this time around. Even if we were just moving across town it would be difficult with all of our stuff.
Moving to Colorado will be our longest move as well as our most expensive. I’ve heard of people spending over $10,000 moving, and that is something we didn’t want to come anywhere close to.
Below are some updates for our move to Colorado, including our moving expenses and what’s left on our moving checklist.
Related:
Moving supply costs.
Moving supplies weren’t as expensive as I thought they would be. I highly recommend you shop around, as I found widely varying prices for moving supplies.
For instance, many moving companies charge around $5 per box, whereas places like Home Depot and Lowes charge between $1 to $1.50 per box. There are also moving box sets that usually end up being a better deal, such as with this one.
We also bought bubble wrap and lots and lots of tape. Our total cost for moving supplies was around $100.
We could have completely skipped any costs for moving supplies if we would have looked around though. You can often find free moving supplies on Craigslist, at stores, and so on. We would have gone this route but I will be honest and say I was a little lazy since the move sprung on us very quickly.
The cost of moving to Colorado.
Up until last week, we were set on renting a moving truck and trying to figure out a way for everything to work out. However, things just weren’t going to happen that way.
Our main problem is that we have two cars and a moving truck to bring to the new house, yet there are only two of us. And this is why we didn’t think a company such as UHaul or Budget would work for this specific trip.
Yes, we could tow one of the cars behind a moving truck, but we need a fairly large moving truck for all of our things. Towing a car behind it on such a long move (over 1,000 miles) and through steep mountains just seems like too much for us.
Then, Wes’s dad the other day said the company he works for uses UPack to move their employees, so I decided to look them up.
After debating for some time, we made the decision to use UPack for our moving to Colorado needs.
UPack was the easiest and cheapest option for us. UPack is a company that moves your stuff for you. They drop off a moving trailer at your home, you load it up, they pick it up a few days later, then they drop it off at the location you are moving to. They handle all of the actual moving, which is exactly why we chose them. We can make the whole 15 hour trip with only stopping one night, but I know if we drove a moving truck ourselves then it would require much more planning, more stops, and possibly even paying for car shipping because we would have to find a way to bring our second car to the new house.
Going the UPack route is pretty similar in pricing to renting a moving truck as well, and much cheaper than hiring a full-service moving company. I priced out several rental moving truck companies and once I priced everything out, it was very comparable to the pricing that UPack gave me. This is because once you factor in the extra lodging, the higher gas costs because we would have to drive a moving truck, insurance costs, and more, renting a moving truck quickly added up.
A UHaul moving truck rental would have been around $2,500 including the rental truck, insurance, gas, etc. Then, we would have had to still pay for extra lodging and somehow still transporting our second car to Fruita as well. I’m assuming that would have made our moving cost somewhere between $3,000 to $3,500 for the extras. The UPack expense from St. Louis to Fruita is $3,000, so it was an easy choice for us since it meant much less work on our end and a much safer way to move.
My Moving Checklist.
Moving to Colorado hasn’t been as stressful as I originally thought. While there are many things we have already completed on our moving checklist, everything seems to be going smoothly even with all of the tasks that are left. If you need a thorough moving checklist, UPack has one that I found very helpful.
What’s left on our moving checklist:
- Arrange for the drop off of the moving trailer at the new house (and pickup a few days after). This is one of the more important things on our moving checklist because I need my stuff, of course!
- Turn the internet off at our Missouri house. We’ve already cut cable.
- Confirm with moving truck unloaders about what time they should be at the new house. Since it’s only me and Wes (and I am extremely weak), we need someone to help us bring all of our heavy furniture into the house.
- Wait for Charter internet at the new house. Yes, this is getting installed within the first hour of moving into our new house. After spending all of that time actually moving to Colorado, I will need internet quickly set up so that I can continue working. I just can’t go without it!
- Notify companies of our move. There are still a few more places we need to inform, such as our car insurance company, our bank, and more.
- Run through the house one last time. Before we move, we need to run through the house and make sure nothing is left behind and we also need to make sure it’s perfectly clean too for the home sale.
- New driver’s license. We also need to license our cars.
- New health insurance. This is the last task on our moving checklist but also very important. Our current health insurance is only good at certain Missouri healthcare providers, so we definitely need this.
How much did your last move cost you? How did you try to save money? Are we crazy for moving to Colorado at the last moment? Is there anything I am missing from my moving checklist?
