<p>I am trying to figure out how to move to graduate school (PA to CA) without a car. Ideally I could use a service that picks up a couple of boxes (or lets me mail it there), stores them over the summer and then delivers it to my new school. Is there such a thing? </p>
<p>I have a number of items (like a racing bike and a box of books) that I don't want to leave behind but don't want to keep with me all summer either. I'll be moving 3-4 times in the next few months and want to save myself as much hassle as I can. No friends or family in close proximity to either school. </p>
<p>With so much collective experience in moving their off-spring to college, I am hopeful that the CC parents have some helpful suggestions!</p>
<p>Google “moving pods” and you’ll find a lot of options. I’m in the same boat (moving across country for grad school). I’ve heard good things from friends about these pods. Basically they drop off a storage container, you load your stuff into it and you tell them when to pick it up and drop it off at the new location (there can be several months between these times). Here’s an example:</p>
<p>I love the idea of the pods, but never tried it. DS couldn’t move things to himself, as he didn’t have an address in future city.
We had used a mover before, and asked them to come. They said we were below the minimum, so offered to do the packing and stored items thru the summer. Not the cheapest solution, but doable. When moving a few but heavy items to my sister across country, I used a mover that specializes in partial loads; the charge was $600. When I recall the name, will post it.</p>
<p>We used PODS when we moved from Seattle to New Jersey 4 years ago. It was great. They are bigger than I expect most new grad students would need, I expect. Don’t know if that would be an issue.</p>
<p>A POD seems to be a bit of an overkill for the amount of things I want to move and regular package delivery is too quick (leaving in May, won’t be at new address until September). After I bit of research I found the following two options:</p>
<p>My local UPS Store said that they could store boxes for $35 per item and then ship them to a designated address in September.</p>
<p>Do a search on Collegeboxes on this site. We used them with mixed results (eventually received everything, but with some missteps - partly caused by us, lol). But others had problems. This was several years ago, so check current reviews - they may have all the kinks worked out.</p>
<p>Because if current reviews are good and they function in your areas, they are exactly what you are seeking.</p>
<p>Yes, imo, PODS is major overkill for your needs. And not cheap either, as I recall.</p>
<p>ETA: Your local UPS seems to be quite an excellent option. That is cheap, I believe. You know exactly where your items are without a middleman to get things mixed up.</p>
<p>My kid is also moving cross country for grad school. She will be taking her car. We were thinking of getting a hitch and renting a UHaul trailer. That POD thing looks great to me. I looked at the site, and alas, they do not service our area (Vermont).</p>
<p>soozie, there are competitors to PODS with good reviews and reputed to be cheaper. I forget the name. Google search on PODS will probably find them. Altho, lol, they may not service your area either.</p>
<p>That’s a long drive for a uhaul trailer, imo. Brings back memories of my uhaul move at a similar age (but only part way up the East Coast). Everyone deserves the experience of trying to back up a car with a trailer attached in a tight motel parking lot :o.</p>
<p>With today’s gas prices, it may be worth thinking about how much dragging the trailer will add to drive time and cost. And then comparing with whether it’s better to sell stuff on the East Coast and buy new or used on the West.</p>
<p>Here’s what we did. We got the costs of moving ourselves…rental truck/van, and hiring movers. Then we looked at what was being moved. If it was less expensive to buy the “stuff” again at the new location, that’s what we did. It was going to cost us well in excess of $1000 to move DS’s “stuff” to his grad school location. We checked costs of getting the stuff there and decided it wasn’t worth it to move the old stuff from here. We then set a budget of $1200 to replace the “stuff” that wasn’t moved and came in below our budget…shopped at Target, Walmart, Goodwill, Craigslist.</p>
<p>jmmom, I’m gonna look into that. I wasn’t aware of something like PODS before. My kids’ previous college moves have been on the East Coast and we have used a U-Haul trailer with our SUV, but that is a much shorter distance than D will have to go this time. Also, she will be taking her car, which is a smaller SUV that would need to get a hitch. The issue is that she invested in an apartment-ful of furniture at her last school, which is now all being stored in our basement and not only likes that stuff, but can’t really afford to buy all new stuff again (and I can’t imagine being able to get much if reselling all this stuff). We haven’t really thought about it much or discussed it because she just chose her grad school very recently and actually did so while on a trip overseas and isn’t back from that trip yet.</p>
<p>jmmom, I see online that there are many companies like this. I had not heard of this before. So far, none of the companies I have looked at have the service in VT!</p>
<p>When I had a small move to make, I shipped it with a regular moving company that consolidated it with several other moves going in the same direction. They picked it all up on one date, then stashed it in their own facility until it could be fit in with the other moves, and they would have stored it locally for me had I not been able to receive it myself the day the truck arrived in my area. Call around to North American and the other moving companies and ask about this.</p>
<p>The other possibility would be to tap into the alumnae association and find out if anyone has a basement or garage and can hold your stuff for you at either end of the move. Someone may be able to do that especially if it is not a huge number of boxes. The only thing is that then the local club will know where you are and you might not be ready for them to know that just yet!</p>
<p>Congratulations on having this for a problem, and best wishes for the next phase of your life!</p>