planning our move - moving with a rental truck

As I said in the previous post, we used Penske for our first move as a married couple and had a really good experience.  It was a great deal, the truck was reliable and in good shape, and my husband (The Negotiator) got us a $100 refund for returning it early.

For our upcoming move to Utah this summer, we would have chosen Penske again if ABF had not offered us such a stellar deal.  Factoring in the price of gas for the truck equalizes the cost because we are traveling so far.

But for those who are planning to do the rental truck option, here are some tips from our experiences with moving.

• Our first move as a married couple in 2010 was a milestone of sorts.  Neither one of us had ever driven anything longer than a minivan, so we were a bit intimidated by the thought of driving from Arkansas to Colorado in a 16' moving truck while towing one of our cars behind it.  How would we safely drive through heavy traffic, switch lanes, park at hotels, etc?  (Looking back, it's really not that difficult to drive a moving truck, but we assumed it was a big deal.  As my do-it-yourself Dad would say, "You'll be fine.")  So we bought a set of walkie-talkies, one for him and one for me.  I drove our other car behind the truck and told Kirk when the coast was clear to switch lanes or do whatever "risky" maneuvering he needed to do.  We soon realized if you take it slow and drive responsibly, it's really quite possible to safely drive a moving truck without a "scout vehicle" to help.  :)  But if nothing else it was fun to chat on our long drive. Who doesn't love playing with walkie-talkies, right?
•  For that first move, we made hotel reservations ahead of time using Priceline's "name-your-own-price" tool. You choose the price, star-level, and area, and Priceline finds a hotel.  We saved some cash because we were willing to stay in a rinky-dink motel with a 2-star rating--just make sure you select areas that are generally safe and lock the moving truck!  Nobody likes to wake up to find that some of their belongings were stolen out of the truck or vandalized during the night. 
• I would change this a bit by not making the hotel reservations in advance.  When you start to feel done for the day, pull out your smartphone and find a cheap hotel nearby using a Priceline or Hotwire app.  Hotels are more likely to give you a deal on a room when it's short notice because otherwise the room would probably sit empty.  Plus it removes the pressure on you to go farther than you think you can tolerate, or if you feel like truckin' on, you can get in a few more hours.  Flexibility, my friends.  
• To use space efficiently, stand sofas, mattresses, etc. securely on one end.  In other words, take advantage of the height in your truck.
• Disassemble furniture!  Take the legs off your kitchen table, take out shelves, break down cribs.  Don't risk damaging or breaking furniture by leaving it assembled.  Things will be jostled whether your drive is long or short.  Another option is to use plastic moving wrap for any furniture with doors and drawers to keep them in place.
• Speaking of the plastic wrap, it's really awesome stuff.  My husband's company paid for our third move and hired a moving company to pack our things.  The movers wrapped most of our furniture in plastic.  Keeps it clean and gives it a bit more protection from bumps, scratches, and tears.  Wrap it around a stack of boxes to make them more stable.  There are some creative uses for it as well.  I love this idea from Valerie Write Now.  She has other great suggestions, like wrapping bed frames together.  

• Keep track of bolts/screws/small parts in a ziploc bag that you either label or tape/wrap onto what it belongs to.  
• Many hands make light work.  Get help from family, friends, coworkers, church members if you can. 

Driving with Kids

When it was just Kirk and me, it was no big deal to drive long hours for a move.  Now that we have two kids, I scoffed hesitated at the thought of driving by myself with the kids for 33+ hours while Kirk drove the truck.  It would slow us down considerably and wear down everyone's patience pretty quickly, not to mention the kids would probably feel miserable at times.  We looked into the cost of flying me out with the kids or paying for Grandma (we heart grandmas big time!) to come out and fly back with the kids while we drove together.  Another option would have been just putting on my big girl panties and taking it slow, stopping for breaks as the kids needed them.  We do what we have to do and it could always be worse.

 In future posts, I'll write about what we'll be doing to keep our kids content and our sanity intact on our long drive.  

Have you had experience using a moving truck before? What are some of your recommendations?