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We are actually moving across the country soon, and we are using UPack as well. I’m glad to hear about your experience, as I have not heard much about that company. My husband’s new company is paying for our moving costs so essentially we will not be too affected, financially. Good luck!
Awesome! Good luck with your move 🙂
Looks like you go the job done even though you probably didn’t feel like you would make it at the time we had just moved not too long ago was not a long distance but still had to own 2 houses for 2 years and have 3 kids under the age of 10 so it was not easy but I am still alive to talk about it like you LOL
Haha glad you made it work Linda 🙂
OMG! You guys are so organised. Kudos to you! 🙂 🙂
We thought our last move would be cost-effective ‘cos we were only moving within the the same parish into a bigger house, but we spent a lot of time over it as we were moving into our new home within a fortnight! Everything took place a little quicker than we expected LOL! And what with work committments and the international school for our son which was at the end of the city, we ended up packing at night and soliciting friends to help us whenever they could. They did!
We live in Germany, moving isn’t as cheap or as simple as it would be in the States. We hired a van, bought, borrowed and begged for boxes, re-painted and renovated the old place as well as painting and putting in a new kitchen into the new place! We hired a guy for the painting but did the renovations ourselves. In Germany, houses are completely and utterly empty so we had to go shopping for furniture as our present home is twice the size of our old one!
As for contacting the relevant offices as to address changes. That was a nightmare. Everything has to be changed: electricity, gas, TV licences, post, insurance, banks. Everything. All within two weeks. It normally takes 6 weeks! I’m not hoping for a next time until our son graduates and then we’ll hire a company to do it all for us.
We spent about €4,000 or $4,500.
Yes, changing all of the addresses has been a lot of work. We still have a few more left 🙁
How exciting! Good for you guys for getting gutsy and taking a chance. P.S. Love how internet is one of your top priorities;-)
Haha of course it is!
Upack sounds awesome. Sometimes reduced stress is worth paying for, and this sounds like a great example. I’m surprised you have to change health insurances. It had never occurred to me that this might be necessary with moving, but since you mentioned it, it does make sense. Thanks for bringing that up!
Yep, it’s something I wish we didn’t have to deal with though.
The UPack sounds like a good deal. My last move (600 miles) cost me about 1500 (Uhaul rental, 600 for two guys to load the truck, and gas). I made the move alone so I had to tow my car behind the Uhaul truck (their longest model) through mountains …and the trip wasn’t too bad. If I had known about UPack I may have gone that route.
That doesn’t seem too bad. Our move was a little over 1,000 miles and not having to drive a rental truck made it much easier.
I don’t remember the cost of our move 3 years ago. But I do remember shopping around and interviewing several movers. We went with a moving company for two reasons: 1) We had to store our things for about 2 weeks before we could move into our new home. 2) We are in our 60s and did not want the physical exertion of loading and unloading. We did most of the packing ourselves, but had the mover pack the kitchen and good china. We reduced the cost of the move by getting rid of lots and lots of stuff–furniture we didn’t want, the old appliances. We made a little money for the move from garage sales. And I got most of our packing boxes free from Freecycle.
Hiring movers is something I think I will always pay for in the future. It just makes things so much easier!
Moving is one of my least favorite things in the world. I think you’re absolutely doing the right thing by not driving your own moving truck. Good luck with all the last-minute details!
Thanks Amy!
Since we moved over 10 years ago, I don’t remember many of the specifics but we moved just one town over and rented a uHaul. We also had friends help us load and unload. Life was much simpler back then so there wasn’t a whole lot to move. Before that, we moved to Iowa using a uHaul and pulling our truck behind. We sold my car for the move. When we moved back, we used a service that sounds a lot like what you are using. It was cost effective and easy!
It sounds like you have it together! Good luck with the move!
Thanks Jayleen!
My brother lives in Colorado and I remember how many hidden costs there were to help him move!
It all adds up very quickly.
Yes, I would definitely look into UPack. They have been great so far!
I didn’t find any price differences based on moving company locations where I live or the town we are moving. And we decided to put our house on the market and see what happens 🙂
Yes, our house is on the market! 🙂
Good luck Jenna!
Wow… moving is so stressful. I moved houses this last Christmas and oh my, it was so tiring. I didn’t feel like it was the holiday season at all.
By the way, great blog. I started my blog about 7 months ago and i’m finding it so hard to get traffic. It almost makes me give up but then I remember why I started and I decide i’m not giving up.
Don’t give up 🙂 The first year is usually the toughest.